I don't know why this is, or where the superiority complex comes from, but 8 out of 10 people that call us from Drs rooms and hospitals chasing up 'outstanding' payments, are usually rude/out of line/patronising/snobby [the list goes on, but you get the idea].
9 out of 10 times, the paymemt is not actually 'outstanding'.
Case in point, I have had the below calls, all within the past HOUR:

Me - "Welcome to Health Insurance Inc, how can I help you?"

Stupid Customer - "Nice to have someone finally answer the call..."

*I look at the call timer....she had been on hold for just 18 seconds*

Me - "Sorry for the delay ma'am, how could I help today?"

Stupid Customer - "I sent you people a hospital account for [membership details] 2 months ago and as usual, you stuffed it up. It was never paid. Bring it up and sort it out"

*I bring the membership up*

Me - "Okay...so I can see here that we actually paid that claim a month ago, and a payment advice was sent?"

Stupid Customer - "Oh...oh yeah, I see it now"...*CLICK*

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Me - "Welcome to Health Insurance Inc, how can I help you?"

Stupid Customer - "Good afternoon, I'm calling to chase up an overdue hospital claim payment. Can I just say that I'm sick of always having to call and chase these up with you people?"

*Once again I bring up the membership*

Me - "Thanks for holding ma'am. That claim has already been paid, it was paid on [date] which was actually 3 weeks before the due date. Have you checked the hospitals bank account?"

Stupid Customer - "No. I just assumed it was late because you people always pay them late"...*CLICK*

NOTE - I read through the notes on the policy and this woman calls in every single month, and pulls the exact same routine - saying we always pay claims late and she is sick of chasing us...every single claim has been paid weeks before the due date. They've never been late for that hospital

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Me - "Welcome to Health Insurance Inc, how can I help you?"

Stupid Customer - "Look this up [gives me membership details]

Me - "Okay ma'am, I've got that policy up, how could I help with that one today?"

Stupid Customer - *SIGH* "I wanna know why you havent paid [hospital claim], how long do we have to wait to get money from you? It's ridiculous!"

*I take a look...*

Stupid Customer - "Uh, ma'am? That payment was made to the hospital 6 weeks ago, and I can even see we received back the payment advice signed off confirming it was received?"

Stupid Customer - *CLICK*

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Me - "Welcome to Health Insurance Inc, how can I help you?"

Stupid Customer - "I'm calling about an overdue payment please"

Me - "Sure ma'am, I can help with that, what was the membership number?"

*I bring up the policy and have a look for the claim...while I am doing this, she says to me in a sickly sweet voice...*

Stupid Customer - "I hope you don't mind me saying, but your work really is a bit of a joke, don't you think? It's very unprofessional to not pay a claim like this, I'm suprised you're about to stay afloat, you must be on below minimum wage given the low wuality of service you offer. Do you even know what you're doing, hmmmm? I know that if I worked there, I would never let a claim slip under the radar like this, it's very unprofessional"

Me - "Okay. Well I can see here, ma'am, that this claim was actually already paid back on [date]. have you checked the payment advices, or the bank account?"

Stupid Customer - *I hear her typing on her end* "Oh...there it is...thanks!"...*CLICK*

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WTF.
I mean, if there had actually been a claims error, I can understand the frustration.
Even more so, if it was a place where we had a history of making mistakes with claims, then absoutely, I would be mad too.
But in ALL of these cases - like it usually is - there had never been an issue or delay with claims for the hospital/DRs room in the past, the claims had already been paid [in some cases, long ago], and it seemed each time the people just hadnt bothered actually looking if the claim had been paid?
I mean, I can even understand if you hadn't looked and were just wanting to check - that's fine!
But to call in with attitude like that, and to be so rude...nope.
Uncalled for, and just shows how unprofessional THEY are...