doublebilled

Doublebilled is a term used to describe a financial error in which the same charge is billed twice to the same payer for the same good, service, or transaction. It can appear as duplicate line items on an invoice, duplicate entries on a bank or credit card statement, or two separate bills for a single visit or purchase.

Common contexts include healthcare, where a patient may be billed twice for the same appointment or service; consumer transactions such as online purchases or in-store payments; utilities and subscriptions; and travel bookings where a single itinerary is charged more than once.

Causes include data entry mistakes, system glitches that generate duplicate claims or charges, refunds that are incorrectly processed as new transactions, misapplied payments, and, in some cases, fraud.

Implications: financial loss, disputes, and potential impact on credit if the duplicate charge is not corrected; time and administrative effort to resolve; potential tax or accounting complications.

Detection and resolution: review account statements and itemized bills, compare with receipts, and contact the merchant, provider, or issuer to request a reversal or refund. If unresolved, dispute the charge with the card issuer or bank; in the United States, consumers may dispute billing errors with their issuer, and the issuer may be required to investigate and adjust the bill; timelines vary, with the Fair Credit Billing Act providing a typical 60-day window after the statement containing the error.

Prevention: robust billing controls, automated checks to flag duplicate charges, reconciliation processes, unique transaction IDs, and clear refund policies; healthcare providers may use claim scrubbers to detect duplicates and align with payer expectations.