an unpleasant surprise
Apparently nobody seems to think it is proper to warn a patient that a procedure will cost them over nine hundred dollars after insurance pays their bit.
No, not the knee surgery, the cardiac stress test I took to qualify for the surgery (of course I passed). I'm not paying it yet because ever since I signed up for insurance it takes several months for the actual cost of things to settle out. I keep getting bills and refunds for the same visits over and over. I mean I pay my copay when I walk in the door, and some months later I get a bill for the copay that I paid, and sometimes I get a refund for the copay that I paid (and which was a correct copay, I do not deserve a refund), and one time I got several hundred dollars of refunds for all the copays followed by a bill for the non-insured rate. I just never ever cash the refund checks and mildly protest the bills and stay put and eventually the correct history shows up.
And the thing that happened at tghe beginnijng of the year, where my old doctor thought he was grandfathered in to the new system but he wasn't because the Physician's Medical Group to which he belongs had pulled out, and I ended up owing them several hundred dollars? I've recently gotten a letter from the insurance company saying that was an error and I'll be getting a refund from my old doctor sometime down the line.
However, justg because this keeps happening doesn't mean that every unexpected cost is going to resolve. I have asked for estimates repeatedly for the surgery and now I might get one because I threatened to pull out over it.
When I also complained that I have been told nothing about the procedure despite having asked for information, the poor harrassed assistant said "Why have we scheduled you for surgery if you don't know these things?"
Why, indeed, but it turned out she meant that she thought I hadn't actually made an informed decision to have the surgery at all. That I have: exercise was giving me diminishing returns and it is stupid for it to be so difficult for me to walk down a goddamned hill.
Though my one friend who had her knees done still has a lot of trouble, she does say she thinks it was worth it.
No, not the knee surgery, the cardiac stress test I took to qualify for the surgery (of course I passed). I'm not paying it yet because ever since I signed up for insurance it takes several months for the actual cost of things to settle out. I keep getting bills and refunds for the same visits over and over. I mean I pay my copay when I walk in the door, and some months later I get a bill for the copay that I paid, and sometimes I get a refund for the copay that I paid (and which was a correct copay, I do not deserve a refund), and one time I got several hundred dollars of refunds for all the copays followed by a bill for the non-insured rate. I just never ever cash the refund checks and mildly protest the bills and stay put and eventually the correct history shows up.
And the thing that happened at tghe beginnijng of the year, where my old doctor thought he was grandfathered in to the new system but he wasn't because the Physician's Medical Group to which he belongs had pulled out, and I ended up owing them several hundred dollars? I've recently gotten a letter from the insurance company saying that was an error and I'll be getting a refund from my old doctor sometime down the line.
However, justg because this keeps happening doesn't mean that every unexpected cost is going to resolve. I have asked for estimates repeatedly for the surgery and now I might get one because I threatened to pull out over it.
When I also complained that I have been told nothing about the procedure despite having asked for information, the poor harrassed assistant said "Why have we scheduled you for surgery if you don't know these things?"
Why, indeed, but it turned out she meant that she thought I hadn't actually made an informed decision to have the surgery at all. That I have: exercise was giving me diminishing returns and it is stupid for it to be so difficult for me to walk down a goddamned hill.
Though my one friend who had her knees done still has a lot of trouble, she does say she thinks it was worth it.