Stressful phone calls: One down, one to go.
My money crunch post on Saturday was kicked off by the mail, which had the insurance summary and the bill for the first of my three foot appointments. Neither looked right, to me. Granted, that's a difficult thing to figure out in the US, since no one tells you what anything will cost*, but two things jumped out at me: The patient-billable number from the insurance company didn't match the patient's actual BILL, and my deductible was listed as being $500, when I jumped through a whole bunch of hoops last year just to get my deductible lowered by $150 for the year. The doc's bill listed two different x-rays; only one was listed on the insurance. Double billed, maybe?
So I get to call both the doc's office and the insurance company. Joy.
I started with the doc's office, because they're usually MUCH easier. Apparently the 'double bill' is actually a separate charge for each foot (each foot had multiple shots taken). When I told her straight up that I'd actively objected to having xrays of my left foot at the time and that I didn't want to pay for them, she just said "Oh, that makes sense, I'll fix that."
...I kind of expected it to be harder than that. :P
The insurance company is next, and I'm deeply afraid it'll be worse. I can never even figure out who to call in the first place, AND I lost the relevant paperwork somewhere between home and work yesterday (HOW? NO ONE KNOWS), and I've no idea how they documented the reduced deductible, or where the 'amount already paid' number is coming from.
Now I'm trying to figure out which part of my day is best spent trying to navigate a phone tree and have the same discussion with different people for an hour.
(The answer is: No parts of my day. That is always the answer).
*Note to people who praise the free market and the power of consumer choice: You are NOT making an informed choice if you're not given a price. There are other reasons free market rules don't work well in the field of healthcare, but as it stands, this is a HUGE argument against the supposed 'free market' quality of the status quo.
So I get to call both the doc's office and the insurance company. Joy.
I started with the doc's office, because they're usually MUCH easier. Apparently the 'double bill' is actually a separate charge for each foot (each foot had multiple shots taken). When I told her straight up that I'd actively objected to having xrays of my left foot at the time and that I didn't want to pay for them, she just said "Oh, that makes sense, I'll fix that."
...I kind of expected it to be harder than that. :P
The insurance company is next, and I'm deeply afraid it'll be worse. I can never even figure out who to call in the first place, AND I lost the relevant paperwork somewhere between home and work yesterday (HOW? NO ONE KNOWS), and I've no idea how they documented the reduced deductible, or where the 'amount already paid' number is coming from.
Now I'm trying to figure out which part of my day is best spent trying to navigate a phone tree and have the same discussion with different people for an hour.
(The answer is: No parts of my day. That is always the answer).
*Note to people who praise the free market and the power of consumer choice: You are NOT making an informed choice if you're not given a price. There are other reasons free market rules don't work well in the field of healthcare, but as it stands, this is a HUGE argument against the supposed 'free market' quality of the status quo.