Maybe someday when they’ve learned, Cherokee Nation will return

[rolanni]

Feeling somewhat blue today.  You have been warned.

The mail deliveryperson continues to fail of delivering Items of Considerable Interest to the residents of the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. Note to self: Look into arranging for a new mail deliveryperson.

Frequent readers of this journal will recall that Steve and I had been having a. . .discussion* with the insurance company about whether or not the cost of a diagnostic echocardiogram for a heart patient could ever be justified.  The doctor’s office finally prevailed, by, I assume, the time-consuming, but effective, means of burying the insurance company’s Denial of Service Division in forms, and the echocardiogram was, after about a month’s delay, performed.

We have now received the bill for that procedure, and I am able to tell you the sum of money that the insurance company was fighting to keep rightfully in the hands of its stockholders (who, as you all of course know, deserve a return on their investments).  That sum is. . .

$0.00

That’s right — nothing.  Not one thin dime.  We are responsible (as we knew we would be, since we have the Pay Anthem Blue Cross Six Bills a Month So We Can Have An Insurance Card insurance) for almost the entire amount of the bill.  I say “almost” because Anthem Blue Cross happily knocked $42.18 off the total due to the hospital.

Man, that was so totally worth a month-long tantrum.

. . .In other news, I have heard back from Himself in re the Carousel Tides t-shirt. I’ll be talking about that in a separate post a little later today. First, though, I need to do dishes.

______________
*By “discussion” I mean here that the insurance company kept repeating, “But, the expense!  Ow! OW! Our Stockholders’ Money!  Oh! my daughter!  OH! my ducats!”  while the doctor’s office kept filing forms indicating that the echocardiogram was the third corner in a diagnostic triangulation to be certain that the various therapies Steve is undertaking in order to improve his heart’s function are indeed working as desired.

 

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

Mail

[draconis1234.livejournal.com]

Maybe it would be prudent to rent a mail box in town where you could be your own mail person, far more reliable.

Re: Mail

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

The problem may well be that we can only affect the location of the receipt of promised mail. We still have mail promised from 2006 which has not arrived. and if it does, will bounce to high heaven.

Insurance

[capricchio.livejournal.com]

Hmmpf. Even working for a enormous multi-billion dollar corporation, we have the "don't get sick" variety of insurance. No. They do not seem to cover much so you are out of pocket until you hit the deductible limit. Personally, I don't want to need that much medical care but it doesn't take many lab tests to suck down hundred dollar bills by the bucket full.
Hopefully, this will help Steve after all the dickering.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

*paraphrases from Wizard of Earthhsea* 'she shook her head and shook her head ...'

Outwitting the Insurance Man

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Congratulations on rolling the insurance guys over. Very clever. Keep up the good work. Of course we all hope for Steve's health to improve.

Insurance Company Idiots

[teresa westfall calhoon (from livejournal.com)]

I once argued with an insurance company for months over a $35 bill for a visit to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor because...wait for it..."they don't pay for deviated septum surgery". I would have happily paid the bill had the doctor actually fixed my deviated septum but alas that was only the diagnosis. I kept arguing that I did not have surgery, when was the last time surgery cost $35. Finally got them to pay the bill but they sent me a letter that they would not pay for surgery to fix my deviated septum. I sent them the letter back with a note written in big bold red letters...NO ONE F***ING ASKED YOU TOO.

INSURANCE

[margotinez.livejournal.com]

I know you have been down this road a lot! The July 2012 issue of Consumer Reports has a good (if discouraging) article on avoiding nasty surprises with medical bills. They mention a website, fairhealthconsumer.org to determine a typical price for procedures in your ZIP code. Cost can vary widely depending on who provides the service. Please stay healthy, the alternative is unthinkable. You matter to us.