I crapped my pants on the way to my 3rd dose of Remicade at the Ambulatory Treatment Center at our local hospital. I dashed through the doors, took the elevator to the second floor and ran, I kid you not, to the restroom.
Too late. Urgh. Rapid cleanup did the trick. Of course, I chastised myself for not bringing a second set of clothes, but it was too late to beat myself up. Just a good lesson for the future. Part of my problem with the Orthostatic Hypotension is that I have no control over fluids in my life. The Fludrocortisone helps, but Crohn's hinders my ability to hold onto water. Overall, though, I am better. If you discount the rapid mood changes. I'm not sure my husband discounts them as last night he said I shouldn't be allowed out of house. I'd received a bill for 44k from a provider who works through the hospital. They are called hospitalists and they work at the hospital, but are not employed by the hospital which makes them either independent contractors or they are employed by someone else. But I digress. I called the company who informed me my insurance company had denied my care at my last hospital visit. That is never good for someone on steroids. Anger flashed and after a few DON'T YOU THINK SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME, I hung up on the gentlemen. At this point, I was in a mini-breakdown. So I called my insurance company. When I got through I ranted and raved. I told them how every single time someone came at me from the billing department while I was in the hospital I made sure I asked them if whatever they were doing was authorized by my insurance company. The last thing I needed was a bill. The very nice lady on the phone informed me that this was business as usual. Huh? When I calmed down enough to listen she says, "I take it you haven't been in the hospital often." I answer, "No. Just twice in the last two months." "It works like this. Hospitalists are outside of network..." "But I told you I asked everyone if they were in network." "Wait a minute now." "OK. Sorry, I'm on steroids so I get upset easy." "What happens is we send you a check along with an explanation of benefits. You sign the check over to them, mail it back to them with the bill and the EOB and they write off the rest." "That's nuts!" "That's life in the insurance field. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it works." I said my obligatory good-byes and hung up the phone. Seriously, how is this going to help anyone? You get a bill, it says insurance denied, you think you owe 44k, you discover you don't as long as you..... Oh, this is just crazy. It was at that moment, as I was perusing my health insurance online, that I discovered another bill that was denied but had me owing the hospital another 35k. I called them back just to make sure I didn't owe them anything. I didn't, but I did discover that just one procedure while I was in the hospital cost 18k. I asked her what it was and she said it was for an injection. I asked her what kind of injections and she said she was still waiting on the hospital to tell them what it was and that was why it was denied. The only injection I received was for blood thinners. Everything else was through the IV and was either steroid medication or saline. She promised to call me back when she found out what it was. I decided that was enough stress for one day and put the rest of the bills into my bag. Of course I was mad at the idiocy of the insurance company and hospital, but does that mean I am suppose to take more steroids? My bottle says to take more if you are stressed or sick. What is their definition of stress? I guess I'll have to wait for my next appointment to find out. 3/13/2018 12:26:44 pm
Medical insurance will be the death of us! All the hoops we have to jump through is incredible. We not only have to jump through them forwards and backwards but we have to jump through them holding one leg up with your arm behind your back!
Louann
3/13/2018 02:10:50 pm
I am still hopping mad. I am having difficulty enough navigating my way through this without their idiocy. *stomps off* 3/14/2018 10:31:45 am
Louann, as a Canadian, I am disgusted with your American health system . On top of everything else when your health is iffy or at risk, you have to worry about how to pay? This seems criminal to me.
Louann
3/14/2018 01:15:23 pm
It really is disgusting. Plus it is really stupid. No wonder our HC costs are out of control. Comments are closed.
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