excels at mediocrity

There has to be an easier way. As i have mentioned before my daughter has been fighting cancer for some time now. It is an emotional and stressful time as a parent to have to go through this. Adding to the stress and frustration is the mess that comes with bills. My insurance has been pretty decent, but there must be a better way to handle billing.

The problem is, every medical professional that provides services may or may not bill through the hospital. As a result I get statements from the hospital, from the insurance company, from the doctor, anesthesiologist, radiologist and so on. All of the doctors that don’t bill through the hospital, bill me directly immediately. I know my insurance will pay for the majority of the cost so I can’t pay off of that initial bill because it’s not accurate. So I wait for the insurance company to pay their portion of the bill. Sometimes this process takes a while – several month. So, the doctor who sent you the bill directly turns you over to a collection agency.

Now, I know they want to be paid and I want to be current with my bills but at the same time I don’t want to overpay. My insurance company should be taking care of this. So my wife just gets home from a stressful week at the hospital with our daughter just worried out of her mind about the possible outcome and the doctors collection agency calls agressively seeking payment on a $50 invoice for some visit that the insurance company hasn’t paid yet. This has happened multiple times. Keep in mind, i’m the type of guy that likes to pay my bills on time. In fact I usually pay them early because i’d rather not have the feeling of owing people money. So if i had any resolution from the insurance company as to what the final balance would be… i would have paid the bill. It’s just frustrating that we’re dealing with a major life crisis and worried sick about our daughter and a rude collection agency agent calls about this minor bill that the insurance company should have paid. The funny thing is, after three years of this I have checked my credit report and there is no trace of any negative report. I think they send in the hounds prematurely to make sure the bill is paid.

Recently before going through a bone marrow transplant we met with our insurance company’s financial account manager. She explained all of the possible expenses and limitds that our insurance company had. This was very helpful. But, now 4 months later we have a surprise bill that is monsterous! I called to see what it was all about and as it turns out we had exceeded the limit the insurance company was willing to pay. I’ll be honest, i wouldn;t have changed anything because my daughter needs this treatment, but it would have been nice to have some kind of forwarning. Like maybe a call from the Insurance company a few months ago to say “hey, it looks like the cost of this is approaching out limit. We estimate the total cost will be X amount so we just want you to know you will be responsible for Y amount.” Instead, out of the blue, we get this huge bill with no forwarning.

Sorry for the rant, but there must be a better way.