Proverbs 22:7

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

VICTORY!

"Our members are important to us, and we appreciate your patience while this case was investigated. After a full and fair review of the information, we have approved the emergency room services for date of service September 15, 2010. We approved the emergency room services based on the fact that your physician instructed you to proceed to the emergency room...."

WAHOO! I only have to pay my ER copay of $150!!!!!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

So close I can taste it....

We filed our tax return this weekend, and in about 2 weeks, we'll be getting a refund of about $4K. I am incredibly thankful for this refund this year, but I know that in the future it won't be so big due to the recent tax withholding changes we've made. $1K of this will finish paying off the cruise we're taking in May for graduation, and $3K will go to the car. That will leave only $2500 left to pay on it, and I'm trying to think of whatever I can to scrounge up loose coins here and there to pay on it as I can.

I wish I had some stuff I could sell.... :( Maybe I'll be able to scrounge some stuff up over the next few weeks. Every little bit helps.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Emergency Room Bill Part 2

Well, I got the copies of my medical records from my dermatologist and called up my insurance company to ask them how I needed to go about asking for reconsideration. The person i talked to, Ko, was awesome! He was very very nice, and gave me the mailing address to the appeals department. Told me to do basically what Patsy said in her comment to my previous post. i wrote a letter, told my story, gave a copy of the medical records from my doc (which clearly stated IV antibiotics on it) and copies of the hospital and physicians bills.

So after I got off the phone with Ko, I called up the number on the hospital bill. The woman I talked to was a witch from the get go. She was EXACTLY what Dave commonly describes when he talks about collectors. She wouldnt listen to reasoning, you could practically hear her foaming at the mouth....and all I did was called to give them a courtesy "Hey, i cant pay this bill, but my insurance is going to take anther look at it, and I'll keep you posted." She said that my insurance had ALREADY looked at it and denied it, and I had to pay. This is where it got fun. I old her "No, I don't HAVE to pay, and I'm not GOING to pay. My insurance didn't have all the records they needed. I'm sending those to them, and they will review. I'm working on getting you paid, but I am not going to pay you." So she said "Fine, I'm going to notate your account as refusal to pay and we'll send it on to collections." "Well, do what you have to do, I don't care, you go right on ahead. I don't borrow money, and I couldn't care less what you do to my credit. Threatening me is NOT going to get you paid."

And I hung up. MAN did that feel good!

So then I thought that the physicians office was going to react the same way....but I called them anyway. I explained the same story - my insurance would be re-evaluating it. Their response? "Thank you Mrs Hicks. I'll notate your account. Just give us a call when you have more info for us." Do huh? Stark different responses. Amazing.

Anyway, I got the letter written, and the records copied. I mailed it off this afternoon, along with copies to my doctor and both the hospital and the physicians. At least they can't say they weren't informed.