ovoleg

lol exactly what happened to me.

I get one nice hefty bill from the hospital after the insurance paid 70%, then I got at least 8 different bills.

The anesthesiologist had 3 line items on the hospital bill, one for services, one for equipment and one for auxiliary staff. Then I get another bill in the mail from the anesthesiologist office for their services. I called them to ask why I'm paying for the same thing 4 times and she says, "because we perform services for the hospital out of our offices, so this is our office fee, the others were hospital fees". Um...that makes no sense. What are my choices? "Pay or collections". Yep sounds like I'm paying.

Same story from the nurses, doctor, physicians assistant and a couple others.

Honestly I am really thankful for the services they provided and owe them my life, but things were so much easier when I had a full HMO plan through Kaiser. One bill, end of story(and the bill wasn't mind blowing).

The whole system seems assbackwards to me.

mattm

Ha just today I'm dealing with my med bills.. lots of them, but luckily relatively small compared to the overall amount!

Something like $25k for my stupid little accident.. very little out of pocket compared to that!

Only annoying thing is that the hospital says they have the wrong birthday for me, so I need to fax them my id. Fax?! Do those even exist anymore??

Ygduf

Yes, and a WEIRDLY HIGH number of places only accept faxes!!!! It's like one of the main reasons people come to my office at Stanford. The students need a fax machine.

For some reason a fax is accepted when scans or a picture is not, yet a fax is just a picture sent over a 34k baud modem (which is why faxing a 20 page application takes about an hour!!)

hack

I'm guessing someone then takes that fax, scans it, and saves it on a server because...efficiency

ovoleg

I hate faxing :/ I have to do it from work. Who the hell owns a fax machine at home anymore?

Dunbar

Is this for the ER visit or all of the subsequent office visits? I have employer provided Blue Cross and the one time I went to the ER 12 years ago I paid zero out of pocket and the bill was in the $2-3k range. The crazy thing is now every time I go for minor stuff it's a $20 co-pay and then another $20-50 bill in the mail. So annual physical, blood work, prescription co-pay that $**% adds up. Then if you get injured and need x-rays, physical therapy it's the same thing. You wonder what that $6k/yr. in premiums is paying for and start wondering how much worse socialized medicine can be...

Oh, and don't even get me started on dental and vision coverage...

save10

just now i was following a car now on the freeway and this dude tied his mattress on with what i can only imagine was butcher twine. the mattress got progressively looser and looser and ofcourse flew off like 20 feet in the air and landed in the middle of the freeway. i moved over and backed off because i could see it happening, but if anyone needs a 'slightly' used mattress there might still be one on 87 South in downtown San Jose.

shovelhd

Somebody I know's teenage kid was killed by a flying mattress on the freeway. This is prime stupid moving time. Be careful out there.

waterrockets 

Seriously? Freaking idiots everywhere.

Real-world experience in most things is on the decline.

globecanvas

I got nailed by a flying backyard playset earlier this summer, it just levitated out of the back of a pickup truck on I-80 in PA. I saw it coming for what seemed like forever but I had nowhere to swerve to, cars on either side and didn't want to slam on the brakes in traffic. Took out a fender and headlight on our brand new van. The pickup didn't stop.

shovelhd

Yes. He had been driving for three years, totally clean record. Conscientious driver. He was in the right lane minding his business, could not avoid to the right, and swerved left into a tractor trailer who could not stop in time. He wrecked his truck but was treated and released.

Gramercy

Everyone I see in the morning is looking at at their phone and not the road. I'm shocked there aren't more deaths every day due to this. It is insane.

On another note my unborn child at 22 weeks has a spinal issue and it may be an isolated finding, but it could also be related to some type of dwarfism where the kid needs surgery to correct his spine and could be a major headache for years. So many tests, so much stress in life, such a terrible year. And having a kid is supposed to be happy! I think my luck is just terrible and my wife is now a mess, and I really can't do much to calm her down. Wish I could just leave work and go for a 75 mile ride.

topflightpro

Grammercy, I am sorry to hear about your child. I hope everything works out ok.

waterrockets 

Very sorry to hear that Gramercy. Try to stay focused on the things you can do, and not wallow in the things you can't affect.

topflightpro

Following up on my insurance comments...

It appears my wife is covered by Cobra until her regular insurance kicks in on Oct. 1. Supposedly the new health care law requires she be automatically enrolled with 60 days to pay for it. So, she should be covered for anything catastrophic between now and Oct. 1, and we shouldn't have to pay anything unless something catastrophic happens, and we can pay if that happens.

BUT her big race for the year is Saturday. She has targeted this one race all year. She has never crashed in a race (knock on wood) and her field is usually pretty small. Still, given her luck the past year, we are thinking that maybe she shouldn't risk it and just skip the race.

And I went through the same billing issues a couple years ago when my wife had surgery. She had two surgeries a couple weeks apart - the same surgery as the first one did not remove everything. I was getting so many bills from so many doctors, I started to lose track of it all.

My two favorite parts of it were the $2,500 for the surgery recovery room - she was in there for no more than 15 minutes - and the way the insurance company bragged about how much money it saved me - The hospital billed $10,000, but we, your great insurance company, negotiated it down to $3,000, a savings of 70 percent, and you only have to pay 10 percent of that, so you got a 97 percent savings - You're welcome.

Creakyknees

(1) I cannot wait for self-driving cars to be mass produced.

(2) medical bills, what a total scam, don't get me started. Heads-up: they CAN be negotiated even if you have insurance and even after the event but obviously it's way better if you have time to haggle before the service and before they find out your insurance details.

Creakyknees

(3) if Ryder has a motor in his bike then why does he still suck?

himespau 

Best of luck man. Ours is 32 weeks along, and, even though this is our second, they're all scary even without any red flags (so far with this one). Is this something that can be further diagnosed with another ultrasound or genetic tests? Because my wife and I are a bit older (mid-30s brings on extra risk factors), we got one of those test for everything genetic tests because our dr told us it was necessary and would only be like 100 bucks. Turns out just about everything it tested for would have shown up in the 20 week ultrasound and our insurance company is refusing to pay and now we're being hit with a 3 grand bill which is more than we paid for our entire first baby (different employer and insurance company) including a week's hospital stay for my wife due to pre-eclampsia. So now I've got that cash worry over my head. Also, where we are, for the good day cares (close to work, with place for kids to go outside, not scary neighborhood), you have to get on a waiting list and, when your name gets to the front, you either have to start paying whether the baby's there or not or go to the back of the line and wait at least another year for a slot to open, so we're going to be out $5000 for day care for this new one before he/she/it even sets foot in the room. Not than my worries are anywhere near the scope of yours or I'm trying to minimize yours, but things are nerve-wracking no matter what. I'm sorry you have extra stuff added on. I hope they can do further tests and find out it's nothing to be concerned about.

shovelhd

I took a couple of informal surveys recently. The first was a few weeks ago while having dinner in a restaurant next to a window overlooking a main street that has a traffic light about 50 meters up the road. 60% of the drivers were staring at the phone as they drove up, vehicle moving. Many were texting. At least a dozen held up traffic resulting in honks and swearing as drivers were distracted from the green light. This is a busy main intersection in a town full of cyclists. The second was on I-90 East on the way to Boston this week for surgery, viewed from the passenger seat. Around 30% were looking at the phone while driving. I did not count those on the phone with the phone to their ear, that was the majority. Of the 30% looking at the phone, about half were texting (or emailing or whatever) while driving along at 65-80mph. The only chance of this changing will be several Lady Di type of events. Famous people killed while driving by distracted drivers. It won't take one it will take several.

On your other note, I have two special needs children. Their disabilities were discovered after birth but as newborns. They have grown up to be happy, healthy, and productive young adults. If you want to talk please feel free to PM me.

merlinextraligh

Sorry to hear. I know this has to cause a lot of worry and concern. However, it could be nothing, and things have a way of working themselves out, whatever develops. Good luck.

merlinextraligh

Shovel,
Hope the eye is going well. You're smart to let it heal, and not push getting back on the bike too soon.

gsteinb

hope the eyes are on the mend shovel

kind thoughts to you gramercy.

furiousferret

2 things: I alway hope that driverless cars will get here soon. The problem is responsible drivers will buy them and not the guy who is texting or hammering down his Natural Lights.

Almost everyone has some sort of pre birth crisis and I know as a soon to be parent you can't not be concerned. However most children turn out just fine.

caloso

Positive thoughts for the Gramercy family.

echappist

+1 to both.