Monday, March 31, 2008
You tell me if this makes sense. Current mood: bitchy
The other day, I called to make a payment on one of Macy Jane’s medical bills. When I was finished with the payment, I asked the gentleman on the phone what was my balance. I knew that it should be under a certain amount and soon to be paid off. He proceeds to tell me that my balance is over $4,000!!! Um....how did it go from $160 to over $4,000?? Come to find out, they billed the same amount 4 times to MJs old insurance company for a procedure on MAY 22, 2007, and the insurance company thought it was all duplicate charges. So, they denied it and requested further information.....this was September 18th. Actually, let me back up. They paid 2 claims and thought the others for the same exact amount were the duplicates. The amount was $3,998 and because we used an in-network PPO provider, the insurance only had to pay $234. Massive discount on that one! Well, by the time insurance received the information from UT Medical Group, she had used all of her 2million dollar lifetime money from Baptist. So, we have to pay that. It is absolutely rediculous that almost a year later we are billed for this.
I talked to UT Medical Group and explained what happened and they offered me a 30% discount. NO THANK YOU. I want to pay what the insurance company would have paid you, $234!! If you would accept a check from them for that amount, what is the big deal about accepting that amount from me. I was getting nowhere on the phone, so I drove to Nonconnah Blvd and showed up at their office, which turns out to be a call center. They were caught off guard to see me there. They told me that if I supposedly couldn’t afford to pay it, then I had to show proof, or I could pay them $2,000 in 30 days and be done with it. I am stubborn so I went home and spent like 3 hours providing bills and bank account statements. I get a call this morning from "Beth" who is just a call rep and she informed me that her manager was giving me a take it or leave it final offer today. I either pay the full amount on a payment plan, or I pay $1,000 to them within thirty days. The freaking manager didn’t even have the balls to call me himself, jerk. Also, she asked me at the end of the coversation this questions. "Maam my boss wanted to know if your husband is an RN at the hospital he works for." WTF? Why does he want to know that? I can tell you why. They think that just because we are both nurses that we make tons of money and can afford to pay out thousands of dollars. HELLO dickhead. I haven’t worked in almost a year and it isn’t like we don’t have OTHER bills to pay. I was really pissed off when she asked me that. I wanted to say tell your pansy of a boss to crawl out from under the rock he is hiding under and call me and ask me himself. If we were a family that chose not to work and live off of the government, we could just file bankruptcy and be done with it, or depend on Uncle Sam to take care of us.
However, we are not that type of family and even if it takes until we die to pay off the bills, we will do that instead of taking the easy way out. With UT Medical Group, I have no option but to pay them within 30 days, I would be a fool not to take the $3,000 discount. She was quick to tell me that I still had a balance after I pay the $1,000 and that I need to make my monthly payments to them. Stupid idiot, I have paid my bill every single month, on time. I am not asking for a freaking handout.
Does it make sense to anyone? I wish to God that I could mail Pittman and Associates a check for $234 and tell them to just make a payment to UTMG, but that is fraud. It isn’t fair to people that are in our type of situation that have sick children. The people in doctor’s offices and hospitals need to stay on top of their billing so that families in our situation aren’t left with thousands of dollars in bills, that SHOULD have been covered by insurance and would have if the billing was done in a timely manner. I mean she was 2 days old when this procedure took place. It should have been paid in full by September.
Sorry to rant, I am just extremely pissed off right now. I am very grateful for the discount, but I am sick and tired of money hungry companies that have no compassion. It is a cold hearted business world and people only care about putting millions in their pockets. Well, guess what. I will go back to work at Baptist until a position opens up at St. Jude or St. Francis so that I can have a secondary insurance for Macy Jane and this will not happen again in the future if she maxes out her primary insurance policy. I dont want to leave Baptist, but for our financial stability I will.
And just for the record. For all of you people out there that say "Oh you and your husband are both nurses, ya’ll make lots of money and only have to work 3 days a week" blah blah blah. We have bills just like everyone else and are crucified at tax time because we make enough money to cover our bills and apparently the people on welfare. Yes, we may only work 3 days a week, but in those three days we work the same amount of hours as people that work 5 days a week....so don’t even go there with me.
If the democrats could fix the healthcare industry and help the middle class they would have my vote in an instant. So far, all I have heard is promises and haven’t seen any changes. I just want to know why every government program in Tennesse is for people that are on welfare or people that are considered in poverty because they make $30,000 a year. What about people like us that don’t want a dime of money for us as the parents. All I want is medical coverage for my daughter. As her parents, we make enough money to cover the household expenses and insurance deductibles. Last time I checked though, we do not bring home millions a year and therefore there should be some sort of program for children that looks at the child’s income and not the parents. It is not about me and Steve. We don’t need money to live on and pay our bills. We need coverage for our daughter’s medical needs. Once again, as parents, we have to be disabled or lazy in order to get help from our wonderful government.
Gosh, I am so mad right now I could scream. Instead I will just finish cleaning my house and play with MJ. She is worth every dime that we have to pay to have her in this world.
Sorry for those that had to endure reading this. Thanks for reading though And if you have any comments for me about how wrong I am or that I am judgemental because you get goverment assistance, keep them to yourself. They will only add to my anger and this blog isn’t about you. It is about me and my family and the screwed up medical world.