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Success after IF
IBackBevo
member
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
Vent: Unbelievable!
IBackBevo
member
I just finally got finished with fighting my insurance company for months and months on end over everything from not paying my room charge at the hospital after I delivered via c-section to denying an HSG I had in 2011! Literally, I fought with them over tens of thousands of dollars of claims. My entire maternity leave was marred with dealing with insurance and bills on an almost daily basis.
Finally, everything is resolved. Literally, I got the refund check (for the almost $500 I had to pay to keep form being sent to collections) from the hospital today for the amount they owed me after insurance finally paid.
Then, in the same set of mail, I get a bill from the "facility" for a visit I had with a new RE over 2 months ago. Since our last insurance (that we paid $1400 a month for) was so horrible, we have gone with a lower premium with a higher deductible. So, basically, for all RE visits and other doctor visits, I don't even run insurance...I just pay cash. I'm a cash patient. Don't even give them my insurance. Accordingly, I get a discount for being "cash pay."
At any rate, before making the appointment with this new RE, I clarified repeatedly what the "cash pay" price would be for an initial appointment. I was told $150. I clarified this 2 or 3 times on the phone when making the appointment and even again when they called to remind me that this was the amount I would be charge.
When I got there, before seeing the RE, again, I clarified I would only be charged $150 and nothing more for this initial appointment...otherwise, I would have left and not had the appointment. I had the appointment. The RE recommended an u/s to check my AFC. Before I had the u/s, I told them I wanted to know how much it was going to be. I had to wait 30 minutes for them to give me a price. They told me for a cash patient it was $158. Again, I repeatedly clarified this amount was the full amount. Then I had the ultrasound. Checked out. Paid $308 total. Again, clarified that this was full payment for a cash pay patient. Again, told "of course."
Today, more than two months later, I get a bill for an additional $178. WTF??? This isn't an insurance issue because they don't even have my insurance. I call thinking this must surely be some sort of mistake and then I'm told that there is also an additional bill in the mail for another $200 (on top of the $178) for a "facility fee." Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?! So now I'm being charged $378 in addition to the $308 I already paid after being told no less than a half dozen times I wouldn't be charged anything over and above. Aahhh!!!!!!! The facilities excuse is that someone just told me the wrong amount. How is this my problem? If they can't train their people any better than to tell someone the correct amount BEFORE they have the procedure (and at check out), then how in the hell can they come back 2 months later and expect me to pay what I already paid over again and then some. If I go to Target and buy a gallon of milk, they don't get to come back two months later and tell me, "Oh wait. That Gallon of milk wasn't $3. It was really $7. Give us $4 more!" And my husband is a physician and has his own medical practice. He sure as hell can't do this.
Sorry this is so long. I just have to vent!!!!! I am so tired of dealing with this crap. I know it is just $378, but I've just been through a year+ of fighting medical bills and insurance companies and I literally am just so.freaking.sick.of.this.crap!
UPDATE: I finally had a supervisor call me back and they are writing off the "facility fees." The original $308 I paid was apparently the physician's fees and these other amounts are for using the building. I guess now you get charged to sit in their waiting room and use their bathroom. Funny, being married to a physician myself, I always just thought the cost of an office was part of overhead. SMH. Oh well, they are taking it off. Still--I wonder how many patients just pay it?
IF DX: DOR & Fragile X pre-mutation carrier
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Vent: Unbelievable!
I'm just guessing you have Cigna? You don't have to say!
But I feel your pain, I've been there. It astounds me how many uneducated people (at both dr's and insurance company). I always get the name of the person at the insurance company so I can document but it's not like it helps anything. I would be aggravated too if you were repeatedly told one thing by the RE only to be told another. I am very black and white. There is NO gray!
This isn't an insurance issue. I am 100% out-of-pocket, cash pay at this point. This is an issue of they repeatedly told me this was my charge and then two months later I get a bill for an additional amount. This is just flat a bait-and-switch.
All the trouble I had before was an insurance issue (at least partially--the doctor's office didn't help, though) and it was with BCBS.
I currently have Humana and the only reason I don't run it is because my deductible is $5,000 and doesn't cover any IF treatment anyway so I'm better off not having them run insurance and getting the "cash" pay price. (Because if you have them run insurance and it is denied, you usually get stuck paying a much higher amount than if you initially just get the cash pay price.) Or, at least, I thought I was better off.
Honestly, I'm to the point I'm just going to quit going to the doctor. I will take LO to get check ups and shots, but otherwise I'm just not going. Every time I step foot in a doctor's office, I end up getting a bill for several hundred dollars (or several thousand dollars) regardless of whether my insurance is used or not and regardless of how much they tell me it is going to be. And, yes, you can fight it but the amount of hours you have to put into it and the amount of stress it will cause you in the interim isn't worth any amount you save. Or, the alternative, is to have your credit ruined.
Sorry if I sound like a crazy person. I'm just so sick of this sh*t. I went through hell trying to get pregnant. I went through hell and back times ten with my pregnancy. And, yet, the financial part of this has caused me more stress than anything.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
Me-36, Unexplained Infertility, DH-35, all clear
Clomid 50mg 12/2011 = BFN
Clomid 100mg 1/2012 = BFN, with Cyst
IVF #1 Lupron/Menopur/Gonal-f/HCG Trigger
ER 4/19/12 = 11 retrieved, 6 fertilized,
ET 4/22/12 = 2 transfered (day 3), remaining 3 weren't good enough to freeze
Beta 5/3 = BFP, 87 Beta #2 5/7 560.9 Beta #3 5/9 1376.5 First u/s One Baby, 125bpm!
Second u/s, 176bmp! Kicked over to the OB by the RE at 8w. Team Green!!
One would think. Sigh.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
I had a supervisor call me back and they agreed to write it off since I wasn't told about the "facility fees" ahead of time. Apparently, the $308 I paid previously was the physician's fees and these other fees were for use of the building. I guess they now charge to sit in their waiting room. Whatever. They wrote it off.
Geez. Dealing with all of this is full-time job.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
Regardless, I should have been told. I repeatedly (over and over again) inquired and checked and double-checked to confirm there were no "hidden" charges. No one ever said, "These are just part of the charges You may be charged additional fees." If there are other fees that could potentially be charged by someone else then the people at the facility need to be trained to tell patients that.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge: