Sorry but another healthcare costs rant acomin'...

dtc said
The whole freaking thing is a giant scam. It's set up and designed to screw the patient and maximize income for the doctors and providers. It's impossible to understand or navigate the myriad billing intricacies unless you're a medical billing pro and it's the result of decades of refusal to do anything about it. Legislatures and government are sold to the highest bidder and that's the providers and insurance companies rather than the patients.

Good luck and just be thankful it wasn't something expensive like cancer or heart surgery.

Everybody hates the lawyers, but a couple hundred mass tort suits against providers for deceptive billing practices and malfeasance in their estimates of cost might be good if they wouldn't just jack up prices further to cover it.

yep.

efil4stnias said
Im sorry you are having to deal with that.

I cannot fathom having to deal with the stresses of just the diagnosis and then top that off with having to deal with the stress of medical bills/will or wont my health insurance pay for this or that.
I am a firm believer that the mind plays a large role in many instances for recovery. There is no way folks in your position can carry a clear mind to focus on recovery when dealing with unnecessary external factors like EFFN MEDICAL BILLIN/COVERAGE.

Its a shame. it truly is and I hope that your wife keeps a positive attitude ( as do you ) and makes a full recovery.

thanks, though i know it could probably be heart-attack inducing to come home and open a 12k bill. we (she especially) have a very good support network, even from antipop and wdf. the prognosis is very positive and as cliche as it sounds, we just go by a day at a time. she is so much stronger than i am because i wouldn't be able to cope with it.

as for healthcare, like dtc said, it is one giant scam. what will be covered once, even twice, may not be covered the third time. my mother-in-law works as a claims reviewer for one of the insurance companies, so it hasn't been too bad for filing the appeals. we mostly let her expose the bs for us :) it is just the pain in the *** of having to file the appeals.

i would totally appeal the 12k bill. i wouldn't even hesitate to get in touch with someone because chances are, the first few people you speak to will either be clueless or not willing to help. i've learned not to blame them so much since they are generally following procedures.