Hospital Bills...UGH!
Do you understand your current medical insurance? Have you kept up to date with it's annual changes? Have you read over your policy manual every year?
We didn't.
It was a Sunday and I had a horrible migraine that was going from bad to worse...my meds weren't working at home and I knew I was going to have to go in and get help. They have tried so many things for me over the years and I have had a lot of severe reactions. You name a non-narcotic pain killer and I am allergic to it.
:(
When you have a migraine, it is important to get that pain level down - they have proven that the higher your blood pressure, the greater the chances of brain damage can occur - especially in extended length migraines. It also triggers nausea, and believe me, the only thing worse than a bad migraine is a migraine where you are tossing your cookies!
They used to give me a shot of Demerol and then learned how bad Demerol really is for the body - so they switched me to Morphine. This is on my allergy list too as it instantly triggers my histamine reaction with a massive itch so they make it a chaser to a megga dose of Benedryl.
So, back to that Sunday. Our insurance used to have just a $75 emergency room co-pay. $75 was worth it to me that day to get some relief - it was 4PM in the afternoon and I could NOT see waiting another 16 hours to get into my clinic (which has a $15 co-pay) to save $50.
Then comes the bill in the mail a few weeks later. $523. Ouch!
I asked dear hubster for the insurance plan manual and he could only find the 2008 version...which was what we had thought. Obviously something was wrong so it was time to log into the system and check the benefits - I wanted to arm myself before calling.
It had been so long that we had to reset his password - ugh!
Guess what? We now had a $400 annual deductible with a 90% coverage after that...Hence the $523.
I would have found a way make it that 16 hours to save $508 - some how! (I'd like to think)
This was an expensive lesson -- and a very painful check to write. It's $500 less to add to my savings fund.
I share my new wisdom with you - make sure you know YOUR plan, details and all. There will be changes to it with the new National health care laws that have already gone into effect - but many companies aren't implementing those changes until your plan's annual review/rollover/enrollment period.
We didn't.
It was a Sunday and I had a horrible migraine that was going from bad to worse...my meds weren't working at home and I knew I was going to have to go in and get help. They have tried so many things for me over the years and I have had a lot of severe reactions. You name a non-narcotic pain killer and I am allergic to it.
:(
When you have a migraine, it is important to get that pain level down - they have proven that the higher your blood pressure, the greater the chances of brain damage can occur - especially in extended length migraines. It also triggers nausea, and believe me, the only thing worse than a bad migraine is a migraine where you are tossing your cookies!
They used to give me a shot of Demerol and then learned how bad Demerol really is for the body - so they switched me to Morphine. This is on my allergy list too as it instantly triggers my histamine reaction with a massive itch so they make it a chaser to a megga dose of Benedryl.
So, back to that Sunday. Our insurance used to have just a $75 emergency room co-pay. $75 was worth it to me that day to get some relief - it was 4PM in the afternoon and I could NOT see waiting another 16 hours to get into my clinic (which has a $15 co-pay) to save $50.
Then comes the bill in the mail a few weeks later. $523. Ouch!
I asked dear hubster for the insurance plan manual and he could only find the 2008 version...which was what we had thought. Obviously something was wrong so it was time to log into the system and check the benefits - I wanted to arm myself before calling.
It had been so long that we had to reset his password - ugh!
Guess what? We now had a $400 annual deductible with a 90% coverage after that...Hence the $523.
I would have found a way make it that 16 hours to save $508 - some how! (I'd like to think)
This was an expensive lesson -- and a very painful check to write. It's $500 less to add to my savings fund.
I share my new wisdom with you - make sure you know YOUR plan, details and all. There will be changes to it with the new National health care laws that have already gone into effect - but many companies aren't implementing those changes until your plan's annual review/rollover/enrollment period.
I dont really understand how the new health care program works..Do you know anywhere where they explain it?
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