In the spirit of “nothing is ever simple”, we have a new and exciting problem on our hands:
The Clinic’s Lawyers vs. The Worthless Health Insurance Company
The Clinic’s Lawyers vs. The Worthless Health Insurance Company
It’s proving to be worthy of Michael Moore. Here’s the quick (ha!) rehash:
Our new clinic is (apparently) required to file all treatments through my insurance. Keep in mind I have zero fertility coverage left. The clinic has a program where you spend so much money and you get 3 cycles - if you get preg on cycle 1 or 2, you get some of your money back. So because they have to file through my insurance (who will cough up nothing), we no longer qualify for this discount program.
To make things worse - they (and all doctors) bill your insurance company more than they would if you were paying outright. So they're going to bill my insurance more, the insurance company is going to laugh at them and forward us the bill. So not only do we not qualify for the 3-cycle discount...we will be paying more because we have insurance.
But wait, there’s more: Our consultation with them was in January - since we live 4 hours away, they went ahead and ran some tests on me while I was there (save me a trip back later). Turns out those tests are not included in a cycle of IVF (I assumed they were – I admit, this was entirely my fault). And as I said - United is useless. So before we even start IVF, we owe the clinic $800.
The icing? The tests I had done were only good for 2 months. They expire TODAY. Which means (in theory) I am supposed to have them updated and will have to pay $800 AGAIN. I'm going to beg the doctor to let me out of it.
I found out about this insurance fiasco last week when I called the billing department with the intention of paying for my 3 cycles (this is also when I found out about the 800 bucks I owe). Now to be fair, the woman I spoke with was very nice and promised that she was going to talk to their lawyers about ignoring my insurance, she was going to confirm that I have no more insurance coverage, and she was going to call me last Thursday. She hasn’t called. I have called several times for her and J has left at least 3 messages which have yet to be returned.
We have a fertility coordinator who is supposed to handle all the logistics, so J just called back and asked specifically for her (got voicemail – left a message bitching about how we can’t get this billing crap handled). If she doesn’t call back today, my head will most likely explode. I mean come on – we have 2 weeks before treatments start – we need a LITTLE time to pull the money together for all this. It ain’t exactly pocket change.
In other news: J has told me he’s going to take on handling all this…my job is to show up for appointments and to not pass out when they take blood. Put that way, I’ve never been so relieved to be on the receiving end of the needle.
Our new clinic is (apparently) required to file all treatments through my insurance. Keep in mind I have zero fertility coverage left. The clinic has a program where you spend so much money and you get 3 cycles - if you get preg on cycle 1 or 2, you get some of your money back. So because they have to file through my insurance (who will cough up nothing), we no longer qualify for this discount program.
To make things worse - they (and all doctors) bill your insurance company more than they would if you were paying outright. So they're going to bill my insurance more, the insurance company is going to laugh at them and forward us the bill. So not only do we not qualify for the 3-cycle discount...we will be paying more because we have insurance.
But wait, there’s more: Our consultation with them was in January - since we live 4 hours away, they went ahead and ran some tests on me while I was there (save me a trip back later). Turns out those tests are not included in a cycle of IVF (I assumed they were – I admit, this was entirely my fault). And as I said - United is useless. So before we even start IVF, we owe the clinic $800.
The icing? The tests I had done were only good for 2 months. They expire TODAY. Which means (in theory) I am supposed to have them updated and will have to pay $800 AGAIN. I'm going to beg the doctor to let me out of it.
I found out about this insurance fiasco last week when I called the billing department with the intention of paying for my 3 cycles (this is also when I found out about the 800 bucks I owe). Now to be fair, the woman I spoke with was very nice and promised that she was going to talk to their lawyers about ignoring my insurance, she was going to confirm that I have no more insurance coverage, and she was going to call me last Thursday. She hasn’t called. I have called several times for her and J has left at least 3 messages which have yet to be returned.
We have a fertility coordinator who is supposed to handle all the logistics, so J just called back and asked specifically for her (got voicemail – left a message bitching about how we can’t get this billing crap handled). If she doesn’t call back today, my head will most likely explode. I mean come on – we have 2 weeks before treatments start – we need a LITTLE time to pull the money together for all this. It ain’t exactly pocket change.
In other news: J has told me he’s going to take on handling all this…my job is to show up for appointments and to not pass out when they take blood. Put that way, I’ve never been so relieved to be on the receiving end of the needle.
And just as an update: After 2 weeks of leaving messages with the male infertility specialist, we still can't get anybody to call us back there either. What is it with everybody?
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