Credit where it is due

[jducoeur]

For those following at home, I am *finally* coming to grips with the medical bills from my kidney-stone incident back in July. BCBS of Florida has finally admitted that yes, I was covered by them under COBRA at the time, and they have finally reprocessed the bills. It's been quite an epic, and I'll tell the full story once it's done, but at least we're now making progress.

(I'm still going to wind up paying a lot, but only a fraction of the sky-high original bills. Tangent: I am ruefully amused that BCBS isn't actually *paying* very much. They're mostly just arguing the original bills down from the stratosphere to merely expensive, and then telling me that I haven't satisfied my deductible yet. Still, I'll take the umpty-thousand-dollar savings.)

And I have to admit one pleasant surprise. Through this whole horrible adventure, and despite the degree to which I have come to dislike BCBS/FL and their hundred little inefficiencies in paying for this, the folks on the phone both there and at all the various doctor's billing offices have been consistently friendly and helpful. I am *not* fond of cold phone calls, especially in potentially combative situations, but all of the folks from Customer Service have provided -- well, customer service.

It's the little things that restore a bit of my battered faith in mankind...

Comments

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Florida? I thought you located were a bit further north than that. ;P

[jducoeur]

The sad results of having one's nice little company bought by a Freaking Huge Multinational. BCBS of FL isn't nearly as easy to work with as BCBS of MA...

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

OK. I didn't think about that aspect of your recent change in employment. For our recent adventures into the health care system, it is the hospital's somewhat-less-than-ept and seemingly fragmented billing organization that I fault for our confusion as to whether we actually owe money.

[jducoeur]

Actually, this has nothing much to do with Querki. Back in the spring, Memento (the 80-person company I was working at) got bought by FIS (a 33,000-person behemoth). I'm still on their COBRA plan.

And yes, hospital billing is its own little bit of special -- I spent all day yesterday sitting down with the bills and the claims, matching them up, figuring out what I *actually* owe and which of those organizations have so far sent me a correct bill...

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Your definition of "recent" does not correlate to mine. ;)

[russkay.livejournal.com]

Your comment about what the insurance companies actually pay is telling. When I had my kidney transplant in 1987 (31 days at UMass Memorial), I later learned that the hospital bill alone was over $210,000 but the insurance company told me they paid, "under our contract with UMass, $74,000" and change. That's some kind of discount!