That Moment When I Blow off Some Steam

There are not many things that get me well and truly riled up, but it seems that healthcare costs, insurance, and everything related to that can get me head spinning angry. Think Exorcist style, 360 turns minus the projectile vomiting.

Recently we have had some major stresses in the health insurance department and what makes me so angry is that my family ends up paying for the blunders of others. There is absolutely no accountability. When a mistake is made, conveniently the blame gets passed off to someone else and so the cycle continues until you get frustrated and throw in the towel.

The first major frustration occurred during with commissioning. Prior to commissioning, hubs and our family was eligible for Tricare Reserve Select.  In the weeks leading up to his commissioning, HB was covering all the bases and wanted to make sure the transition from Reserve family to Active Duty family was as smooth as possible {especially considering the weekly appointments for Gbear} He spoke with a representative from Tricare and a representative from Deers, who both assured him that our family would continue to remain covered in the time following commissioning but prior to his report date. This made sense to us seeing as Tricare has policies in place for Reserve soldiers transitioning to active duty and also for active duty soldiers transitioning back to civilian life.

We continued about our life happy that we had double and triple checked our coverage. And then it all screeched to a halt when we received a voicemail from our son’s healthcare providing us that we had no insurance. {Can we note that this is AFTER he had attended multiple sessions that we could have rearranged had we known the true situation} We scrambled, did some calling and were basically told TOUGH SHIT. The two people who had spoken with HB had given him incorrect information and we were screwed.

Luckily we were able to rearrange future appointments for the rest of the month and it was just a short inconvenience. Or so I thought.  Fast forward a few months and my son’s provider sent us a bill for over $1500. I don’t know about you, but those kind of moments make me feel physically ill. After a quick WTF moment, I realize that since they took SOOO long billing us, they had billed the insurance company during a time when we weren’t covered {which shouldn’t really matter because the services were rendered while we WERE covered} I was assured that they would simply resubmit the bill to the insurance and all would be well. So, you can imagine my surprise when 3 months later I receive a bill for almost $2000. You see, those two appointments when we were told we were covered, but we weren’t really? They add up to over $500. That’s $500 for less than 2 hours of therapy {but I won’t start on that ridiculousness right now} And that $1500 that should be taken care of, because we had insurance for those appointments? Showing up as overdue, because someone didn’t do their job correctly. And guess who has to deal with it? You bet ya. Me. It’s my problem. No accountability. I’ve been offered a payment plan. Guess what? I’m not paying a bill that I don’t need to. If you had submitted it correctly the first time we wouldn’t be here. I’m not suffering because of someone else’s shortcomings!

Phew. If you’ve read this far you deserve a medal. Am I the only one that LOATHES the healthcare/insurance industry with a passion?! If you have it, you’re screwed by a technicality. If you don’t have it, they make you pay with the kidney of your first born child. Or maybe the spleen.

And since I've ranted... some food for thought