Friday, September 7, 2007

On the road again...

We're taking off tomorrow morning to attend Grandmother's 90th birthday party, so I thought I'd check in before I am MIA for a couple of days. I will likely spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out a birthday present for her - I am considering just doing a photo album of pics form the party and giving it to her later. We'll see...

Aaron's brother, Bryan, is coming in tonight and will be staying at our house overnight. The guest room is still is some disarray, but at least there is a nice big bed to sleep in (now I just have to get some sheets on it!).

My little rant for today is about health insurance...aaaargh! I had some lab work done in May 2006 (yes, over a year ago) that was never paid for by the insurance company due to lack of information on why the tests needed to be run. O.K., no problem, I know how this works after working in insurance for a while...step 1: obtain records from doctor's office; step 2: send records to the insurance company; step 3: wait for them to deny the claim and fight with them some more.

The first headache was getting my records. The office sends the file to another company to copy the records who then waits until I have paid the $15 fee before they send them. So in the past there hasn't been such a long process, but I can deal and now have records in hand.

I fax them to BCBS and wait. Then I get another nasty gram from the lab company, who then calls BCBS, who then claims they never got the records. After spending many moons on the phone with BCBS, I find out I cannot send the records - they have to be sent with the claim from the lab company. So I fax the records to my new best friend at Lab One and she calls to tell me she has received them and is sending the claim.

Now three months later, I get yet another bill from Lab One. I call them and ask to speak to my Lab One buddy who of course no longer works there. My new not-so-good friend then proceeds to tell me they never received the records and I need to refax them...sigh. Now if I could only unearth them - I have no clue where they ended up during the move. Maybe if I'm really lucky I'll get to pay for another copy...

4 comments:

Karen Hossink said...

Hey, we're celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday Sunday! My aunt made a scrapbook for Grandma to which everyone contributed one page. Mine was "The Top 10 Things I've Learned from my Grandma." It was fun to make. Hope you enjoy the party!
And sorry about the insurance stuff. UGH!

~**Dawn**~ said...

Happy birthday to your Grandma. =)

I just got a bill from BCBS for my lab tests. Thye want me to pay another $20. I almost think I just will. It's worth it not to have to fight with them. =P Even though I paid my co-pay, and I think that this test should be covered 100%.

Anonymous said...

Oy! What a pain! I'm fighting a $125 bill right now for lab work for my Hashimoto's. The insurance company is saying I wasn't on a certain plan during that appointment. I haven't changed my plan in years, LOL. Sheesh! It's always gonna be something, isn't it?!

Debi said...

Have fun at the party! 90 years...Wow! Where is it you're off to this time?

I am so sorry about your insurance hassles! I really, really feel for you! Why exactly does this happen so often?!! I still have nightmares about all the hassles with the insurance over Max's NICU doc and then again over his RSV shots. UGH. Hope you find the papers you need and then that's the last of it!!!