hospital's and insurance tiny bump in Road - ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass Forum, Lap Band Forum, and Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum

cajunh2s · 03-16-2008, 10:05 PM

hello again guys

as some of you may know i was scheduled to go to the hospital to do a class with my dietian friday morning..

well let me tell ya.....that morning was a diaster for me...lol
when i arrived at the hospital to sign up for the class i was instructed by phone,to go to the main window and sign in as i did for the first seminar on weight lost...ok cool no problem i'm happy to do that....lol

when i get to the receptionist....she informs me that she hasn't gotten any paper work on me from the dietians...and thats usually how it works...and she would have to make some calls and trace things out.....ok no problem..i'm thinking

now before i go further let me mention that all my dietian needs are covered by my insurance....no out of pocket for this...and i knew this before the friday
morning hospital visit....and also let me mention...i have a hair trigger temper at times....lol

so janice the recptionist calls around...very nice young lady i must add...
to try and find out who called me..because they have several dietians on staff....and the one who called me only identified herself as the hospital dietian....lmao

so janice finds out that my class is with the dietian named kate.....i'm thinking cool...we are making headway.....

so hear comes the punch line janice needs to find out...how much to charge me.....and i told her...that i already knew my insurance covers this charge.....janice say's well i have to call accounting to make sure......so she does....and accounting tells her it will be a $100 dollar charge...and it needed to be paid..today...

well this threw me off...cause i knew my insurance covered this....and now my temper was starting to rear its head.....but i was going to try and figure out a way to pay them...and straighten it out with insurance later...

so i told her....i can give you $50 bucks today....and could you bill me the other $50.....they said could i give them a post dated check for the other $50

now i'm getting angry...and about to tell them the hell with the surgery....i'll just stay fat....or do another diet plan...but i kept my mouth shut...lol

so i told her darling.....i'm going to have to save up a little for some of these hidden cost i wasn't aware of and thought it was covered by my insurance...
i said with a mortgage payment car payments and other things ...i can't spare this extra $100 right now....expecially since i was in here last week with my wife and it cost us $200 on a credit card.....because her deductible hasn't been met yet this year....to get her started as well on this.....so i told her i'll be in touch....have a great day.....

so get this...by the time i drove home...25 minute drive....the dietian kate is ringing my phone.....tripping on herself to tell me it was a miss-communication on the hospital's part.....and that yes.....my dietians needs are met by my insurance...and she is so sorry for the inconvience......by the time i got home...the class had started...and i wouldn't make it back in time to catch it all.....so no use in driving back..

i planned my whole day around this class...so it was a day wasted....

so now kate has re-scheduled me for april 4th....i will have to do 2 classes that day...10am till 2pm.....i've already met with a dietian on my consultation day.....so i feel like i'm fixing to go into dietian overload....so am i going to get nickle and dimed to death over these dietians....this is not the start of all this i had in mind....lol

Randy

Nyn · 03-16-2008, 11:06 PM

Ugh! What a day for you. In my opinion, you had every right to have your temper fray. Been there myself! Sometimes I feel like the most painful part of this whole thing is dealing with the insurance companies. I've had 5 surgeries in the last year and half and have spent hours on the phone trying to straighten out the many strange bills that resulted. I got lucky in that I changed jobs in the middle of the gastric bypass process, but was able to stay with Kaiser. My old job required me to pay $65 for doctors visits and $100 for surgeon visits -- which was quite a shock when I went for one of my first consultations since I was meeting with a series of people that day and didn't know the surgeon was one of them. By the time I made it through the introductory stuff, I was out several hundred (unexpected!) dollars. Arg! My new insurance -- everything was covered under a $10 copay. Sweet relief. Here's hoping the rest of the process is smoother sailing. Sorry for the delay.

katzz87 · 03-16-2008, 11:46 PM

Dang, this journey towards WLS sure can have alot of potholes!!

But be thankfull that they now KNOW that you do not have to PAY out of pocket for the dieticians visits! Sure hope all subsequent visits go a little smoother for you.

Godsblessedme · 03-17-2008, 10:19 AM

ooo its so frustrating i know. But let me say that its so totally worth the headaches congrats on getting that far

SueRN · 03-18-2008, 10:34 AM

I had to pay a total of $700 out of pocket. There was a $200 application fee, and the other $500 was for the counseling sessions. $200 to set up an appointment to be evaluated and process the paperwork, $250 due on the first appointment with the surgeon, nutritionist and psychologist. Then final $250 was due on the pre-op session. Insurance paid the surgeon's visits, fees, hospital etc. but they wanted the additional costs paid up front. They did tell us this in the seminar at least so I was prepared. It was expensive but worth it. I don't think I would have been too happy to get hit with a "hidden" cost on the spot either. This part is very frustrating and drawn out. Just try to find a healthy outlet for the stress cuz it's worth it in the end! Sue