<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > I just saved $1000 sort of...

I just saved $1000 sort of...

February 5th, 2008 at 03:02 am

Well I like to think I saved $1K. I got one of the many medical bills that are starting to show up for my DH. My DH had surgery in December for cancer and as of last week he just started Chemo. He has a type of cancer with a 95% success rate, and he only has to go through chemo for 3 months, so in that aspect we are lucky and we believe everything will be fine once he is done with chemo. So on to the medical bills - his insurance lets me track all the bills submitted and how much they pay to the hospitals/doctors/etc, and what we will have to pay. Well I received one bill today from the hospital and it showed the total due was $1503. So I pull up my spreadsheet which has is 15 different bills listed and totals, and I notice on this one my insurance says we only owe $537 total. Why does my bill show $1503? So I call to try and figure this out and get some lame excuse about they don't have the final numbers from the insurance, etc. Then why did I get a bill? Something about our system will update again and you'll get a revised bill, just throw this one away they tell me. Huh? Why even send it out? They have no answer for me really. BUT... if I was not as organized, tracking every single bill and the amount we actually should have to pay, what if I would have paid this bill? Because looking at this bill it looks like the insurance amount WAS applied and the remaining amount was my balance. So if I paid this do you think they would have said anything later on and gave me a credit? Somehow I don't think so. So I could have just saved us $1000 by checking every bill and making sure we really do owe the money.

Honestly could we make the medical billing/paying/insurance ANY more difficult??

Well - on to my spending today - $36.50 for gas - that was it! Bills will be coming in soon but for today that was it.

Posted in Medical Debt | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “I just saved $1000 sort of...”

  1. daylily Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 03:11 am 1202181067
    1202181067

    Hope all is well with your husband.
    My DH had back surgery two months ago. We ended up with five or six different entities billing us. How about just ONE bill!
    Good luck sorting out that end of it.

  2. jaiparis Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 04:00 am 1202184045
    1202184045

    Well so far so good! Keeping our fingers crossed. Hope your DH is doing good now after his surgery, but I am with you - how about ONE bill! Most of this is being done with one hospital, and each bill I get from this has a different account number! So even this hospital doesn't even combine the billing! Now that is a nice thought one bill. I'll keep dreaming.

  3. JanH Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 05:59 am 1202191146
    1202191146

    Happened to us, too. After DS had surgery, we got a bill from the doctor that was too much. The insurance had sent us a paper thingy that told us what we would owe. So, I had to call the doctor. Wasn't a real pleasant conversation to have to have. The insurance company told me that they would call if I had any problems. Now, the insurance doesn't send me any paper thingys anymore. I definitely should view my Hubby's bills online. Thanks for reminding me! Hope all is well with your DH and that chemo is relatively mild for him. Sending best wishes to your family in this time.

  4. jaiparis Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 06:09 am 1202191754
    1202191754

    I'm sure it happens more than we realize, so yes everyone needs to check each bill, and if you have online access even better. I would hate to think we are overpaying on already overpriced health care! Glad you got your bill worked out though. And thanks for your concern, I do appreciate it.

  5. Ima saver Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 01:14 pm 1202217247
    1202217247

    Hope things go well for you both!

  6. merch Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 01:54 pm 1202219651
    1202219651

    Yep. Good to be organized. My son was in 2 hospitlas and we keep getting duplicate bills and bills with out the insurance piece taken out.

    You just have to keep on top of it and plow through.

    Good luck.

  7. lost in debt Says:
    February 6th, 2008 at 01:39 am 1202261989
    1202261989

    Jen, hope all is well with you and DH - when it rains it pours, I hope the sun shines on you soon.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]