I had this great post started. It was huge. It was detailed and dramatic and Oh Emm Gee would have made you cry from the emotions I was conveying. Then my iPhone ate it.
Basically, the hospital sent a bill for $9048.23 for my lap. I walked away in a daze, put up some groceries and when the cereal box didn't fit in the cabinet, I fell to the floor and cried like a baby.
It was my first real IF breakdown moment. Sure there have been some sad times but this was my "Why me?" moment. It was not pretty.
Long story short: I called BCBS, hospital and RE. It's basically the hospital's fault for scaring the Shiite out of me. Insurance sent their payment after the hospital sent me a bill. My portion is actually $1,827.89. Plus the RE portion which I haven't received a bill for yet.
I've concluded that health care and insurance companies are frocked up. Here's the totals before negotiated down billed by the hospital to BCBS.
Total for lap: $21,661
Total for RE: $1,559
Isn't that crazy? For an hour long lap surgery, it was over $23,000. But they negotiated it down by $18,521, leaving the rest for BCBS and me to pay. I'm not arguing that it costs a lot to do the procedure but to be able to negotiate it down by that drastic of a cut is crazy. Why is it not that cheap to begin with?
Anywho, that's the short story of how I panicked, flipped out, figured it out and then calmed down. I'm still blaming it on the giant box of Lucky Charms. Stupid cereal box.
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