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Train Wreck

I am on the phone this morning between Cleveland Clinic's physicians billing department, my insurance company, and a collection agency trying to sort out why there is supposedly $7,151.09 pending insurance that the insurance doesn't know exists all while trying to keep it from being sent to collection because once it is sent to CBCS I cannot fight the charge anymore and am responsible for paying it.

What happens is the insurance company denies claims because while I was sitting in Hell I would be visited by at least a dozen doctors each day. All worried about different sections of my body, whichever section they happen to have a degree in. So each one makes his or her rounds and comes to stare at the big blob that is me and shake their head for ten minutes while I look miserable and am either trying to smile or trying not to cry, depending on the day and the amount of pain I am in while they are in my room. Then each one submits an average charge for around $185.00 for each time they stepped into my world. So the insurance company says that only one doctor is allowed to charge them each day. So I guess people who just have one organ malfunctioning are okay. They get their one specialty doctor per day and they are cool. It is the train wrecks like me who require nearly every department of the hospital each day that require the doctors to all stand around in the nurses station at the end of the day drawing straws to see which one gets to bill the insurance company for that day. Maybe they could have played Rock, Paper, Scissors if they couldn't find straws.

Think about that for a second. How fucked up is that concept?

So, when the insurance denies the multiple charges and the hospital is out for blood, I am ultimately the person responsible for paying the tab. Had I known that I would have picked which part of my body required the most urgent attention for the day and barred the rest of the doctors from coming in. I could have posted someone at my door to be the Doctor Nazi. "No money for you!"

Money is the root of all evil. Money and sugar. Money and sugar and doctors.

Posted by gwendolyn on April 14, 2004 at 10:48 AM