Irritated and No one to take it out on.....

Even though I have worked for an insurance company for almost 10 years now, please let me officially say I HATE INSURANCE COMPANIES, HEALTH INSURANCE, BILLING DEPARTMENTS AND ALL THINGS HAVING TO DO WITH THEM!!!!!

Long story short, I had two baby girls on April 13th of this year.  If you can do the math, you can see that this is over 5 months ago.  I'm still dealing with trying to get claims filed correctly from 5 months ago!  UGGHH!!  Let me start by explaining that I am super anal about money and making sure that I pay what I owe and not a penny more.  I've crossed checked all my bills with the EOB's (explanation of benefits) from the insurance company just to make sure everything is correct.  I'm fairly certain that there must be numerous dyslexic people who work in billing departments because I have received a total of 8 bills that had transposed amounts due on them.  For example:  My portion to pay was $28 and I received a bill for $82.  How many people just pay these bills and don't pay attention?? 

My second dilemma:  The total amount billed for my girls medical care year to date (this includes from the time they were born through last Thursday) is well over seven million dollars!!  Yes, you did read that correctly!  I said seven million dollars!!  This does not include my pre-natal appointments or any of the charges for me personally being in the hospital delivering the babies (that will be dilemma #3).   Terry and I are left with approximately twenty thousand dollars of bills.  Relative to the 7 million billed, $20k is really not that bad.  My issue is:  who has an extra $20k laying around after they just spend 6 months on bed rest and in the NICU.  The collection agents are already harasing us.  Every one that we owe money to gets paid $50 a month.  Like I said previously, I'm super anal about money and have not missed one payment!  I have set up payment arrangements with all out debtors, but apparently the time I spent on the phone attempting to make good on our obligations was a waste of time.  Collection Agent people are really pricks!!  Some of the things they have said to me....you wouldn't believe!!  I also don't want to forget to mention that several bills I've been able to negotiate a lower price and a couple I've been able to get written off completely so I'm very thankful for that!

Dilemma #3:  I had a C-section to deliver the girls.  I had no option, this is what I was told needed to happen!  Back in May I get a bill for $2650 from the anesthesiologist.  My insurance did not pay anything because they said he was "out of network".  I wasn't given an option of what anesthesiologist I wanted to use and I surely didn't think to ask the guy when he showed up in the delivery room if he took my insurance.  I contacted our insurance company and they said they would re-process the claim it as "in network".  So recently I get a revised bill from the anesthesiologist for $800.  I was shocked to receive this bill as I thought everything was taken care of.  I called the dr's office and was told that this was an "after hours" charge.  Since my c-section was done at 3:00a.m. there was an extra fee.  REALLY?  Like I could control that!  Anesthesiologists work 12 hour shifts.  That is that guy's job to work from 12:00a.m. to 12:00p.m.  GRRR!!  I'm still not done fighting this one!!

Ok, thanks for listening to me vent for a few minutes!!