Making Arrangements

We've always been very fortunate to have really good insurance.  But, my government employer, like all other employers, have sent benefits by the wayside.  My insurance being one of them.  Several years ago that benefit began to decline and  the only real alternative for a family this large where they charge by the child was to go into a high deductible plan.  It's better than no insurance.  When the day came and they offered this new plan while it still means quite a bit more out of my paycheck monthly, it also meant if we didn't go to the doctor and max things out (which does happen sometimes).  Most years just hitting your high deductible and saving the max in the HSA is enough to have money left in your HSA for dental, etc. since we have no dental or vision insurance.  However, maxing it out is a big difference.  Years ago it just wasn't like this.  Even Brian's accident didn't cost this much.  He spent 1 1/2 weeks inpatient and then another few weeks inpatient rehab.  We came nowhere near what this surgery cost for Cole.  I miss the days of $600, maybe $1500 for the year.  We expect at least $2000 every year in medical expenses.  An EKG and echo along with the cost of the cardiologist are approximately $1500/year just for Cole if he doesn't have a stress test and MRI.  We did ask if we could come back in October this year since we're maxed out and won't be responsible for more.  One more heart check before he goes back to full-on wrestling would make me feel so much better.

We've been getting all of the bills in more and more and I've been having to go through, match them up by EOB and pay them.  At least 2-3 times for this surgery alone the bills have been incorrect and I've had to call and remind them they cannot bill for certain things and turn around and wait for a revised bill.  Always wait for the correct bill.  They cannot bill for things the insurance says are outside the agreement, but if they get the accounts mixed up they can do it easily, but it is wrong.  I got one bill today that was revised down to $73 from almost $300 after explaining their mix-up.  Then, since it was the facility again I asked for the 15% pay upfront discount.  So I ended up paying $62.  The other bill I got was almost $400 for a couple of the doctors while he was in the hospital.  Apparently, the physicians do not offer a pay upfront discount, so I told them, for the first time in my lucky life, to set up a payment plan.  They agreed to $50/month so I would have enough to pay what I have to as the year rolls on and more bills come in.  I figured this way we could possibly go to the dentist later this year and when my HSA hopefully catches up to all of this I can pay the physicians off at the end of the year.  There are plenty more physicians bills coming in.  Those were just the smaller ones. It feels weird to have medical payments since we never have, but thankfully, I pull so much out of my paycheck that we should be able to pay them off at the end of the year.

There's always worse and prayerfully, this is the last year of maxing out for awhile!