So here's what's going to happen: My health insurance company is going to tell me that I hit some magical, unspoken limit on how much health I'm allowed to have, and deny my claim. Then, in addition to the $550 I send to BCBS from my own pocket every month, I will also have to pay whatever made-up number the doctor's office charges, probably like $300, which they can afford to charge because it's usually paid by a multi-million dollar health insurance corporation. So, since that was my only doctor's appointment this month, in total I'll have paid $850 for a single twenty-minute telemedicine appointment, in which I told my doctor I was stopping a prescription and he said "OK sounds good."

If I don't pay BCBS, I can never afford to have a medical issue again, and if I don't pay the doctor's office, I'll get turned over to a collection agency and receive threatening letters, text messages, phone calls, and probably take a hit to my credit, which will affect my ability to, say, rent an apartment.

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:amerikkka:

  • john_browns_beard [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Classic America.

    Six months after my divorce, I got a phone call from a specialist I had seen over a year prior, telling me that my ex-wife's insurance (which I was on at the time of the appointment) was claiming that I was not covered at that date (I most certainly was). The specialist sent me a bill for $500.

    After several hours on hold and going back and forth with the specialist and the insurance company, no one agreed on anything. I'm assuming I only got the call from the specialist because some shady shit went down and they didn't submit the proper documentation when they should have, or fudged the date or something. Anyway, I never paid and the appointment happened almost 3 years ago at this point, haven't heard anything since so perhaps they figured it out themselves. Hopefully I'm good lol 🤷‍♂️

  • leftofthat [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    If you pay for coverage every month then you have coverage and should fight it, especially if you can prove the premium payments

    • USSMillicentKent [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      I certainly intend to. I am a master of flipping the script and making life a living hell for these ghouls. Calling their support line multiple times a day, calling random numbers in the directory, putting the whole organization permanently on blast until they fix their shit. It feels slimy but the the only way I've ever found to get through the fog of corporate unaccountability is to make myself universally known and abhorred within the company

      • leftofthat [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I can tell you that won't work they don't care. They have entire teams just dedicated to blocking out those kinds of contacts. The better route if you can afford it (time and energy wise) is to get an attorney and sue the fuck out of the health insurer if they're unreasonably denying you coverage. It will cost far more for them to defend a credible lawsuit than it will to just settle the case at far above the cost of your denied services.

  • Kissmydadonthelips [any,undecided]
    ·
    4 years ago

    If the insurance doesn't pay up you might be able to work out something with the hospital, I think if you mention you're paying out of pocket they may reduce the price or you can setup a payment plan. Better than paying immediately :/

  • ComradeMikey [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    have you looked into goodrx or discount cards? scriptsave used to be a good one when I was a pharm tech.you use them in lieu of insurance. also if its a private insurance see if a coupon is available if its brand name. the other thing to do is if its a pill see if doctor can prescribe double the dose to be cut in half to ration it better. those are my tips from a pharmacy tech. i save one dude 1500 bucks via a coupon bc he has a private insurance. those usually only work for brand name bc its so crazy