Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Reimbursement Aftermath

So, part of my recent insurance reimbursement claim was processed, but, mysteriously, not the other part. They were sent together, in the same envelope. Curious. I called up about it today, and was told by a very helpful rep to fax him a copy of my previous claim directly, which I did. I'm also submitting another set of bills today. I'm frankly not sure if the reimbursements will cover my outlay--and there'll be a whole complicated parental thing if they don't, and I don't want to deal with that at all, so I'm just hoping very hard that they do.

I had a recent debacle with my dad and a bill--a very tiny, dinky, stupid bill--where he'd said he'd pay it and then I'd sign over the reimbursement check to him, only he didn't pay it, and they were sending the mail to my parents' apartment, and my parents are on vacation, and--well, you get the idea. I paid them a couple of days after they said they were going to send it (all $100 of it) to collections, but I sent a letter explaining the circumstances, so hopefully my credit won't get dinged. The point is, though, I'd like to separate my finances, even the medical stuff like this, from my parents' as much as possible. I wonder if there's a new system we could set up to minimize their involvement--ideally, of course, I'd find someone who could bill my insurance directly, but the chances of finding such a person in the field I need are slim to none, and so it seems that for the moment there will have to be some parental assistance.

All this just as I start having trouble with the ball of my left foot and being told I should see a podiatrist. On that score, though, I've done a good job--found someone who takes my insurance, so I can just pay the co-pay myself, and not deal with anyone else (except, you know, the medical billing office & insurance company), and called right up and made an appointment. I know y'all think that's remedial life skills, but I'm pretty proud of myself. And looking forward to future medical billing running smoothly.

7 comments:

A. Marigold said...

Hey, it's always hard when it's new. Good for you for getting it taken care of anyway.

Anonymous said...

I'm so confused -- do your parents pay your health insurance premiums?

Em said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
English Major said...

s/100/30, nope. I get my insurance through work, but with the ongoing medical thing I've got going, there's a lot of stuff that's out of network or not covered at all. The way I'm working with my parents now is that they pay up-front, and I reimburse them as much as my insurance will reimburse me. This system is not working particularly well at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Ah, gotcha. With HIPAA I'm really shocked they'd send mail to your parents house, regardless of who paid the bill.

E.C. said...

I can see why you are frustrated with the complications in this system. It makes me really glad I have another year on my parents' insurance and get to use the student health center. It would be pretty panic-inducing to discover a bill was about to go to collections.

Screaming Dime said...

I wouldn't be all that worried about your credit. I had medical bills go into collection (insurance issue) and when (if) it shows up on your credit report, it will say "MEDICAL" right after the collection.

Everyone who has pulled my reports and has a human review it said they pretty much ignore medical collections, since so many people have them.