Episode V: The Insurance Strikes Back

I hate to complain too much about insurance companies because honestly, most of the things that annoy me about them are things that happen on the other end of whatever process is happening- the bill was sent twice, the doctor's staff coded things wrong, whatever- but right now mine is making me frustrated.

"Frustrated"

 

I got a bill from Medtronic for several thousand dollars earlier this week, and even after calling and having them confirm that yes, a check from my insurance company did indeed arrive for the insulin pump, I will likely still owe on it- maybe as much as $1600. I also owe on sensors from earlier this year, and glucose testing strips from earlier this year, but that comes as no surprise because of this thing called a deductible, which always slams us hard at the beginning of the year.

       de-duct-i-ble (noun): You just finished paying for Christmas, and now your insurance company is going to stick you with most of the bills until you cough up that $750 they demand you pay before they will pay for anything. Happy New Year.

What's bugging me is the $200 they're trying to stick us with from the end of last year that, frankly, should be paid entirely by my insurance because I loooooooooong ago met my 2013 deductible. Hell, I loooooooong ago met my 2014 one, too, I'm just only now getting the bills for it. So now, because the nice employee at Medtronic looked at my account and could see that I had, indeed, fulfilled all of my deductible obligations as of 3 and 26 December, 2013, I must call the insurance and find out what the heck is going on with them, because there is no legitimate reason I can think of that they would not pay a single cent for test strips in December but completely pay for the exact same size order in February. It's not like I'm doing a different number of tests.

Not to over use this, but this is how I'm feeling right now.

But wait. It gets better.

Last year I was good and got in all of my annual appointments done in February. I don't particularly like going to the doctor. I'd rather go to a concert, or Disneyland, or work, even. So this year I slacked a little, and now I'm trying to make up for it, only with the new insurance I can't seem to get logged in to their members only website to see which doctors are covered. I have tried using my ID number, and my SSN, and Aetna seems to think neither of those things qualifies me as "a member." So I sit here and think, well, I guess I could spend an hour of my vacation day calling them to see if we can get this fixed, or I could blog a little and then go get my hair cut.

If you need me, I'll be at the salon.