Medical Bills

Every where you look there is something in the news about the health care system. I don’t want to get all political here because golly forbid some whisper a word about “change” and the entire country is in an uproar. If you want to go there, the comment section is all yours to go left, right, red, blue, donkey, elephant.

All I’m going to say is that health care is way too expensive, and it thoroughly plucks my nerves that you are required by law to have car insurance (or pay a huge wavier fee), but for many people it’s impossible or criminally expensive to get health coverage . If someone can begin to make sense out of this, I would love to hear from you because I just don’t get it! It also makes my skin crawl that if you make little or no money, your pregnancy is covered by the government, however, if you are working to support your family but do not qualify for insurance or you’ve not had insurance long enough to cover a pregnancy you’re up a creek without a paddle or canoe. You are screwed.

Slowly step down and walk away from your soapbox Renee. This is not supposed to be about politics. This is supposed to be about medical bills and finances.

Last fall, I went through some serious medical stuff complete with emergency surgery. We’re talking expensive stuff. Thankfully, we are blessed with insurance that pays for 80%. That aside, we still owe a crap ton (remember, we learned that tern the other week) of money. I’d say the whole shindig (labs, doctor visits, ambulance transport, surgery, hospital stay) is going to set us back upwards of 2k. For some of you that may seem like nothing for good medical care, but when you are on a tight budget 2k stings.

Here is the other kicker. The medical field is quick to send your tail to collections. They have no patience.

Get this, the first bill I received from the hospital was a letter saying that my account was 90 days past due, and that I had 21 days to pay off the balance in full before they sent the bill to collections. HA-HA-HA! First, the letter was dated February 1, and I didn’t receive the thing until February 16. Second, I don’t know what I’m paying for because I’ve not seen the itemized bill. Third, how can this be 90 days past due when this is the first bill you’ve bothered to send me. Forth, I don’t have the $1,500 plus you want in full. I can’t give you money I don’t have.

After I stewed, no fumed, for a day or two, I called the hospital in a calm tone, firm, but calm. The poor woman on the phone had no idea what she was in for when she answered my call. I was nice to her, but I did force her to spend a good half an hour on the phone with me. I told her that I was not at all happy that the first bill I received was a final notice. There was also no way on Earth that I could pay for this thing in full, and I was absolutely not paying a dime until I had an itemized bill in front of me to confirm that the charges were accurate.

The lady was understanding. She read me the entire bill line-by-line and is mailing me a hard copy. We talked about payment options, and she removed the 21 day ultimatum giving me a month to make the first payment after I receive the hard copy.

Now that I have bought myself some time, I am planning my next move (it feels like I’m playing chess with these people). When the itemized bill comes, I’m going to review it line-by-line. Anything is appears to be inaccurate will be fought. Once I am confident the charges are accurate, it’s time to negotiate.

Did you know you could do that? Your insurance company negotiates with the hospital before they pay up. You can do the same. A hospital would much rather cut you a deal and get a large chunk of money up front than to wait each month on the tiny payments you’re going to make over the next two years. It costs the hospital a lot of time and money to deal with your pesky payments.

Now this is just one example of the many medical bills I’ve been playing hardball with over the past few months. A few went to collections before I had time to blink. I’m telling you they are sneaky little buggers. We’re seeing to it that nothing touches my credit. It takes a lot of time and organization to keep it all straight, but it’s necessary.

There is one bill in particular that I really don’t want to pay. I have never been treated with such disrespect by doctors and nurses before in my life. They do not deserve a single cent for the lack of care I was given. I’m not going to get into that whole saga here, but I’m going to have myself a chit-chat with this particular facility before I hand over a check.

I’m not telling you to not pay your medical bills. I don’t need your hate mail telling me that I hate hospitals or that I am trying to cheat the medical folks out of money they deserve. That is not what I’m doing. During a very scary time in my life, I received excellent care by excellent doctors in excellent facilities (with one exception), and I am happy to pay them what they deserve. What I am telling you is that it is important to be vigilant when it comes to medical expenses. It is important to review your bills carefully. Hospitals make mistakes all the time, and if you do not catch and correct them, you will pay for them. You have the right to negotiate your medical bills, after all, that is what your insurance company did. You also have the right to be given proper medical attention in a respectful and manner. Don’t let people walk on you, especially when you’re feeling crappy to begin with.

Alright Politician, the floor is yours. Speak your peace.

Earnings and Spending – January 2010

My friend, this took me longer  than I’d care to admit to organize and figure out (ahem more than four hours). I have been tracking our money all month long, so I knew where we stood. However, just because I was tracking the money doesn’t mean it was organized. Tonight, I spent forever, FOR-EV-ER, sorting out all of the expenses into categories (gas, groceries, living expenses, etc.). I’m telling you, I was a teenager when  I started categorizing all of our expenses, and now I’m 42.

While it took forever, FOR-EV-ER, to do this, it was a vital step in taking control of our spending. Now that we know how much we spend on entertainment, food and things like this, we can work to cut back and then put more money towards paying down debt. I did a gosh darn good job on the grocery bill this month, if I do say so myself.

Drum roll please….

Together Steve and I made $4,788.25. This is the money that we put in the bank and earned in cash. This is after health insurance, dental, vision, retirement, some taxes and some life insurance came out of our checks.

Our expenses for the month totaled $4,340.25.

Which at first though, made me think, “Wow we have an extra $448.00 on hand.” Then I remembered, that we haven’t turned in our tithing for the month which is almost exactly $448.00.

Here is the breakdown of our expenses for the month…

A few things to point out about the expenses…

CC stands for credit card. R-SL1 stands for Renee Student Loan 1.

Living expenses include rent, utilities, cell phone and renters insurance.

We got hit with a few late charges. We paid $22.67 in late fees on the car taxes, and $39.00 in late fees on CC Green. The frustrating thing is that these late fees were not incurred because we didn’t have the money on hand, but because we were not organized in our paper work. This is $61.67 wasted! WASTED! GONE! BUH-BYE! That money could have gone to a few dozen different things.

Through diligent couponing and grocery add scanning I saved $73.11 on my groceries and drugstore purchases (household and hygiene products). We did really well on our food expenses this month, but I’ve also depleted our food storage. Next month, I anticipate this expense going up to restock the pantry.

Owning two cars is really expensive! The car payment, the maintenance, the gas, the insurance, the taxes. We spent more money on transportation this month than we did on living expenses. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

Minus $20.00 for my annual OBGYN visit, all of the other medical expenses we paid this month were left over from last year. My medical bills were huge last year, and the $300+ that we paid this year, is just a small junk of what we owe. OUCH.

We lost Steve’s birth certificate more than a year ago, so we had to spend $20.00 to replace it. Another expense that was incurred because of our lack of organization. I bet we find the last one eventually, which will also drive me insane.

Despite the expenses that were incurred because of our stupidity, I think we did good this month. I’m proud of the financial learning that took place. We know where our money is going, and how we can work to cut costs. We paid more than our minimum payments on our credit cards, and my student loan. We also spent an entire month experimenting with ways to track and organizing our earnings and spending.

At this rate, we should be millionaires by the end of the year. Har-har… Ok, so we won’t be close to millionaires but we’ll be worth a lot more than we are now.