How Quickly It Falls Apart
Believe me when I say...you can not have a moment or two of enlightenment that isn't directly followed by the very extreme opposite. I knew this was coming and here we are.
This day completely fell apart and my life just got exponentially more difficult and I can't even believe it.
I have been getting phone calls over the past few days from healthcare providers asking me to send them insurance information. In addition to phone calls, I have received two letters stating the same thing. Until today, they didn't say specifically what the problem was and it's a mess. I even had a billing clerk from the University of Utah say, "God bless you because you just fell into the biggest insurance mess I have ever seen."
That's reassuring.
Here's the short of it. My Wasband thought he was being helpful and put our kids on his wife's insurance policy. It's against the law, if you are in the healthcare exchange to have a secondary insurance policy. I didn't know they had done this until Spencer's surgery 4 weeks ago, nor did I know it was against the law. He happened to be there upon check in at the hospital and put it on his file. I didn't think much about it because we have met our out of pocket max for the year so I didn't think it would matter. Oh, it matters.
Now, my insurance company, from the exchange, is and has, in some cases, retracted every dime paid out since June 1. I have been on the phone for two hours late this afternoon. My insurance is refusing to budge. The State of Idaho has opened an investigation into me and the situation as of 5:20 pm tonight and I have some pretty angry providers who have lost a lot of money. I have no clue how this is going to work itself out. I had no idea this was even a thing...that anything this disastrous could happen. I don't understand how insurance companies can just take money back like that.
This has now become a full time job and that is no exaggeration. I'm suppose to hear from the State of Idaho's Escalation team in 3-5 days with their ruling on what is going to happen. The other setback today was that Spencer's ER trip when his heart stopped was out of my network but in his dad's network. So, if we are allowed to go back and remove the boys from the secondary insurance and pretend that never existed, I have to pay for the ER visit, over $3000.00.
I am also trying to get signed up with new insurance for the coming year and that deadline is looming. I had decided on a plan and company, basically the only one I can barely afford, but it looks like they won't cover one of our meds- the plasma that Sam will likely start early next year. I will hear back on that tomorrow. Of course they've employed a middle school child to handle their pharmaceutical division so that was challenging to explain what plasma is and why we need it. (insert eye rolling)
Before all this, I went back to recheck my kidneys this morning and there is no improvement. They want me to wait one more week and test again and I'm just done with this. I have no clue anymore what it feels like to be healthy-ish.
It's been a rough week but I knew it was coming. I even told my kids Sunday night..."buckle up we are in for a wild ride." I felt it in my bones...Never fails. This kind of stuff always happens after I speak in church. Always. 100% of the time.
On a lighter note...When I finally got home from work at 9:30 tonight, Shelbie was the only one home so we went to the grocery store for milk and other essentials, like donuts and popcorn. It was actually so much fun! We wandered the aisles, sharing stories from our exhausting days, laughing and just taking a break from the worries that tried to topple us today. We came home and made dinner- Ichiban. I usually just buy Top Ramen but when the kids were little and we were richer, I bought Ichiban. It's so much better than Top Ramen...honestly but instead of 4/$1 it's a dollar each! I was feeling so rich tonight so we bought a package for each of us. That's what we had for dinner! at 10:30 tonight!
I know...it's sounds stupid but it was really a fun little end to the day. With her first bite of Ichiban, she said, "Oh my gosh, it tastes like childhood." ha ha...my kids are crazy. It doesn't take much to make them happy. It's always just the little things.
I just keep reminding myself that this is all just a test...it will pass and I need to have faith this insurance problem will sort itself out.
I do love this quote I saw today...
This day completely fell apart and my life just got exponentially more difficult and I can't even believe it.
I have been getting phone calls over the past few days from healthcare providers asking me to send them insurance information. In addition to phone calls, I have received two letters stating the same thing. Until today, they didn't say specifically what the problem was and it's a mess. I even had a billing clerk from the University of Utah say, "God bless you because you just fell into the biggest insurance mess I have ever seen."
That's reassuring.
Here's the short of it. My Wasband thought he was being helpful and put our kids on his wife's insurance policy. It's against the law, if you are in the healthcare exchange to have a secondary insurance policy. I didn't know they had done this until Spencer's surgery 4 weeks ago, nor did I know it was against the law. He happened to be there upon check in at the hospital and put it on his file. I didn't think much about it because we have met our out of pocket max for the year so I didn't think it would matter. Oh, it matters.
Now, my insurance company, from the exchange, is and has, in some cases, retracted every dime paid out since June 1. I have been on the phone for two hours late this afternoon. My insurance is refusing to budge. The State of Idaho has opened an investigation into me and the situation as of 5:20 pm tonight and I have some pretty angry providers who have lost a lot of money. I have no clue how this is going to work itself out. I had no idea this was even a thing...that anything this disastrous could happen. I don't understand how insurance companies can just take money back like that.
This has now become a full time job and that is no exaggeration. I'm suppose to hear from the State of Idaho's Escalation team in 3-5 days with their ruling on what is going to happen. The other setback today was that Spencer's ER trip when his heart stopped was out of my network but in his dad's network. So, if we are allowed to go back and remove the boys from the secondary insurance and pretend that never existed, I have to pay for the ER visit, over $3000.00.
I am also trying to get signed up with new insurance for the coming year and that deadline is looming. I had decided on a plan and company, basically the only one I can barely afford, but it looks like they won't cover one of our meds- the plasma that Sam will likely start early next year. I will hear back on that tomorrow. Of course they've employed a middle school child to handle their pharmaceutical division so that was challenging to explain what plasma is and why we need it. (insert eye rolling)
Before all this, I went back to recheck my kidneys this morning and there is no improvement. They want me to wait one more week and test again and I'm just done with this. I have no clue anymore what it feels like to be healthy-ish.
It's been a rough week but I knew it was coming. I even told my kids Sunday night..."buckle up we are in for a wild ride." I felt it in my bones...Never fails. This kind of stuff always happens after I speak in church. Always. 100% of the time.
On a lighter note...When I finally got home from work at 9:30 tonight, Shelbie was the only one home so we went to the grocery store for milk and other essentials, like donuts and popcorn. It was actually so much fun! We wandered the aisles, sharing stories from our exhausting days, laughing and just taking a break from the worries that tried to topple us today. We came home and made dinner- Ichiban. I usually just buy Top Ramen but when the kids were little and we were richer, I bought Ichiban. It's so much better than Top Ramen...honestly but instead of 4/$1 it's a dollar each! I was feeling so rich tonight so we bought a package for each of us. That's what we had for dinner! at 10:30 tonight!
I know...it's sounds stupid but it was really a fun little end to the day. With her first bite of Ichiban, she said, "Oh my gosh, it tastes like childhood." ha ha...my kids are crazy. It doesn't take much to make them happy. It's always just the little things.
I just keep reminding myself that this is all just a test...it will pass and I need to have faith this insurance problem will sort itself out.
I do love this quote I saw today...
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