Second year Day 76 - Wednesday February 27, 2013

So, this is the time of this month that I get to stress with medical bills--yes still the original claims from the accident.  It really is crazy how long it takes to work this stuff all out.  There is a claim that I have been trying to work out since May of last year.  Monthly I talk to the head of the billing department at this clinic and still we get no further.  Several times they have sent out a notice that the bill would be sent for collections and then I have called and they have apologized and told me to ignore those warnings--they know we are trying to work it out.  So, this is the thing.  I paid the first bill to them (for placing Bridgett's peg tube) as soon as it was billed.  It was like the first bill of 2012 and I figured that it would be part of my deductible.  WRONG!  I shouldn't have paid it.  It wasn't credited to my deductible and it should have been paid in full by the insurance company.  Then there is a second bill from them and I hadn't paid it--because they owe me $422.26 back and that bill is $316.  Anyway, long story short--I got a notice from a collection bureau and they DID send it to collections!  BROTHER!  So aggravating.  I called the collection agency and of course they wouldn't speak to me.  Now usually people just ask to talk to Bridgett to get her permission and then they talk to me so I said that thye could do that.  They talked to her and asked if she was paying by check or credit card and if she was paying today!  She leaned over to me and said are we paying by check?  I asked for the phone back and tried to talk but they wouldn't listen to me.  I said that I had permanent guardianship and then the gal said how can you have that since she's 22?  Well, I tried to explain and finally she agreed to have me send a copy and then she'd speak to me.  BROTHER!  Anyway, we did talk and I explained the entire thing, adding that if we'd wanted to wreck Bridgett's credit, we wouldn't have paid any of the bills and saved like thousands of dollars.  I spent quite a bit of time on the phone and after talking the whole thing over and looking through page after page of documentation that I had---I finally found the spreadsheet showing claims in 2012 and what went to my deductible and there it was--they were already paid for the first claim and should have paid me back long ago.  I called the insurance company and got a copy of the check.  They were paid in July!  Also, they submitted the $316 to insurance and it was entirely discounted and they received two of those notices as well and shouldn't have been billing me at all.  So they owe me money and I don't owe them anything!  My insurance company did say that after looking at it, they didn't think that was right that the entire thing should be discounted and they are re-submitting it.  WOW!  Really Assurant Health has been good to us over this claim.  I called the collections agency back and left a message.  Hopefully we finally get that all straightened out!  There is one more outstanding claim to deal with--they keep submitting it incorrectly.  Oh, and of course the Provo hospital.  I still haven't seen the final bill there yet.  They filed a lien on the vehicle insurance of the driver of the truck.  As soon as they pay anything, Provo hospital gets paid first.  At least they don't bug me all of the time!  That's nice!