January 21, 2009

Surgery Scheduled

Madeleine's surgery will be next Thursday, the 29th. I'm glad to have a date as that makes it that much closer to having it over and done with. We're really hoping that this will be her last surgery. On Tuesday she has the MRI followed by a CT scan, preceded by a clinic visit for labs and urine. It will be a busy day. I'm not too thrilled about having her sedated twice in one week, but I suppose this is the way that it has to be.

In the middle of scheduling all of this Neurosurgery called to get our new insurance information. I had spent a good deal of time on the phone with our insurance company trying to get a policy number or something to tell the billing people. Apparently, even though we signed up online and everything is supposed to be automatic, we won't be able to get into the system for 4-6 weeks. We are currently covered but can't get any information from the company in order to actually BE covered for this surgery. I told neurosurgery all of this and she said that in that case they would be billing us the $50-60,000 directly. Great. Thank you. Tomorrow begins the renewed battle with insurance. I'm wondering if stepping up the hysterics will get me anywhere.

7 comments:

Danelle said...

Let me know what time the surgery is scheduled for, I will come sit with you guys.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you have a date and are not playing the waiting game any more.

On the insurance situation, you should call Ryan's employer and find out who their insurance agent is. The agent works for the insurance companies and usually has some pull in getting things done quickly. We got new insurance effective January 1st. We still weren't in the system by the time Ashy had her two month check up, so I called the agent and he called Blue Shield and I was given an ID number and was in the system the next day. You just need to know the right people to talk to, and the insurance agent is the one who can get them moving.

Amber said...

Thanks April for the advice. Our insurance agent went to the inauguration, and he is still out of the office.

The fault is with the UC. The paperwork was started in December, but they haven't even put in the information. The insurance company and provider have no record of us and can't help us because someone at the UC hasn't done their job. Surprise, surprise, they continue to fail us. Ryan is scrambling to find someone to help us but they are all (!!) on vacation.

jocelyn said...

Maren swears that turning on the waterworks yields better results. Try it. Tell them you (sob) just can't afford to pay this $50,000 bill, but that (sob) your daughter is in desperate need of this procedure. Preferably talk to a man or another mom.

Good luck.

Ericka said...

I don't know if this will help you but UCSD's deadline to update employee benefits info this "cycle" is tomorrow (meaning, any changes they make after tomorrow, won't be in effect until march). If you have to go back to talking with HR/benefits, I recommend talking with Jackie Edwards.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't they just bill CCS instead as you are still covered? (Mom N)

Unknown said...

You should write to the San Diego Tribune. They eat up stories about universities/insurance companies screwing up. The whole squeaky wheel thing might speed things up.