Okay, They Gotta Stop Doing This

I swear I've got enough stress without people freaking me out. It's totally my fault for not catching it right, but anyways... I was at Olive Garden with Kaia and my mom and dad and the hospital called. She wanted to register me over the phone and asked all the usual questions; birthdate, ss #, all the usual. Then she mentions that my insurance, Cigna, covers my operation up to $4500. I mentioned that I had thought it was only $3000 (I actually think she was combining the in-patient and out-patient allowances, but whatever) and she explained that there was an extra $1500 for something I didn't catch. She said that the cost of the operation was $71,000.00 and with my insurance setup to only pay $4500, they would need 10% on the morning of the surgery, or $7000.00. "Will you be able to pay that Wednesday morning?"

She had been talking, doing her little info-person thing and hadn't given me a chance, but I finally was able to tell her that I had secondary insurance and that it was Access. Maybe it was me, but she seemed relieved that I wouldn't be screwed with my awful insurance. I gave her my Access number and she looked it up and came back with some numbers that I didn't understand. I asked her to repeat it and she said that according to Access I was approved (duh) and my eligibility was from 4/11 to 5/12. I asked her again and she said, "yes, you're covered and coverage started on 4/11 and will stop on 5/12. I said that the people at Access approved me the second day I went to the office and that they said my coverage was retroactive to April 1st, the day I applied. She said that "should be right" but it doesn't say that on her screen and repeated the dates. I was kind of dazed and didn't know what else to say. All I knew was that I was freaking out because she just said my coverage stops on the day of my surgery and I was going to have to go to the DES office again (ugh!) to straighten this out, so I thanked her and hung up and went back to the table. By this time my appetite was gone. I told the family and we were all understandably annoyed. Both my mom and I were ready to go tear some new ones at this point. We decided we needed to go to the DES office at the hospital since eligibility is their thing. I know this because the second time I was there they wouldn't help me with anything because "they only deal with eligibility."

We went back home, got my numerous folders of info and headed to the hospital. We stopped at the closet they call Access (seriously, it's about as big as a small bathroom with four cubicles and a mini-office in one corner. The sign on the door actually says something like Sprinkler Room on it. No wonder the women working there are bitchy). Today the door says "knock please". A woman I hadn't met before came to the door. She was nice looking, as in friendly, but a little creepy. Anyway, I quickly explained the problem and asked if she could help me and she went back to her computer and printed out my info. I started to try to explain my problem in more detail when I looked at the dates on the paperwork and knew immediately that I was the one who had made the mistake. I couldn't help but laugh at my silliness and at how relieved I was.

The dates 4/11 and 5/12 weren't month and day, they were month and year. My Access wasn't going to expire on May 12th, it would expire in May of 2012 - a year from my start date. So there was no problem other than my own brain and my willingness to believe I was going to get screwed again. I thanked her like 6 times and we went home.

So long story short - no problem at all. Plus? I made Key Lime pie with raspberries and raspberry puree: