Just Not Right...

This is another boring blog, but the following has been on our mind lately.

As everyone knows, we (Jake) has been a regular at KUMed for the past 3+ years. Well, one of our wonderful perks for being a regular, is having the joys of paying medical bills, regularly. Jake sees his neurosurgeon two times a year, and has all of his procedures(MRI's/surgeries etc.) done there, two times a year. Well, you would think we could just pay ONE bill to the hospital for its services. Of course not! We have one bill that comes for just the physicians that Jake sees, then the other is for procedures that we pay the hospital. We do understand why they are separate, but don't understand why you just can't consolidate all of them. Billing just doesn't work that way.

The latest frustration is this...

We just had our last checkup in September. Everything has finally come back from insurance, and the hospital never automatically merges the new charges with old charges. They just continue to make new accounts for Jake. Every time Jake has to call and request them to be consolidated. Jake had finally paid the Doctor portion, but not the procedure portion, before our checkup. So, we obviously had a new doctor account, but have two procedure accounts. Jake does what he always does, and called to get the two procedure bills together. The lady tells him, if she does this, he would have to pay a higher minimum. Sorry lady, he's already paying more than he can afford to you, and you will not get any more of his money. Well, the lady can't help and won't consolidate. Jake asked if there was any assistance he could get. Since Jake has a job and insurance, she can't help him. She goes on to tell Jake, he should let his original account go delinquent and then they would be able to consolidate with a lower payment. WHAT!!?? We should quit paying our bills to get help? Cheat the system?

Finally, Jake points out that we have been paying them for over 3 years straight. Never missed a payment. Why should we be punished for having a job and insurance? Nothing makes sense!! Something is so wrong with all of this. By the end of the phone call, the lady spoke with her supervisor and we did get the bills consolidated. So we are down to the Doctor and procedure bills, and Jake doesn't have to change what he's been paying. We are, however, considering going to annual checkups, instead of semi-annual checkups. Things have been going well with Jake's health, and our out of pocket is just too much. Each MRI adds over $1200 to the procedure bill, and over $500 to the Doctor's bill. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be so bad, but these bills have been a huge burden for over 3 years, and unfortunately, we will always have these haunting us, because Jake will always need to be monitored. Why doesn't any of this make sense? It's just not right...