knee surgery.....is a MEDICAL COLLECTION in my future?

[Anonymous]

i am scheduled to have knee surgery next month and by biggest concern is NOT medical.

i have really good health insurance, but my concern is that somewhere, sometime, somehow a MEDICAL COLLECTION will appear on my CR's.

i will check and double check and see what my insurance pays, what they dont I will pay in full,

but somehow something will slip. i will miss it and BAM, some stupid $35 bill for bandaids will be unpaid! my FICO score will drop, and I will be on a downward spiral ........OHHH the AGONY

[dizzier]

LOL breath!

As long as you get a copy of your bill from the hospital and copies of everything from your HI you should be able to catch anything that slips through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

I almost fainted when the anest billed me and not my insurance ($1500) and I saw my surgeon's bill for $5K - insurance paid him $948 (he was well worth the $5K).  Apparently, the hospital hadn't passed on my insurance info to the anest group... one phone call fixed it.  I still ended up with an $1000 hospital bill - 20% co-pay for inpatient surgery.  Set up a payment plan with them - for 200/month - never placed on my CRs.

[demi]

First...worry about your knee and recovery.  Its the most important thing.  I have had 9 surgeries (including 2 major back surgeries) in the past 7 or 8 years, and absolutely no problem with medical.  Usually, the hospital will get to the insurance first, so most, if not all of the maximum out of pocket will be absorbed by them (hopefully, you do have max).  I have found hospitals very easy to work with, setting up payment plans with them.  Dr's usually are pretty good - realize (at least in my case)  they have already received the major portion of their $$$ from insurance.  Only problems I ever had were with the medical supply people, walkers, etc...they seem to want their money yesterday.  But never, ever had any collection or anything near it.  Of course, neglected most of my other stuff to pay, which is a lot of the reason I got in the mess I was in...but also a good excuse.

Number one way I messed up, and recommend to anyone home and not used to it (4 months first back surgery, 51/2 months second) STAY OFF EBAY !

[demi]

Oh, should have mentioned.....make sure it is preapproved, and that your hospital and Dr. is on plan. 

I did have one surgery for an ovarian cyst that the insurance tried to deny....claimed it was fertility treatment.  Told them there would be hell to pay if I ended up pregnant from that LOL

Also, last year I had a ph study done for acid reflux at UC Davis, pretty major teaching hospital.....was not preapproved, and insurance considered experimental.  Guess what....the agreement between the insurance and hospital is that if they do something considered experimental, they eat it (about 11,000)...I am sure part of that is because it is a teaching hospital, and they do research...so some treatments would be experimental.  But I didn't know that for the 3-4 months the bill was being processed and was sweating it a little.