My husband just got fucked...

[nangiggles]

And not in the good way....
We were walking our dogs and he started running with one of them and trip and fell in the asphalt in front of the house.... slit open both his palms and knee, it was Sunday and all Walk in clinics nearby where closed, and he coudlnt flex his knee or elbow so couldnt drive either, I dont have a license but know how to drive, he refused to let me since he was afraid a cop would pull us over and we'd be in worse shit.....he toughed it up until today, we found a clinic and he drove, they x-ray his arm, elbow and wrist, seems he has a broken elbow and might need surgery, we'll need to see an orthopedic surgeon this week and get a second opinion..... They put him in a splint and he also has a torn hamstring... they sent him Vicodin for the pain...

Here's the most shitty part.... our insurance covers 100% AFTER deductible is met, so this will probably be all on us.... we've NEVER been to a Dr here, when you get billed by insurance do you have to pay the whole damn thing or do they usually have payment plans? I have no idea how to proceed now.... I did go inside my network to a preferred Dr to keep the cost down but I have no idea how much they bill my insurance and how much my insurance will bill us.... FML

 

[puddlemonkey]

inbefohijack!

 

[puddlemonkey]

hi nan!

 

[calveless wonder]

payment is due when services are rendered.

it can't be that much. deductibles usually are $1500-$3000. considering it'll probably be tens of thousands of dollars, that's not bad. although you better use your benefits as much as possible after that because it resets for the calender year

 

[mrplunkey]

All of those treatments should fall under the same episode of care. You'll hit the deductible fast and insurance should take over from there (or something like 80/20). Plus there may be a cap at which point insurance takes over 100%.

 

[EarthRider]

Sorry to hear that. good luck with it

 

[RADAR]

I feel ya ,i'm in the same boat ,needing Eye surgery and no insurance

 

[Smurfy]

The insurance won't bill you, the doctor's office will. They will likely bill the insurance first, then they can determine how much of the cost is applied toward your deductible (aka, how much you will have to pay). You should be able to make payment plans for medical costs. No interest. Just sayin'.

 

[EarthRider]

I know a lot of people who would just pay what they can each month to hospital for stuff. I wouldn't recommend this because she had nothing for them to even go after anyway. Put she had over $20,000 in medical bills and just paid $20 a month and they didn't say anything to her.

 

[musclemom]

First time out of the box insurance is different than when you've been covered for a while (more than a year).

You might get statements from the insurance company saying they are awaiting additional information from the doctor's office before they will process payment. This means they probably have sent the docs office a pre-existing condition form. You need to call the doctor's office and remind them to fill out that form and send it in ASAP or they don't get paid.

Second, copayments are due at the time you go to the doctors office (those are small amounts of money, usually $15 to $35 range). You will receive bills from the doctor's office LATER (and this could be up to six months later, believe it or not) for your portion of your bill (like Plunky said, most of them split something like 80/20). You almost always can negotiate a payment plan with the doctor's office if you can't afford the full payment (when my husband got his polysomnograms and CPAP machine, for example, our portion of the bill came to about $750 one month. I called the billing office immediately and worked out a payment plan. They usually don't charge interest).

In the end, read all papers carefully, don't go out of network and get preapproval for EVERYTHING that isn't life threatening and will be costly (imaging, surgery).

And for heaven's sake, get your American driver's license ASAP!