Woohoo! One down, Two to Go!

I woke up in a very business-like mood yesterday. I had to.

I had three bills from the hospital that were all wrong and could cost me thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately this is not an odd occurence. This is part of my cancer fight.

I decided to address one bill at a time. The first one I wanted to resolve was a bill that first came in August. It was obviously wrong. My insurer agreed it was wrong and the hospital agreed it was wrong. Both told me to disgard the bill.

Then the same bill came in November. I called the hospital. I called my health insurer. They again agreed that the bill was wrong and advised me to disgard it.

Then, incredibly the same bill showed up once more one day after Christmas. It took me hours of many phone calls back and forth between the hospital and my insurer. I told Barb I'm not letting go until I feel confident this has finally been fixed.

After the entire morning on the phone, after the entire morning of banging my head against the wall, my health insurer told me they were going to send a check to the hospital for the amount due and I could disregard the check.

I feel confident (I hope) that this is finally it, after only six-months. (sigh) We'll see.

It was a mistake by my health insurer that caused all the confusion. It almost always is. I should be able to charge them my professionl hourly rate for all the time I've had to dedicate to this one single bill. I'd love to do this someday, just to see what happens.

In my cancer experience, one of the biggest ongoing challenges has nothing to do with my health (my sanity maybe). I battle cancer daily. And I battle my health insurance company as well.

With one of three taken care of (I hope), it was time to move on to the next bill that was wrong. But after hours on the phone yesterday morning I announced to Barb that it was time for a little nap.

Barb asked me if she minded if she tried to call the hospital or Aetna about it. I told her to, "Go for it!"

When I woke up from my power nap I quickly noticed Barb's face - strained, stress, baffled, upset. She looked like she was banging her head against the wall.

I smiled. "Hey," I said to Barb. "I know that face."