I'll start with the good news. Down 25 pounds, which is good considering I have been fluctuating up and down four pounds from day to day for the past two weeks. Now I'm finally down 25 and believe to be on my way further down each day. I also today really noticed my waist getting smaller so am pretty excited about that.
Today was also my 30th day of exercise in a row and probably my hardest workout yet. (270 jump ropes, 80 walking lunges, 70 sit ups, 60 kettlebell swings of 35lbs, 50 burpees, 40 squats of 75lbs, 30 good mornings of 25 lbs, 20 box handstand push ups, 25 ring pullups taking me 36 minutes to complete.)
I'm really starting to get into a groove where it's no longer an option whether I work out or not, I just know I have to do something each day. Not "have" to, but I want to. Though the next five days will be more difficult than most because I will be traveling to Columbia for work through Friday and then will be staying with my brother over the weekend since I have an appointment with the hearing doctor in St. Louis on Monday. Yes, not only did I have weightloss surgery, but I am also getting hearing aids-- I'm so old!! :-)
Since I've been working from home, I haven't had to worry about wearing work clothes at all, but since I'm making the trip to Columbia tomorrow, I started trying on some old clothes I had put away for these types of situations. I now fit into six pairs of dress pants that I haven't been able to wear in two years! NSV!! Woop Woop!!!
Now for some ridiculousness that has been happening this week with the billing department of Des Peres hospital. I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was caught off-guard when the hosptial came to me the morning of my surgery asking me to pay them $6,120 before I even went in for surgery. That included my $1,181 deductible and then $4,960 in coinsurance.(My insurance covered 80% of the surgery) I had to move my savings over to my checking account to cover around $5,000 and then used the credit card for ~$1,500 until I got paid the following Monday. I was told that I was close to reaching my max out of pocket expenses and wasn't expecting anymore bills. Even though we had not planned to spend that money until the following week when I got paid again, we were glad to have it all taken care of.
I should have known better. This past Saturday I received an additional bill in the mail for $1,087 from my surgeon's office. I called yesterday to understand what the bill was for, which turns out that I also had to pay the surgeon even though I had already paid over 6k to the hospital. But it still didn't make sense to me because I had been two hundred away from meeting my out of pocket max. I then called the nurse practitioner with Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose number I had from before my surgery and they were able to put me in contact with a gentleman named Joey. He was awesome and also very informative.
Turns out Des Peres Hospital overcharged me $1,100 the day of my surgery and owed me that money back. That was good, but disturbing news! I would have had no idea if I hadn't called to ask about it. I do still owe the surgeon the $1,087, but will not be paying it until I get my refund from the hospital. I then had to call the hospital to get them to start the refund process-- they KNEW they owed me money yet were just sitting on it until I called them! I can't believe they can do that.
The woman with the hospital told me that I would not get my refund for 21 days and that they would put it back on the card I paid with. Well I paid with two cards and I don't want them to put it on my $0 balance credit card, I want it in my checking account. The woman then tells me that there is no way of knowing what card they will put it on and when I asked if they would call me when they're doing it so I could tell them which one to use, she said they don't make outbound calls. WHAT?!?
I asked her to make a note in my record on which card to put it on, but I have no idea if they will even look at it. While obviously the overall picture is a lot better than it could have been, I am just so disturbed by the fact that this happens to patients every day. The healthcare industry is sick...pun intended. I actually took the time to call to understand my bills, but can you imagine the millions of dollars hospitals steal from innocent patients every day who don't realize anything is off when they get their bills?!?
My lesson learned is that I will never just "let it go" when I see a strange charge on a bill. I will now always call and ask because you can't trust any of these companies. Great, now I sound like a paranoid freak. But the best news that came out of all of this was that I have met my out of pocket max. That means I don't have to pay a penny more to anyone for the rest of the year. So I don't have to worry about my monthly appointments or the fills I get-- they are now all covered. Until the hospital tries to send me a bill again anyway....
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