Insurance Update

If you read the previous post you know we have a huge potential medical debt over our head for my kidney stone in Alaska last summer. Today I spent all day trying to get to the bottom of the insurance payment problem because of hospital insinuation it would turn the matter over to a collection agency. My preconception saw the problem as a matter of insurance not pre-authorizing my procedure because I was out of our HMO area. Turns out all my diligent pre-procedure calls to insurance did matter. Here is what I found. Though not sure apparently insurance did authorize due to my calls. Normally the stone blast is an outpatient procedure. When I had complications and had to be hospitalized the staff was responsible to call for insurance authorization. Authorization obviously would have been granted. Since the hospital did not call now hospital finance personnel need to provide a bunch of paperwork showing I was indeed hospitalized. So the hospital dropped the ball! The non-payment is due to their lapse. The humorous part is the hospital did not want to admit the reason for non-payment was caused by their omission, and especially not admit that I was off the hook. The gal stuttered and stammered and said she would have to talk to her superior.
OK, I'm smiling. This isn't over, but looks like the problem is not ours.