Murphy's Law - What are the Odds?

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PoolGate

PoolGate

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Jun 7, 2017
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Damascus, MD
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This year we decided to go with my wife's federal insurance as it has better coverage and lower copays/deductibles than mine. So we both did our respective open enrollment activities. Yesterday, my daughter breaks her finger at school. We picked her up and took her to the emergency room and lo and behold, me and my 2 kids have no insurance. My old insurance ended on 12/31 and my wife's new insurance for some unknown reason, doesn't take effect until 1/6!. So in other words, my daughter gets hurt on 1 of the 2 days in her entire 14 and a 1/2 years of existence that she doesn't have any health insurance. And to rub insult into injury, we won't even be able to use this to lower our annual deductible for the new gov't policy. I am actually quite annoyed about this all. I am also not sure there is anything at all that I can do about it. I did inquire about COBRA from my employer since that can be retroactive and they are checking into it. But odds are, I am going to be out $3500 or so for a slightly cracked finger that wasn't even put in a cast (just a splint).
 
PG, that is so weird with the dates. I’ve never seen one start on the 6th of the month. Usually when you switch insurances, it’s one in one out.

Make sure you frame the worlds most expensive popsicle sticks when she’s all healed up. :mrgreen:
 
Does your school have insurance for in-school relate injury? Down here the school insurance covers your kids from the time they walk out the door to school to the time they come back.
Good luck!
 
That just plain sucks...have you tried speaking with the facility/doctor to explain the situation and see if they will accept less? When they get paid from insurance they always take less from them so may be worth a try.
 
January 6 is the first day of the first Federal pay period in 2019. Our inflexible government knows no way to charge you for your healthcare coverage for the stub days.

There goes all the savings you thought you would get in the switch.

Drive carefully for the next few days.
 
ajw22 said:
January 6 is the first day of the first Federal pay period in 2019. Our inflexible government knows no way to charge you for your healthcare coverage for the stub days.

There goes all the savings you thought you would get in the switch.

Drive carefully for the next few days.
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This is it, the sun rises and sets based on the pay period.

But, you can retire on any day - The day in the pay period does't matter..... Ask me how I know :)
 
Next time--> Doc in a Box instead of the ER. Save ya a ton if cash and faster service usually. Save the ER for life or limb threatening injuries. :)

You might try negotiating a cash self payment and see if the hospital will take less. Self pay is often much cheaper.

Maddie :flower:
 
I have had good luck with them lower the $$ by asking very nicely with a smile on my face while talking to them even if it over the phone. It works even better if I am face to face with them. See what happens.
 

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YippeeSkippy said:
Next time--> Doc in a Box instead of the ER. Save ya a ton if cash and faster service usually. Save the ER for life or limb threatening injuries. :)

You might try negotiating a cash self payment and see if the hospital will take less. Self pay is often much cheaper.

Maddie :flower:
Click to expand...

We thought about that but since we knew she needed x-rays we figured they'd just send us to the ER and also bill us for their services.
 
Happened to me the 1 week I was in between jobs. Misjudged pop fly in coed softball hit my wife's eye and had to get stitches in the ER.

The bill was painful but the flack I got from the ER was even worse. They didn't believe my wife at first when they asked if I hit her :mad:
 
PoolGate said:
We thought about that but since we knew she needed x-rays we figured they'd just send us to the ER and also bill us for their services.
Click to expand...

Nope, a good Doc in the Box has xray capabilities too! And if they have a difficult "read" they can send them via the Internet to radiologists for input.

A good idea is to shop around now for a full service one and keep it in mind for possible future needs.

Maddie :flower:
 
PoolGate said:
We thought about that but since we knew she needed x-rays we figured they'd just send us to the ER and also bill us for their services.
Click to expand...

Around by us there are private imaging centers that do X-Rays and MRI's and other types of body scans for way less then the ER charges with less wait time and better service.

I only set foot in an Hospital ER if an ambulance brings me there. Or I think I truly need emergency care.
 
Look for an "Urgent Care Center", They have the capabilities to fix many injuries.
 
ajw22 said:
Look for an "Urgent Care Center", They have the capabilities to fix many injuries.
Click to expand...

Yeah we almost always go to Urgent Care just for some reason I thought they did not do x-rays. Oh well, live and learn.

So anyway my employer told me they would open up a special open enrollment for me to sign up for the 1-5th and they would pro-rate the month so I just paid for those days. But, the reason I left this plan was due to the high deductible. She checked and for this event I would have to pay $2700 out of pocket before any insurance kicked in. So I think this will most likely be less than that so probably not worthwhile for me to do the 5 day coverage. I'm trying to find out the charges but they do not have it in the system yet. My wife, coincidentally, broke her foot 2 months ago and also went to the (same) emergency room. She seems to remember the total bill being somewhere around $3k and she got a lot more stuff done like an MRI. I am hoping this is less and when I tell them I have no insurance, hopefully even less.
 

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