Sorting out the medical stuff

I was just saying to one of the therapists that I hadn't had to deal with any insurance stuff since August. This morning I called back the hospital and told them that I was appealing with the insurance a bill they were hoping to collect on. I told them that I intended to wait until I was sure the insurance wouldn't pay before I sent money.

They offered my 25% off if I pay by December 15th, sort of a Christmas sale I guess. I'm not sure that little offer will accomplish what they hoped. I now know what kind of a discount to ask for in the future if this should end up costing me. They can obviously afford to accord me at least 25%. I know what I intend to say if they tell me it was a limited time offer, "Oh, well then, I'll just wait until the next time you offer 25% off all of your outstanding accounts. You can call me next Christmas."

Interestingly, when I mentioned that the bill didn't show my insurance discounts, they told me they had no paperwork from the insurance company showing a discount. I promised to bring them a copy of my EOB (office talk for "explanation of benefits" that page you get from the insurance company for every little thing there is a claim on). That's like 20% off right away.

In other news, I planned to call the insurance about Linda's remaining medical equipment, a commode and a walker. I've been researching a bit about the circumstances for when that kind of equipment would be covered (or not). It looks like we're OK. I was going to call the case worker today and get them working on it, but we were out all day and I didn't get the chance. I guess tomorrow. I had really enjoyed not talking to the insurance people. I won't actually talk to the insurance people, of course. That's why they assigned me an "independent" case worker in the first place.

That long trip to Columbia

There was a stroke survivor meeting today in Columbia. We probably should have skipped it so I could work, but the day care people were sick and it was better for them if I kept Ellie. That's no recipe for getting work done. And Ellie had asked very earnestly a few weeks ago to "go to the hospital and see my friends." So we went. Naturally, everyone was impressed by Linda's progress, especially her speaking.

I brought pictures. It was fun to go through them. "This must have been early, you still had the patch," and "You couldn't move your arms yet here, could you?" Or, "That's as far as you could stick your tongue out, let's see what you can do now (much better, wow)". I brought extra copies and encouraged people to take any that they liked. I can always have more printed.

Ellie was good, although she always adds a bit of chaos to the visits. Fred asked Linda how her relationship with Ellie was going. She told him it was improving. Later she told me she was really impressed that he asked that, it was more sensitive than you might expect from most guys.

I did my duty and checked out the gym computer. It was still going strong. Hurray for free software. I suppose someday, a bit of thought should be given to updating it, but it is such a junker that the task sounds not fun--I haven't volunteered yet.