Protected: Justice is Served?!
Jen vs. Hospital, part one.
I’ll warn you now – this blog is going to be long and rant-y. I posted some of it on Facebook, and bits and pieces on Twitter, but I still have steam to blow off. So here goes.
Back in September, I voluntarily went to the ER. This is a big deal for me, as I just don’t do doctors. I have my reasons. Most aren’t relevant to this rant. Long story short (for this part, anyway) is that my vitals were normal, and no tests were needed. Three hours and one Motrin later, I was sent on my way.
A week later, I got the bill. Roughly $680. For what exactly, I asked myself. Oh, for the use of the room. Right. I was a bit outraged, but what could I do. It had to be paid. I filled out my credit card info, and mailed in the payment.
(I’m going to interrupt myself to say that about a week after I got that bill, I got another bill for $500, this one for the use of the doctor himself. So one bill for the room, one bill for the doctor, totaling almost $1200. Again, to sit there for three hours and be given a pill. ‘Outraged’ no longer applies. It goes beyond that…)
Anyway, two weeks after I made the payment, I got a duplicate bill in the mail. I questioned why this was, seeing as I had paid the bill already. Thought maybe it was just a mistake, so I called the hospital’s billing department. The woman I spoke with said there’s no record of my paying.
“There’s no record of your co-pay…”
That’s because I didn’t have insurance at the time. I paid out-of-pocket.
“Are you confusing us with so-and-so, because they’re two separate bills.”
Nope. I was rather insulted at that point.
“Did you call in your payment?”
I wasn’t aware I had that option. So no, I didn’t. Once again, I mailed it in.
“Do you think it got lost in the mail?”
Considering somebody had to manually type in my credit card info., and I have a bank statement showing it was processed, I somehow doubt that.
She said she’d have to investigate and asked if she could call me back. I said yes.
About an hour later, she called back.
“Did you make the payment on the day of your service?”
Did she not listen to the entire conversation we had an hour before that? I told her multiple times the day my card was charged. She works in the hospital’s billing department; she, of all people, should know they send the bills out post-service. But I digress. She then asked if I could call my credit card company to see if they had any information on their end that might help. I thought that was a little outrageous, but I agreed.
I actually called my bank instead. The woman I spoke to pulled up my statements for the day in question, and read to me the amount of the bill. Obviously she saw that on her end, as I told her nothing about how much I had paid. She confirmed that it was paid, and that the money was deducted from my account. She then told me to tell the hospital they do indeed have my money. (Not gonna lie, that put a smile on my face.)
I called the hospital back. I explained the conversation I had with the bank. She makes a note of the bank verifying the payment, but says she’ll have to do more research, and asks if she can call me back again. I don’t know why she just couldn’t put me on hold while she looked up whatever it is she had to research, but again, I digress.
Office hours are now closed, so I’ll have to wait until (I’m guessing) tomorrow for the call back. Of course, I’m working tomorrow, so I’ll have to keep my phone on me and take the call if and when it happens (all the while hoping I don’t get in trouble for taking a personal call at work…). I’m so upset over this whole thing, you can’t even begin to imagine. I will tell you one thing – whoever typed in my info. yet somehow managed to not put me on record as having paid needs to be fired. This is a lot of money we’re talking about, and I don’t need to be harassed by collection folks. It’s unacceptable. To be a first-time patient and have to deal with this, is certainly not giving me a good impression.
Stay tuned…
Vacation – August 2012
Mike and I just got back from out vacation in PA. Like every year, it was packed full of fun, family and friends. Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything else. My parents always make sure there’s stuff going on so that we’re not just sitting around. This year was no exception.
100 Foods Challenge
I’m not sure how long this list has been around, or even where it originated, but I saw it on a friend’s wall recently, and thought why not? I suppose it would have been easier to just install the app., and post it to Facebook, but I thought I’d make it into a blog…as I’m sure many others have before me. I’m a terribly picky eater, so I’m sure much of this list won’t apply to me, but I’ll have a go at it anyway. Bolded means I’ve tried it and most likely enjoyed it. Italicized means I haven’t tried it, but most likely would.
A Fresh Start…Again
To be honest, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve installed, uninstalled and reinstalled WordPress over the years. And here we are, yet again. I was faced with two choices: manually edit bad coding out of hundreds of files, or just bite the bullet and do a fresh install from scratch. I started with the first…and when that got tedious and way too time-consuming, I opted for the fresh start. Granted, I wasn’t losing a whole lot – one blog post and a few plugins, which are easy enough to install again. That factored greatly into my decision to start over. That said and done – I won’t promise – but I’m really going to try and blog on a semi-regular basis. None of this twice a year shit I’ve become so accustomed to. Besides, I renewed this domain a couple of weeks ago, making it 6 years old! And I’ll be damned if I’m going to continue letting it collect dust.
Today’s topic – television season finales. I’ll start with The Walking Dead. Holy CRAP! Actually, my tweet was more along the lines of “holy shitballs!” So much action in just the first ten minutes. And it never stopped the entire hour. Actually, the last few weeks were pretty jaw-dropping-worthy. First Dale died, and I was sad. I liked Dale. He was brutally honest and didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought. You need a character like that. Then when Rick killed Shane, I can honestly say I never saw that coming. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, though. On one hand, I greatly disliked Shane. And towards the end, he became more and more of a dick. On the other hand, he added hostility and (more) drama. Part of me wishes they would’ve kept him around for at least a little longer, but I don’t dislike the route they took. It really was shocking and not at all expected (to me, at least). So excited for next season already; not sure I can wait til fall!
Also – Pretty Little Liars! Eeep! I don’t even care how lame it sounds that I’m super excited for tonight’s A reveal! It’s right up there with the Veronica Mars Lilly Kane murder mystery…except this was two freaking years in the making. It’s about time we find out who A is. (I bet Veronica could’ve figured it out, haha.) I’ve read so many great theories, and honestly, it could be just about anyone. My own thought is that it’s a parent/student team. Not necessarily a related parent/student. Parent-wise, I mostly suspect Byron or either one of Spencer’s parents. Student-wise, I’m not really sure. I haven’t narrowed that list down. Lucas, maybe? I would hate for it to be Noel, as I’ve never been a fan of his, and for me, for him to be A, it would be disappointing. I also don’t want it to be Melissa. Or Garrett. Not because I like them. Quite the opposite, actually. And to have the most impact, A would have to be somebody I enjoy. Somebody I would never expect. So while I don’t exactly enjoy Byron or Mr. and Mrs. Hastings, it would still be surprising for an adult to be in on it. In a case like that, I would accept it, lol. There’s also a lot of speculation that Aria is somehow involved. And if that is the case, I will be shouting four-letter-words at my tv. I love Aria. She is by far my favorite liar. I would absolutely hate for her to be A. So as you can see, I really don’t have any idea who it is; I’m just blindly guessing and/or hoping for certain outcome(s). I’m sure after tonight’s reveal, I’ll be blogging my thoughts further. 
On that note, what am I going to watch until these shows return?!
