Our Local Healthcare System

When I sit back and this about this issue that arised this week, I don't know whose more brain dead...the hospital or the people behind our insurance. Let me explain...I had a couple calls into the hospital to get a base price for what they charge for labor and delivery so that David and I could get ready and budget a little bit for what might be coming up. Well no one had called me back. So I drive by the hospital everytime that I go to Habitat so Tuesday, I decided that someone had to have the answer when I confronted them face to face. So I got shuffled around and finally ended up with the ladies in Patient Accounts. Well Doris in accounts called all over that hospital and kept either getting the run around herself or people weren't at their desks. One lady named Gail, told her that she didn't do that and wasn't responsible for it. So I left my name and number for Christy in accounts to call me on Wednesday with an answer. I left there and sat in the CRV and called my insurance company to get an answer. Low and Behold they didn't have one either. The girl was at their Chattanooga branch and didn't know that Skyridge was "in network" and made the comment that she didn't know that they delivered babies there either. That made me a lot more comfortable about delivering here in Cleveland.

So Tuesday night we had our childbirth education classes. I was talking to Christine, the educator about it and not really putting up a fuss about it but just really talking about how stupid this situation had become. She said that she was going to talk to the doctor's and the people in the office because they had a big meeting scheduled for Wednesday up at the hospital. Christy at the hospital had mentioned that as well and said that she would check about it on her end at the meeting too. Wednesday came and went without a phone call from the hospital. That didn't surprise me much though.

Thursday, I had a scheduled doctor's appointment at Life Circle and Christine pulled me into her office with the office manager. She was a really nice lady and said that she couldn't believe the situation and the problems that have occured. She took it upon herself and went above everyone and called the Chief Finance Officer and left him a curt message about the situation. By the end of my doctor's appointment, he had called her back and given her an answer about what he was told that they billed $5300 for a regular labor and delivery. He told her that I was to go back and speak with Christy about the account and that everything should be straightened out and taken care of. HA YEAH RIGHT! After Habitat Thursday afternoon, I went in and spoke with Christy. She called Gail (the one that didn't handle that stuff), and gail said that my amount responsible for was $385. Well if Skyridge bills $5300 and I'm responsible for 30%, where the hell did they get $385? I mean it would be nice if it was that low but I mean come on nothing is that cheap and our insurance isn't that grand. So supposedly Christy is going to look a little further into this and call me back. Am I holding my breath for a return phone call....NO.