We Thought We Were Prepared -- I Guess We'll Find Out!

[NewGig]

Two weeks ago I spent 4 hours in the ER with a bug bite I reacted to.

But last Saturday, my husband fell off a platform ladder and broke both bones in one leg. All of a sudden we're looking at how much hospitalization we've got, how much is in the emergency plan, etc.:0!

We need to know how much rehab he needs, how much of that is covered by our insurance, etc. etc. etc.

I found out his company doesn't have anything as old fashioned as a switchboard or a Human Resources department I can just call. I got our insurance company to connect me. Got an Indian woman who barely understood me and who I barely understood who basically wouldn't tell em spit, because there's an authorization my husband hadn't done. (He can't find whatever it is on the website either, but that's another problem.) etc.

Lots of very stressy, expensive decisions being made here and having to be made NOW. And potentially it can drive us to bankruptcy if we choose wrong.

Oh joy.

Be glad you're not us, now. Do yourselves a favor and call and bug your company's HR department. Find out beforehand how much hospitalization you've got, what the extra insurance covers and doesn't. Whether or not your local hospital is in the insurance company's network, etc. All those nasty, icky PITA questions you probably glance over when HR sends the 2-10 pages of data, annually. Doing it this way isn't fun.

[Teacher Terry]

40 years ago I worked for a big insurance company and paid claims. That job has always made me very aware of all the insurance specifics. I hope he heals quickly. Sorry you are having issues. How can they expect you to get pre-approval for a accident?

[NewGig]

How can they expect you to get pre-approval for a accident?

I have no idea!

I'm feeling a lot calmer. We have the answers to many of our questions. And we do have insurance, etc. in place. Of course we don't know if it's enough, but we found out what we had AND now I can talk to them about it, which I couldn't before.

[Teacher Terry]

When my mom would get someone on the phone that she couldn’t understand she would hang up and call again. Often she would end up with someone in the states.

[frugal-one]

When my mom would get someone on the phone that she couldn’t understand she would hang up and call again. Often she would end up with someone in the states.

Or, just ask for someone in the States. They usually will redirect you. If need be, tell them you are hard of hearing and need to speak to someone from the States.

[rosarugosa]

Newgig: Good luck navigating the insurance red tape, and I hope your DH has a smooth recovery.

[Tradd]

Oh dear. So sorry to hear about our DH.

[NewGig]

The problem won't go away if I ask for someone in the US. He works for a company headquartered in India, so I figured I was stuck with the miscommunication! He's much better at India speak than I am, so he'll probably do most of that kind of phoning.

Thank you for the good wishes all!

[NewGig]

DH is home and we’ve had 2 nurses, and 3 pt and ot people. We’ll see how this is when things calm down a bit. He’s getting around with a walker and nothing stronger than over the counter drugs. (Stopped the stronger stuff when he left the hospital.)

He’s obviously getting better, but I tried to do too much last Sunday and my back went Monday. That was embarrassing and a reminder I needed to be more careful!

We gave the hospital the info about our secondary hospital insurance and the woman said, it’s disabilty. Except it’s that and a supplementary hospital insurance. I took about 1” of printout with me today and left it. Hopefully, they’ll file the claim!

Both of the book projects I was working on made progress. The first was delivered to the publisher. The second is undergoing a final proofing before it goes up for sale online.

My house is cleaner, but still cluttered, DH is healing, and all the work projects I had are complete. Life isn’t perfect, but I’ll take it!

[Yppej]

You have to worry about your insurance because you are responsible people who work for a living. Supposedly we can't afford single payer, but look at all the money for HR , insurance companies, and hospital paper pusher salaries. If you just got off the boat and refused to work it would all be free. So I guess we can afford it, you just have to be lazy to get it.

[happystuff]

Newgig - thanks for the update. Hope your back is feeling better. Sounds like there is "progress" on several fronts. Wishing much more for you both.

[NewGig]

A month+ later, and here’s what’s up

DH is still using a walker, he’s progressed to out patient PT 2x a week. He’s able to climb stairs about once a day. He’s driven a car once. Still a lot of pain at night. The insurance has covered most of what we thought they should have. Our bill really is the high deductible we signed up for. The problem has been the hospitalization and accident insurance. That we had to file, the hospital couldn’t, and that took some time for us to learn.

My hospital bill has been paid, both by us and the insurance.

The new heating system is scheduled to go in. My back thinks that’s great! Splitting and hauling wood hasn’t been fun.

[happystuff]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like progress has been made - congrats! Wishing continued healing and health for you both!

[iris lilies]

Newgig, I am glad your household is moving towards healing.

[Teacher Terry]

I hope your husband continues to heal.

[NewGig]

Thank you all for the kind wishes.

DH has a managed to sleep in our upstairs bed a couple of times now. Still healing, still doing PT, but he’s working in his office and things are moving forward!

Good thing, it looks like there will be more books for me to work on, and that would be difficult to do while doing extensive caretaking.

[iris lilies]

NewGig, I am diving into offloading my book collection this year. I’ll pick your brain about that. I’ll start a new thread for it.