The Mind of the Four Year Old
RM: [smiling] OK C, would you like the blue washcloth or the blue washcloth?
C: [smiling] The blue washcloth.
[RM hands over the washcloth]
Wait for it…
C: NO! I wanted the OTHER blue one!
OK, that I did laugh at. But she was also laughing.
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Adventures in Health Care, Part I
Tonight I received a bill for a recent prenatal test. The bill was for $1.04.
One dollar and four cents.
A buck oh-four.
One George and four Abes.
C’mon Sherry, and LocalMD, and any other docs who read this—help me out here. Is it even worth the administrative costs to send such a bill? And it’s not like I won’t be receiving bills for future tests; you could say I’m a bit of a repeat customer. They could batch their bills, but that would make it easier for me, not for them of course.
They give me the option to pay with a credit card, which means after subtracting the transaction fee they will pocket a nice round dollar from me.
Ooooo-kay.
The cranky, 31 weeks pregnant part of me wants to send the bill with 104 pennies. And even though I am mostly that cranky 31 weeks pregnant person, I will refrain.
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Adventures in Health Care, Part II
Several months ago I received a bill from the physician who saw the divine miss M in the ER when she fell down the stairs. OK, so I’m not exactly an eager beaver to pay these bills. I hate paying bills. I batch them all together and do them just frequently enough so as not to have them sic the thugs on me.
I received a second bill some time later; this time it was printed on an angry sheet of red paper. IF YOU DO NOT PAY WE WILL REFER THIS TO GUIDO A COLLECTION AGENCY!!!!! So I paid it.
Today I received a third bill, for 1/3 of the amount. Apparently the Board of Pensions is even slower about settling its bills than I am. I wonder if they received an angry red letter too? But now I have to keep track of whether they actually send me a refund. Bleh.
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Today I took the Metro downtown to Crankypants Presbytery, which I do whenever I have the opportunity. I planned to leave the meeting a little early because I needed to take C to buy some tap shoes for her dance class. One of the women from our church said she looked all over this area for tap shoes in the right size for her four year old and couldn’t find a thing. But I decided to try.
Right across from the Metro station near the Crankpants meeting was a Payless. I didn’t know C’s current size but I decided to chance it. Guess what? They fit!
This is cool because we are reading The Suburban Christian in Sunday School and we just finished the chapter about car culture and how you can’t do anything in the burbs without a car. People love their cars for the supposed flexibility and freedom, but people with long commutes actually have less flexibility because they have to leave within a certain window to miss traffic. Yes, you can go anywhere in your car, but the suburbs are laid out such that you have to go a bunch of different directions to get to the grocery store, the gas station, etc. etc. It doesn’t feel like freedom most of the time.
Public transportation is no picnic—the train was slow this morning and noisy with rowdy teenagers this afternoon—but the serendipity of finding exactly what I was looking for without white-knuckling all over creation spewing fossil fuels was the cherry on the sundae of my day.
10 Responses to “this is life right now”
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Asides
» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
» Aaaaaand little she-who-is lost another tooth this week!
» SBJ is four months old, 19 pounds 5 ounces, and 26 inches tall. GIGANTOR!
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I love the metro.
And I love C’s response.
One of my favorite things to do with cranky 7 year olds at camp is say, “Okay. you have a choice. Today we can go to the pool, or we can go swimming.”
But I don’t laugh at them to their face.
Okay…so I’m sure you’ve used it before, but “Crankypants Presbytery”….Bah ha ha ha hahahahah. I’m almost laughing/crying as hard as I was at the meeting!
I love the metro too! I arrived at my training this morning all calm, cool and collected (although I will have to say the Red line is so much noisier than the other lines I’ve been on…guess they dug the tunnels deeper so the noise would not upset NW DC people).
Anyway, most all the other people in my class came in panting and obviously agitated as they had fought “obscene” traffic this morning.
We don’t bill for anything under a certain amount….I can’t remember the amount because it was decided a long time ago. We collect those small fees the next time we see the patient.
Labs bill for everything. I guess they don’t think they’ll see you again to collect.
Good luck getting the refund. I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I love public transportation–especially the subway. I just wish we had ANY public transportation where I live now..
I wish our local public transit was more reliable, or that I had more time and energy to walk more places. I do what I can…
I’m glad the Crankypants Presbytery was worthwhile - at least you found the tap shoes!!
I’m off to our four day Presbytery meeting on Thursday. At least we only meet three times a year.
Four DAYS? Wow!
That’s too much of a good thing.
Or perhaps just too much of a thing.
RM,
We, like Sherry do not bill for anything under $50. My feeling is that just as you said the admin cost is at least that but here we are assuming that a human being is involved in this. For many things such as lab and the ER at a major med center I bet there are no people (except data entry and at the hospital I practice at this is even done off a computer generated medical record) involved until it reaches a certain point, mostly like the collection agency.
Since I am on the subject this is what I hate about medical care. I like looking at the bills too. Maybe the charge is too much for one of my patients to afford. Maybe their insurance does not cover wellness care (we give very hefty discounts for cash pay) or the patient has a high deductable and needs a discount and a payment plan.
To know what to pay, try and look for the EOB, estimation of benifits from your insurance company. If you are not currently receiving this you may even be able to access the information on line or have the insurance company mail it to you automatically. If the claim has been submitted this will tell you what the insurance company will pay and the portion that is your responsibility. Then in your case, when you receive this check with the Board of Pensions to see if they pay an aditional amount as there many be a health savings account or something.
Also remember this is moving from one bureaucracy to another to maybe another. It is going to be slow.
Sorry for the long answer. Two of my immediate family members have chronic conditions. It has truly humbled me when it comes to being the patient. Dealing with the insurance company and the collections department of a large medical business can be very trying.
I’m with revdrmom, wishing we had public transportation. Bloggers of all stripes seem to get their best stories from riding the subway or the bus…
In regards to dance clothes, when my kids were at that stage several moms started advertising used dance clothes and shoes on the bulletin board outside of class — what 4 year old will ever wear out her stuff? We saved a small fortune on used shoes and bodysuits, and saved time (which is equally precious!)