Support For Christi Thomas

This blog is to help offer support to the Thomas Family and their daughter, Christi, in her battle against cancer. Please visit Christi's website at www.ChristiThomas.com to learn more. There, you'll find journals, photos and a lots of other information about this amazing child and her family.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I will gladly pay you tomorrow........

For four years I have ambled through the labyrinth of medical billing. Occasionally, I would hit a dead end and have to retrace my steps. Mostly though, I just plodded ahead paying when I needed to pay-satisfying the various invoices that I met along the way. Several significant accounts became delinquent recently when we discovered that our secondary insurance had been improperly billed and they had begun taking money back from providers. While we knew that this was going to get resolved in due time it was going to take a great deal of patience and persistence. It seems I am somewhat better endowed in that latter than the former.

Tonight, after supper, Christi asked me to sit with her at the kitchen table while she made twirly cats for my friends at work. As it turned out I had a mindless task to complete for work, so, we were peacefully sitting at the table when the phone rang. I answered only to discover that the caller who dared to disturb my quiet time with my daughter was a collection agency! The same agency that I called two months ago to say "There has been a billing error, sorry we didn't catch it, here is the correct information". The same collection agency that called last week to which I responded "The insurance company has paid that claim please check your system for payment". The same agency who was now telling me that it was not their job to prove that I owed something but that it was my job to prove that I didn't owe! ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Well Christi has no idea that there is any financial ramification to her treatment. It has never dawned on her and hopefully never will that medicine costs money. Consequently, I did not want her to hear this increasing heated conversation. So I stepped outside to explain my logic to the fella. "I can't pay something that I no longer owe" To which he just kept saying "prove to me that you have satisfied this obligation". Desperately and more loudly I asked him "to please check his file". "That is not my job and we will keep calling until you prove that you don't owe this anymore" was his only reply.

Does anyone remember the lyrics to the song Coward of the County? "Twenty years of crawling was bottled up inside him..." Well four years of patiently dealing with the frustrations associated with medical billing had finally overwhelmed me and I let this guy have it in loud vulgar terms. I told him to go violate himself several times then hung up. My first thought was-I wish I knew more languages so I could have told him that several times in different languages...my second thought was that the whole neighborhood heard me. (sorry)

As I slumped back into the house a very nervous Christi asked me who had called. I said that it was kind of a funny story and she wouldn't really understand. She responded that she heard it all and didn't think that it sounded funny at all....

Shayne

4 Comments:

At 12/7/06 8:09 AM, Blogger HeatherB said...

Oh my Shayne so sorry to hear about the medical billing issue.

As we say on the message board I'm a part of "sending you patience vibes"!

Hang in there!

Love to you all,
Heather

 
At 12/7/06 2:58 PM, Blogger thonmom06 said...

Oh Shayne...I am thankful to God that at least you also have this blog to vent. It is heartbreaking that any parent has to also deal with this in addition to everything else. As hard as it may be, and easy for me to say, "let go and let God"....I work for a physical therapist and deal with insurance companies all the time....how time consuming and frustrating it is to straighten out the simplest thing that they should have taken care of initially. My heart goes out to you....I hope that by the time this reaches you, you were able to catch your breath and continue to enjoy the time with Christi. If I can help with making phone calls or something, please let me know. God's peace be with you. love, sylvia

 
At 13/7/06 6:45 PM, Blogger Tree said...

Good for you!
I can't imagine having to deal with that on top of everything else.

 
At 13/7/06 10:07 PM, Blogger Tine said...

Dear Shayne,
Good for you for letting off steam and giving the collector a piece of your mind. I've been on the receiving end of one of those calls that left me in tears. I'm glad you stood strong!

I pray for Christi and your family every night. Keep up the good faith!

 

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