Uhearthat

I am a 45 year old husband and father of two teenagers.
I am 6/1 1/2 and 402 pounds.
As a self pay patient using Dr Schmitt at St Vincents East I have been pleased with the classes and visits. About the only thing that has been a pain in the rump was the sleep study. The hospital stated that my health insurance wouldn't cover anything until I paid my $750 deductible and 20% co-insurance which came out to be $1024.00 out of pocket. That on top of the 12 Thousand I am paying for the surgery was a heck of a shock at first
 
Now 1 month after having the sleep study I get a $600 bill from the DME vendor for the CPAP machine and accessories. i was told by the vendor that typically the patient would only owe around $100 after insurance. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated so I called my Insurance company and they said that they had no record of me paying anything for the sleep study so when they got the claim they didn't take into account that I had already paid my $750 deductible and therefore only paid about 1/2 the charges. United health stated that I needed to contact Dr Dey office and and have them contact Untied Healthcare to show that I paid my deductible and then I would have to call the DME vendor to resubmit the claim for the CPAP machine and accessories.
 
So I called Dr Dey office and was told that I needed to contact the hospital since they took care of billing for them. So I called them and to my surprise was told that I am owed a $700 refund do to my insurance paying a portion of the sleep study.
 
So in the end I was pretty frustrated and will end up taking the money from my refund and using it to pay the $600 bill I owe for the CPAP machine. In the end I would just say that if you deal with the hospital billing office make sure you know your OOP (Out of Pocket) expenses per the benefit your using. I would call your health plan and tell them exactly what your having done.
 
All in all that was the only thing that has pestered me and honestly $1000 is kind of a minor issue when your paying 12K out of pocket. I am excited and nervous as all hades about the actual surgery itself. I have never been under general anesthesia and that freaks me out a little. I know the chances of something going wrong are slim but as a QA Analyst in the software industry I know things sometimes go wrong, otherwise the lawyers in this state would be out of business. : )
 
I hope my experience helps someone else and I am sorry if I am bit long winded with my post.
 
Thanks for reading my post.
 
Chad.