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Anesthesiologist Bill



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Quick question, I am almost a month post-op, and I just received a bill from the Anesthesiologist for $850. I was told up front what to expect, as far as out of pocket expenses, I met my deductible and max out of pocket with my insurance provider (Humana) prior to surgery. Then, I receive this bill for $850 yesterday, and the bill says that insurance was billed, insurance paid $850, leaving me with the remaining portion, of $850. After some checking, I learn that the Anesthesiologist is out of network (as are most), and therefore I am stuck with the bill.

What recourse do I have? After all the co-pays, and deductible prior to surgery, I am maxed out on credit and have wiped out the savings.

Feels like highway robbery, to be told what to expect and then have this bill arrive. Fleeced!

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This is unfortunately something that happens frequently. You make sure your surgeon etc is in your plan but not things like anesthesia.

Also, if you are hospitalized you need to make sure that if they want another physician to see you that you make sure they are covered by insurance.

As far as I know the only thing you can do is a payment plan.

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This is one of the protections with an H M O plan - we can't be balance-billed like this. I think a payment plan is the only way to solve this. I'm sorry!

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Thanks y'all. Wish they would disclose this stuff prior to surgery. I pulled up my account for my insurance provider, and found that there is another $200 bill in review, for another out-of-network thing, that was marked "pathology". Guess I will be stuck with some of that bill as well. Unbelievable!

Thanks again for the responses!

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Quick question, I am almost a month post-op, and I just received a bill from the Anesthesiologist for $850. I was told up front what to expect, as far as out of pocket expenses, I met my deductible and max out of pocket with my insurance provider (Humana) prior to surgery. Then, I receive this bill for $850 yesterday, and the bill says that insurance was billed, insurance paid $850, leaving me with the remaining portion, of $850. After some checking, I learn that the Anesthesiologist is out of network (as are most), and therefore I am stuck with the bill.

What recourse do I have? After all the co-pays, and deductible prior to surgery, I am maxed out on credit and have wiped out the savings.

Feels like highway robbery, to be told what to expect and then have this bill arrive. Fleeced!

Now idk where you'll stand morally on this avenue but you can try to write a letter of hardship to their billing department. My mother had to write one years back after my dad's open heart surgery. The bills flurried in and he was off work for some time after the procedure. Basically she wrote a letter laying out her financial situation, told them what little she could pay and that paying the entire balance would bankrupt them.

They forgave a few thousand dollars.

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Yeah, I was told my bill would be $250.00 and a $1600.00 program plan. "Don't worry everything is covered. We are your preferred hospital." That was $3772.00 ago. There was a lot of things that were not covered by that co-pay that no one told me about.

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I too had to pay for anesthesia because they were "out of network". Really ticks me off because I specifically had surgery at a hospital and with a surgeon in network! I had to pay the anesthesia bill. Thankfully it was only $350. But still....

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You can call your insurance company and explain that you were misled, and ask them to pay the claims as if they were in the network. If they decline, ask to speak to a supervisor. If they also decline, write a complaint letter to the insurance company asking for their help in resolving the situation.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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