Ask Lemmy

There are far worse out there, but about a year ago I injured my hand somehow. I couldn't close my fist, which made it hard for me to work and support my partner as I do a majority of the cooking and chores. I couldn't make a firm enough grip to use cast iron cookware. I was really concerned about this for a number of obvious reasons, so I went to the doctor.

I looked up an in network doc, call them up, confirm they take my insurance, double check that the kind of care I was looking for was covered. At my appointment they ask to do a physical as well, since I was due for one. During that they asked all the normal questions, the poignant one here being "do you smoke?" I replied "I have one or two cigarettes socially when drinking with some friends, which happens maybe once every other month or less." This changed the tone of the entire visit.

My concern about my hand was largely disregarded and the doctor began talking to me about smoking cessation and the dangers of tobacco. Gave me pamphlets, tried to ask if I'd consider quitting, asked if I've tried alternatives. I tried to turn things back to my hand and she wasn't interested. After I strongly insisted that was my sole medical interest, she gave me a referral.

I pay my copay up front and leave. I go to the specialist a few days later. He looks at my hand for 45 seconds and gives me a wrist brace and tells me to sleep with it on. I pay my copay and leave. Wouldn't ya know? That did it! My hand was working again.

I call the specialist to follow up on his care and say it worked well. He told me I need to speak with billing to settle my bill. I'm confused. Wasn't the copay for that? He says the insurance covered the visit but not the medical device (the wrist brace). So I check with billing and they want four hundred dollars. I'm flabbergasted. I check where they got the product, because surely it couldn't cost that. I found the identical product, brand and all, on Amazon for $13. I'm livid. I argue with them, they say they can't do anything.

I call the insurance and they say my policy was clear about specialists and medical devices. Dejected and feeling stupid, I just pay.

About a week later I get a call from the first doc saying I needed to settle up as well. I owe them five hundred dollars!!! How?? They say the bloodwork they did wasn't covered. I plead saying that's a normal part of a physical, no? They say yes, but I didn't come in for a physical, according to the billing, I came in for a smoking cessation meeting!!

I tried for weeks to get the doctor on the phone to rectify this but they wouldn't speak to me. My insurance company said they didn't cover bloodwork as part of that and the doctors office wouldn't change the billing.

I'm sick of doctors, I'm sick of insurance companies. If I get sick, I make chicken soup, drink tea, and scarf OTC drugs. I sprang my ankle fishing earlier this year. Did I go to a doctor? Absolutely not! I can't afford a $900 bill every time something goes wrong.

I pay $360 a month for this. Thankfully I make enough that this wasn't so damaging on my life, but I stopped buying as much meat and ate mostly beans for a year and didn't travel for my vacation. I had been hoping to visit my father across the country that year but we had to put it off. It changed my outlook on medical services drastically and I'll never be so honest to doctors again.