As a famous TV character once said, “It’s always something.” In my case, that something seems to be money. Allow me to explain.
I got a call from the spine doctor’s office today. They wanted to take care of the insurance co-payment for my diagnostic procedure, scheduled for this Thursday. They quoted me a figure of $100.00 for the procedure and a further $150.00 “deposit” for the anesthesiologist.
Whoa. Stop right there. “Deposit” is not a good word when it comes to medical procedures and money.
My wife is the financial pro of the family, so I handed the phone over to her. As it turns out, there were two problems. First, the procedure was scheduled to be done at the spinal group’s outpatient procedure center. Second, the anesthesiologists they use were not in our insurance network, meaning we’d be 100% liable for their costs.
That wasn’t going to happen.
It took about an hour to get the office to understand the situation. She had to resort to threats to find a different doctor a couple of times during that hour. In the end, we talked them into moving the procedure into a hospital that is less than, oh, 200 feet away from the front door of the spine doctor’s office.
At least everything will be covered (we’ve both been patients there before). The procedure has been pushed back to April 4th, and the doctor will probably be ticked off, but I guarantee that we’re already just as mad at him and his staff. He’ll have to deal with that come next Tuesday.