GRRRR!!!!
Right now, as G-man and I are trying to work on our issues, we are each seeking professional help individually, as well as as a couple. We pay a $20 co-pay each visit. So just for these three weekly visits, we are shelling out $60.
Bossy gets occupational therapy weekly, at another $20.
For those who are not math saavy...that is $80 a week....or between $320-$400 a month (depending on how the month runs), just on co-pays.
We signed up with our flexible spending plan during open enrollment, which automatically takes roughly $145 per pay check out. The way our plan works is as soon as a claim is paid by the insurance company, we are credited our remaining amount. In the ideal world, we pay the co-pay, and fairly quickly we are reimbursed.
At this point, we are shelling out money much faster than it is being replenished. If it takes the doctor's office longer to send in the claim, or to settle the claim....it takes longer for us to be reimbursed. And this cycle is starting to cause problems.
We need that money back. We have bills to pay. We are already paying out almost $300 a month into the account. If we didn't have the FSA, we would already have the money to pay (in theory). Of course, then we don't get the tax benefit. But right now the equation isn't balanced.
I know shortly we will get a huge reimbursement, and it will all be ok. But right now, I have had to "borrow" $200 from our savings account to get us to tomorrow (my payday), which will go back by the end the week. But we need to go grocery shopping. We need to pay the water bill.
In short....we need our money back!!!
Those people wait until the end of the year and then submit their receipts....good for you that you can do that. But we can't. When you spend as much out of pocket as we do on medical, we just can't do that. (we spend almost 15% of our gross income on medical alone).
So dearest doctors....please figure out your billing issues. We need our money!!!!
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, November 8, 2010
The blind leading the blind
In an effort to 1) not do everything myself, and 2) let G-man be responsible for something (and maybe get an idea what it is like!), I handed the reigns over to him regarding our home and auto insurance.
When we got the renewal notice for our policies, and saw that they skyrocketed, we decided to look into switching companies. I gave this task to G-man, and stepped out of the process (sort of!) I wanted him to experience what it is like to have to make a ton of phone calls, wait for answers, compare numbers.
It has been almost 6 weeks since this process started, and although we are not 100% done with the switch, we are getting close. And while I haven't been the one making the calls or doing the communicating with the companies (gosh I wish I was!), I have been the "puppet master" on the sidelines making sure it all got done.
We got 8 different quotes. This process took FOREVER. G-man would call....they would say they have to get back to him. Days would go by. I asked him about it, and he said "well, they said they will call." Yeah....so do lots of people, and they never do. Nudge, nudge....you have to call them again.
This was a ping pong process that took at least a month.
Finally we decided on a policy. I said great, go get 'em Tiger! and sign us up. *sigh* And here we begin the part that I have had to really control myself on and not shove G-man aside and say "MOVE! If this is how you are going to do it....I will do it myself!!!!"
I have no idea if the agent he was dealing with is new....or an idiot....or a little from column A, a little from column B. But this has taken more phone calls and double checking than it really should have. This guy will call and ask for info, then call 3 days later for the same info he has already asked for. When we got the paperwork, there were mistakes on it.
Then we got into the whole payment thing. I asked if there was a discount for paying every six months. This took 3 phone calls to figure out. The answer was YES, but....1) we would have to pay six months up front, and 2) the savings was only $5 a month. We decided that having to come up with that bulk cash wasn't worth $5 in savings. So we would pay monthly.
They wanted the first month upfront.
G-man didn't listen to me, and put it on his credit card. Fine....I will just take the money from the other account and pay the credit card. But I was adament that I wanted the monthly debit to come from ING. I gave G-man the acct info to give the agent. And I asked him to confirm what day the debit will happen.
G-man says....I gave him the info. Dunno when the debit will happen.
*sigh* Why does he think this is ok? Every question just leads to more questions.
Then the mail came today. Does G-man OPEN it? Nah. Just put it on the table. And even if he did open it, I doubt he would have even noticed the problem.
We got the direct debit confirmation. 1) Found out the debit will happen on the 8th (ok). 2) The account information was aaaaalllllllllllllllll wrrrrrrrrrrong. It had the debit coming from a checking account with XYZ routing number and ABC acct number.
Let's look at this a second. The routing number WAS correct for our checking account. But we wanted it to come from a savings account with ING. And the checking account number listed wasn't even ours! It had way too many numbers (and most of it was Xed out anyway for security). And the last 4 numbers listed didn't match any of our credit cards.
G-man's response....ok. I will e-mail him. NOOOOOOO! Call him and get this fixed!!!!
UPDATE: G-man talked to him and he said that they put in "mock" information until the first withdrawal. HUH???????????
I am worried that this is going to get all messed up. I am trying to let him work it out, but I how many problems can these two men get into?????? The policy is paid through Dec 7. So as long as we have it worked out by then, it will be fine. But we are also trying to stop the auto debit of the "old" policy.
G-man's thought.....well, I guess they will figure it out. NOOOOOOO!!!
Am I the only one who sees some problems????
When we got the renewal notice for our policies, and saw that they skyrocketed, we decided to look into switching companies. I gave this task to G-man, and stepped out of the process (sort of!) I wanted him to experience what it is like to have to make a ton of phone calls, wait for answers, compare numbers.
It has been almost 6 weeks since this process started, and although we are not 100% done with the switch, we are getting close. And while I haven't been the one making the calls or doing the communicating with the companies (gosh I wish I was!), I have been the "puppet master" on the sidelines making sure it all got done.
We got 8 different quotes. This process took FOREVER. G-man would call....they would say they have to get back to him. Days would go by. I asked him about it, and he said "well, they said they will call." Yeah....so do lots of people, and they never do. Nudge, nudge....you have to call them again.
This was a ping pong process that took at least a month.
Finally we decided on a policy. I said great, go get 'em Tiger! and sign us up. *sigh* And here we begin the part that I have had to really control myself on and not shove G-man aside and say "MOVE! If this is how you are going to do it....I will do it myself!!!!"
I have no idea if the agent he was dealing with is new....or an idiot....or a little from column A, a little from column B. But this has taken more phone calls and double checking than it really should have. This guy will call and ask for info, then call 3 days later for the same info he has already asked for. When we got the paperwork, there were mistakes on it.
Then we got into the whole payment thing. I asked if there was a discount for paying every six months. This took 3 phone calls to figure out. The answer was YES, but....1) we would have to pay six months up front, and 2) the savings was only $5 a month. We decided that having to come up with that bulk cash wasn't worth $5 in savings. So we would pay monthly.
They wanted the first month upfront.
G-man didn't listen to me, and put it on his credit card. Fine....I will just take the money from the other account and pay the credit card. But I was adament that I wanted the monthly debit to come from ING. I gave G-man the acct info to give the agent. And I asked him to confirm what day the debit will happen.
G-man says....I gave him the info. Dunno when the debit will happen.
*sigh* Why does he think this is ok? Every question just leads to more questions.
Then the mail came today. Does G-man OPEN it? Nah. Just put it on the table. And even if he did open it, I doubt he would have even noticed the problem.
We got the direct debit confirmation. 1) Found out the debit will happen on the 8th (ok). 2) The account information was aaaaalllllllllllllllll wrrrrrrrrrrong. It had the debit coming from a checking account with XYZ routing number and ABC acct number.
Let's look at this a second. The routing number WAS correct for our checking account. But we wanted it to come from a savings account with ING. And the checking account number listed wasn't even ours! It had way too many numbers (and most of it was Xed out anyway for security). And the last 4 numbers listed didn't match any of our credit cards.
G-man's response....ok. I will e-mail him. NOOOOOOO! Call him and get this fixed!!!!
UPDATE: G-man talked to him and he said that they put in "mock" information until the first withdrawal. HUH???????????
I am worried that this is going to get all messed up. I am trying to let him work it out, but I how many problems can these two men get into?????? The policy is paid through Dec 7. So as long as we have it worked out by then, it will be fine. But we are also trying to stop the auto debit of the "old" policy.
G-man's thought.....well, I guess they will figure it out. NOOOOOOO!!!
Am I the only one who sees some problems????
Monday, October 25, 2010
Insurance WHOAs
I mentioned that our car and homeowners insurances went up about 50% for the coming policy year. Not good. Our current policy was 1768 for car (going up to just under 2500) and 478 for home (going up to 730)
We collected several quotes, and finally made a decision. The new policies will be 1148 for auto, and 678 for home. That is a savings of 1152 over what our new policy was going to be. And 420 better than our policy as it currently stands. Sounds good, right!
Here's the kicker....apparently we have been paying "as we go" on our current auto policy. So even if we cancel, they won't owe us anything, since we weren't paying in advance. The new policy wants us to pay 6 months in advance.
In order to get the savings, we have to cough up $574 NOW to get the policy started. OUCH.
Once we get started, we will be fine. We will continue to contribute on a bi-weekly basis for our insurance, and in 6 months when the premiums are due, we will already have the money ready to go. But that $574 now....*sigh*
The most logical way of doing it is to take it from our emergency fund (which is just under $1500). This will officially drop us below the $1000, and this makes me wildly nervous. We can build it back up, but I just feel like once we take it out, it will be THAT much harder to rebuild, and what if something else happens??
I hate feeling crunched. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT! Why is it everytime we find a way of saving a few bucks, there is always a catch?
We collected several quotes, and finally made a decision. The new policies will be 1148 for auto, and 678 for home. That is a savings of 1152 over what our new policy was going to be. And 420 better than our policy as it currently stands. Sounds good, right!
Here's the kicker....apparently we have been paying "as we go" on our current auto policy. So even if we cancel, they won't owe us anything, since we weren't paying in advance. The new policy wants us to pay 6 months in advance.
In order to get the savings, we have to cough up $574 NOW to get the policy started. OUCH.
Once we get started, we will be fine. We will continue to contribute on a bi-weekly basis for our insurance, and in 6 months when the premiums are due, we will already have the money ready to go. But that $574 now....*sigh*
The most logical way of doing it is to take it from our emergency fund (which is just under $1500). This will officially drop us below the $1000, and this makes me wildly nervous. We can build it back up, but I just feel like once we take it out, it will be THAT much harder to rebuild, and what if something else happens??
I hate feeling crunched. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT! Why is it everytime we find a way of saving a few bucks, there is always a catch?
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monitor your Insurance Policy
We all know we need insurance. It is a part of life that you pay all this money JUST IN CASE you need it. And each year that you don't need it, it stinks that you have just paid all sorts of money for "nothing." But if you do need it....you will be glad you have it.
We had a home owner claim about 3 years ago. Our very old oil tank and its associated lines failed. Apparently one of the underground lines started leaking. The problem was discovered when I noticed we were using ALOT of oil all of a sudden. We ended up having to dig out the basement, replace the tank and lines, and then recement the floor. Our policy covered $10,000 (minus our $500 deductible). We were able to get the job done for that price, and were happy with the work and the whole process.
I was SURE that our policy was going to go up that next year, but it didn't. *wipe brow*
But....this claim was not forgotten by my insurance company. And now it is biting us in the behind. We received our renewal, and the policy went up almost 60%!!!! Are you freaking kidding me???
We called to investigate and were told that rates increased for homeowners whose homes are valued at under 250k, and then again if you had a claim in the past 5 years. Double whammy!!!! I find it appalling that the company is hitting those of use with lower value homes harder. And if you are going to raise a rate because of a claim....do it right away...not way after the fact.
So we have been gathering quotes for both our auto and home policies. While the home policies have been higher than what we were paying, they are all about the same, but still cheaper than our current policy. The auto policies on the other hand have been all over the place!!!
So far, AllState is winning the race. We can save over $500 on our auto policy per year, and the home policy is about $50 less expensive. Anyone have them???
Always read your policies, and always shop around!!
We had a home owner claim about 3 years ago. Our very old oil tank and its associated lines failed. Apparently one of the underground lines started leaking. The problem was discovered when I noticed we were using ALOT of oil all of a sudden. We ended up having to dig out the basement, replace the tank and lines, and then recement the floor. Our policy covered $10,000 (minus our $500 deductible). We were able to get the job done for that price, and were happy with the work and the whole process.
I was SURE that our policy was going to go up that next year, but it didn't. *wipe brow*
But....this claim was not forgotten by my insurance company. And now it is biting us in the behind. We received our renewal, and the policy went up almost 60%!!!! Are you freaking kidding me???
We called to investigate and were told that rates increased for homeowners whose homes are valued at under 250k, and then again if you had a claim in the past 5 years. Double whammy!!!! I find it appalling that the company is hitting those of use with lower value homes harder. And if you are going to raise a rate because of a claim....do it right away...not way after the fact.
So we have been gathering quotes for both our auto and home policies. While the home policies have been higher than what we were paying, they are all about the same, but still cheaper than our current policy. The auto policies on the other hand have been all over the place!!!
So far, AllState is winning the race. We can save over $500 on our auto policy per year, and the home policy is about $50 less expensive. Anyone have them???
Always read your policies, and always shop around!!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Small excitement....pathetic!
This year our out-of-pocket maximum for our medical insurance increased from $4000 to $5000. Once you hit that (yes....that means you have paid out of pocket 5 G's), you are off the hook for co-pays and co-insurance until the next calendar year.
And alas! We have hit this!!! We hit it every year....usually in October or November. And per our insurance company...we are there.
This is exciting because:
1) I can load up on some prescriptions. Our mail order fee is $65 for a 90 supply....now FREE until Dec 31. Plus Bossy Boy has food allergies that require and Epi-Pen....needed a new one of those.....now FREE! Plus many more.
2) Bossy Boy goes to occupational therapy weekly...no more co-pay!
3) We still have about 30 occupational therapy sessions left in our calendar year, so now we can actually increase him to 2x a week for the next six weeks to work on a few things....and we don't have to pay for it!
4) I have some medical things going on, as does Bossy. Bring on those lab tests! Bring on the x-rays! Bring it all.....we aren't paying for it!
While it is pathetic that I am excited that we have paid over $5000 for medical (and please realize, that this does NOT include our premiums or OTC stuff), I am glad to be able to do a few more things in the coming weeks.
We have a FSA, and the $4000 we put aside for that was gone long ago. We still are not able to really claim stuff on our taxes....that 7.5% of salary is AFTER you account for the FSA. But hey....small victories, right?
And alas! We have hit this!!! We hit it every year....usually in October or November. And per our insurance company...we are there.
This is exciting because:
1) I can load up on some prescriptions. Our mail order fee is $65 for a 90 supply....now FREE until Dec 31. Plus Bossy Boy has food allergies that require and Epi-Pen....needed a new one of those.....now FREE! Plus many more.
2) Bossy Boy goes to occupational therapy weekly...no more co-pay!
3) We still have about 30 occupational therapy sessions left in our calendar year, so now we can actually increase him to 2x a week for the next six weeks to work on a few things....and we don't have to pay for it!
4) I have some medical things going on, as does Bossy. Bring on those lab tests! Bring on the x-rays! Bring it all.....we aren't paying for it!
While it is pathetic that I am excited that we have paid over $5000 for medical (and please realize, that this does NOT include our premiums or OTC stuff), I am glad to be able to do a few more things in the coming weeks.
We have a FSA, and the $4000 we put aside for that was gone long ago. We still are not able to really claim stuff on our taxes....that 7.5% of salary is AFTER you account for the FSA. But hey....small victories, right?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Murphy, go away!!!!
Well, no need to figure out where the extra money from overtime and extra pay check will go. G-man took care of that this morning…
When he got into a car accident. With the kids and one cat in the car. Everyone is ok. But…
Now we will have an insurance claim which means a deductible. From what he said, it is too much damage to the other car for us to pay for it privately. I am sure there will be a rate increase in our insurance too. I had a minor accident last year (or was it 2 yrs ago?)
I could vent off about non-debt related items, but that is another blog all together. I was already thinking that I might be able to pay off a few things under medical and just make them go away. Or maybe pay off one student loan.
I am annoyed now.
I need some time to lay it all out. Too many changes! Need to fire the FA. Need to get a grip.
When he got into a car accident. With the kids and one cat in the car. Everyone is ok. But…
Now we will have an insurance claim which means a deductible. From what he said, it is too much damage to the other car for us to pay for it privately. I am sure there will be a rate increase in our insurance too. I had a minor accident last year (or was it 2 yrs ago?)
I could vent off about non-debt related items, but that is another blog all together. I was already thinking that I might be able to pay off a few things under medical and just make them go away. Or maybe pay off one student loan.
I am annoyed now.
I need some time to lay it all out. Too many changes! Need to fire the FA. Need to get a grip.
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