What Santa/The Mailman Brought Us Last Week....Yikes!

After the scare last week about not getting the disability paperwork in on time so that the paychecks keep rolling in at Chez Sluggy, Hubs got an envelope in the mail from our insurance company.

This wasn't in the packet of EOBs that came separately, the size of which could chock a horse.
No this EOB came under separate cover.

And just look at the amount of this bill..........!!!

Gulp!
Merry Christmas! lolz

This was not for the ER visit stuff or the X-rays, CT scans, docs, etc. or the surgeon and anesthesiologist fees.

This was for the use of the OR, drugs, equipment and the subsequent 1.5 day hospital stay(2.5 days if you count the day between being admitted and when they actually performed the surgery), nursing costs, meals, etc. while there.

ER costs that have been billed amount to $2321.00 so far.  According to the insurance company's website there is another $6290.00 of charges on there for the EOBs that haven't arrived in our mail yet.

If you are keeping score we've got $95,626.82 in medical charges so far for his accident.
Add in 3 home health nursing/OT visits, the suture removal next week and then numerous Physical Therapy sessions in January to look forward to.
yay.......

Luckily(I guess it's lucky?)we hit our maximum out of pocket for 2016 so everything so far is covered 100% and we don't owe a penny of co-insurance/co-pays for any of this. (Add in $10K+ in charges for the Daughter's last back injection in November that was no cost either as we'd hit the maximum OOP before she had that procedure done mid November.)

Come January 1st, we are on the hook 100% for the first $3K in new medical charges out of pocket in 2017 and then 10% of each bill for co-insurance charges.
Goody.

I can't even imagine having a major health event without medical insurance!  No wonder medical debt is the number 1 reason people go bankrupt.
This was just broken leg(albeit a really bad one).  What do they charge for an organ removal/repair or a heart attack/stroke?

Sluggy

It's Always Something

So Tuesday night Hubs took a bad spill on the driveway while shoveling snow.

This resulted in a ride in an ambulance and a night spent in the ER(and then a ride home for me).

Wednesday was all about waiting around for determinations to be made after X-rays and CT scans(they confirmed a bad spiral fracture of the tibia and the fibula) and then for an OR so the orthopedic surgeon could shove a metal rod into Hubs leg.

By Thursday morning Hubs was no longer screaming with pain.  I suspect that smile is mostly drug induced.

He'll have the nickname of Gimpy for 12-16 weeks and I'll be Miss "Step N' Fetch-It" and Miss "Chauffeur to Medical Appointments" once he gets home.

Hubs can't put weight on the leg for 6 weeks and then will get a walking boot.
Daughter and I started rearranging the furnitures last night as Hubs can't climb the stairs and will have to stay downstairs.
Luckily we put College Boy's old daybed in the living room when Daughter moved back home for the dog to spend her days lounging on.  The dog is being displaced from her throne for the time being.

And I am so glad now that we decided to put the small Xmas tree up in the living room and not the full sized one.  Hubs will have a walker until he heals and maneuvering around the downstairs will be easier.

Luckily he can work from home but all our travel plans for Christmas are now off. sigh.
Daughter's birthday dinner out next week is also in jeopardy or at least delayed into the new year.
I applauded him on his impeccable timing of "this". lolz

I guess Hubs was due for a "break"(bad pun intended)since the last time he rode in an ambulance/went to the ER/had surgery was when he was 12.

He said he was tired of playing second banana to me every time we had to go to the ER and wanted all the attention for once.
Well, he got it.  And I think it cured him of wanting to be the center of chaos for awhile.

I am fine.  Just worn out with anxiety and worry.
And waiting for the pile of medical bills to arrive.  Not exactly what I wanted in my mailbox for Christmas but hey, we've hit our maximum out of pocket medical payments for the year so basically the bills until Jan. 1 are all paid 100% by our insurer. 8-)
And I am guessing we'll hit our high deductible figure quite early in 2017 now. 8-(

And this too shall pass.

Sluggy

More Mish-Mosh

One day until college blast-off here!

Running more errands today(not college related though)--

*  Up to Rite-Aid to get $2 back for Command hook coupons I forgot to use last week.  I am loving this "coupons post-sale" refund thing they have.  8-))
Last week's Rite-Aid $15.03 OOP turned into $11.53 OOP after post couponing back $3.50 for Compleats and Command hooks.

*  Then we hit Price Chopper for cheap lunchmeat(applewood smoked turkey breast!), salmon fillets, a watermelon and G2 Gatorades.

*  To Lowe's for new range hood vent screens and new reflector pans.  We used a gift card so no OOP for that.

*  After errands we had lunch at Bob Evans and used the last of an old gift card so the meal was cheaper than it would have been.

*  Burned some sensitive old papers inside of shredding them.

Tonight I'll make Chicken Parmesan for #2 Son's last meal. 

Oh, I forgot to mention on the money post yesterday that I got out of paying 2 medical bills last week.
Hubs has been paying on the medical bills as the FSA account gets funded from his paycheck.  He got behind and really doesn't like doing this sort of stuff, so I took it over last week and set about getting caught up.
I saw that the DME company billed us for 2 services, for a full month of service even though those 2 were discontinued before the month was over(back in March), and the company never sent a corrected bill to the insurance company so insurance was still billing us for the full amounts.  I called and spoke to someone about having these pro-rated so we could pay the correct amounts.  After the insurance and DME company went back and forth it was decided by the DME co. to just take those 2 charges off our account and not pro-rate the bills.  I guess it was easier to just write it off or whatever....the bottom line is they aren't due anymore and the DME will be returning the full payment to the insurance company and we don't owe it.  It comes to about $200 so I am not complaining.
It's nice to actually come out ahead for once. lolz

And is it really cold anywhere else out there?!?!
It was all of 67F here today.......in the middle of August!?!
It hit almost 40F last night and we had to put the comforter on the bed. Brrrrr
Most Summers I am nekkid in bed and throwing the sheet off of myself during the night.....I know that was TMI, wasn't it? hehehe

We have had about a 1 week stretch in late June of hot weather(over 84 degrees)here.
It has been such a mild Summer.  And even stranger there has been 0% humidity here!
So weird.

But it's NOT that I'm complaining much since I am not a big fan of real hot & muggy temps.

I can't wait to see what kind of weather September brings.....

Ok, off to pay some bills and then start dinner.

Sluggy




 

Glad This Week is Almost Over....My Bitchfest

I think I have a manic-depressive aspect to my personality....ok, I see some of you who know me out there rolling your eyes, saying "Duh!" and just plain snickering......so cut it out! ;-)

Anyway, most everyone on the planet feels a sense of letdown after going on vacation, right?
What comes over me when I get back from vacation is a whole other level of letdown......I liken it to depression.
I get sad....sad that the good times are over.....real sad, like want to cry all day sad.....and then reality bites me in the ass and laundry needs doing, meals need cooking, the house needs cleaning, the dogs need looking after and I am here again, alone and having to do all these chores.....with leaky eyes.

And then I sink lower and just don't want to do anything but sit, or sleep, or wander the interwebs......making the chores pile up higher.....which leads me to get more depressed.

And this goes on until I finally snap out of it and get back to living life.
If I'm lucky, I'm only caught up in this cycle of blah for a week or so but it has been known to stretch out to almost a month before.

I tell y'all this to explain why I haven't been very chatty lately and god help me....perky!......ok.....more like "as-perky-as-I-get perky"(which isn't very).

I don't do perky.
Must be my dna or something.

I spent most of this past week sighing deeply and wandering around the house trying to ignore the chores.

I'd start to feel better and then I'd sit down and try to edit the many photos I took while on our Road Trip or upload those lame videos I made and I'd just feel even sadder......because I miss being on that trip and seeing/meeting everyone/doing fun things.

Plus I would also be sad about Tanner not being here.  I didn't get a chance to have a letdown after she left because we left on the Road Trip 4 days after she went home, so we were busy preparing for the Road Trip during that time.
I guess I am doubly sad, mourning the end of 2 fun times of my life.

Yeah, I am a big old emotional mess inside a hard snail's shell......

Then while I was going through my sad/letdown cycle,  annoying and bad shit started happening the middle of this week.
First the very expensive a/c system we had installed in July?  Yah, we come home and turn it on and it's not throwing off cool air.
WTF?!?
We had a heat spell the last couple of days here and by tonight I had it jacked all the way down to 65 degrees and it was cooler outside and no where NEAR 65 degrees in here and didn't even cut the humidity in the air.
Again...WTF?!?!
So now we get to call Sears and bitch about this and want to slap people around over it because I just paid that bill and now I wish I hadn't.
Plus I'm having flashbacks to earlier this year when the 3 week old freezer shit the bed.
PTSD anyone??!

Then the 4 month old tv remote died tonight which sent Hubs over the edge because he couldn't watch his baseball.
Forget that!....what about Project Runway?!?!lolz
So he went and wasted $15 on a universal remote(those things NEVER work!)before ordering a new remote from the tv manufacturer for $40 + shipping a few minutes ago.
Good times......

Shall I add that the mail brought 2 headaches today....
1-the Local tax company has no record of us filing our local taxes.  We don't owe them anything as it's taken out automatically by the employer and it always lines up as accurate but the tax collecting company needs their recordkeeping to be correct.  So Hubs has to take care of that.  It's a hassle but nothing outrageous.  Oh, and Daughter got a notice from them too about her local taxes so having to deal with her form will be a PITA since we have to mail everything to Louisiana to get her signature and then mail it back to them.
More good times.....
2-Got the EOB for our dental plan and the wisdom tooth dentist overcharged us on our copay by about $100 so now I get to go nag his office about a refund.  Oh goody!  I get to call someone on the phone.....one of my FAVORITE things!lol  I bet if I didn't contact them they'd keep my money too. 8-(

Plus I am having problems with my durable medical supplies supplier about my BIpap machine.  Their customer service sucks donkey's ass and I just found out today that we should have been getting bills from them(with co-pays owed)for the last oh.....5 months....but we have yet to see one bill.  Because we weren't getting EOBs or bills I assumed our insurance paid 100% on this stuff.
I am a donkey's ass for thinking this, right? 8-)
The sleep disorders clinic no longer has them as an approved supplier for their patients but once you sign up with one(might be a PA state thing)you are locked into keeping them for your needs for 3 months.  But this shouldn't apply to me since I've used them for 5 months now so I should be able to "fire" them.
But if I do, the 3 months credit toward my 10 month then I don't pay for the BIpap rental until I give it back goes away, and I would end up paying more in rental monies if I switch suppliers now.
Sigh.

Let's see, what else can I bitch about? ;-)

*  I finished paying all the bills for August this week and now I get to add up the damage.  I am HOPING we come out in the black and not the red for this month.  It's anybody's call which way August will have played out with the spending.  The semi-annual car insurance bill hits in August plus we had some unplanned medical bills(wisdom teeth co-pays)and a big check we wrote as our present to the Hub's sister's wedding.  "IF" there is anything leftover this month for the $20K Savings Challenge it is going to be tiny. 8-(

* How about the fact that I gained 12 POUNDS while on vacation?
Yikes!
Not so bad because I already lost 9 of it.  I chalk that part of it up to eating restaurant food(over salted/high sodium content=retain water)for 11 days(except for 2 meals of home cooking).
Let's chalk the last 3 lbs. up to too much alcohol and fried foods and I am on the way to losing that piece of it.

*  And the last part of this week was hot and humid, thus making my feet swell and feel like crap so it's been hard to get much walking in.

On the good side of things.....

I did go to a medical appointment today and I finally went grocery shopping, the 1st trip since we got back a week ago.  I figured the store would be cooler than the house today so why not loiter a bit in there. 8-)
I got some good deals(a few coupons the store sent me in the mail, and some instant discounts on bakery and meats).  All totaled I spend $108.48 on $191.82 worth of groceries, for a 43% savings rate.
Weis PMITA Markets had London Broils Bogo this week plus I had a snail mailed Q $2/$10 meat purchase so I got 5.65 lbs. of beef for $14.17 or about $2.50 lb.
They also had party size Lay's snacks BOGO($4.99)and I had a snail mailed Q $1/1 item so I got 2 mega-sized bags for $3.99.  If we have company Labor Day weekend or if #2 Son needs snacks I am set now.
Arnold breads were BOGO as well($4.29)and I had a $1/1 Q so 2 loaves of good bread cost me $3.29.  I also picked up some preformed burgers for cheaper than just plain old ground beef after Instant Meat discount Qs.  The flyer had some Qs as well so I got a hunk of cream cheese for free, another bag of chips for .99¢ and a case of Poland Spring water for $1.99.  Potatoes were BOGO and Jamestown bacon was 3/$9($3 each....not bad but not great but we need it for BLTs to use up all these tomatoes here).
I did splurge today and buy a pint of gelato for myself....it was on sale for $3.99.
Bad Sluggy bad!
Bananas, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, bagels 50% off, muffins 50% off, chuck steak $1 off, shrimp burgers $3 off, 2 1lb. bags of shredded cheese, sour cream, 2 bags of frozen French fries(for #2 son), a second cream cheese hunk, some deli turkey meat, a hunk of green leaf lettuce, a bag o' salad 50% off and a big box of greens 50% off round out the groceries procured today.

That trip and the unloading and putting it all away in the heat just about did me in though.

Can I just go back on vacation now??? lolz

Ok, I'll shut up now and go start adding up the receipts from the road trip and see how far off the tracks we went with the spending there.
Oy!

Sluggy




 

Never Open Medical Bills BEFORE Taking Your Blood Pressure Meds

Get the cheese out because this is going to be a bit of a whinefest.....

The bill finally arrived for my 4 day spa hospital stay at the beginning of April.
Wanna see it?

Yes, you read that correctly.......$25,688.83 for 3 days in the hospital.
O.
M.
G.

(They charged me for 4 full days even though it was 3 days.....the crooks!)

Fortunately, the amount we actually have to pay is $1,456.58, including a $150 co-pay for the Emergency room, a $1,200 co-insurance maximum per 1 person in the plan(was partially fulfilled before this bill/illness), and a deductible amount of $106.58.
Of course $1,456.58 isn't ALL we will have to pay on this illness/treatment.
This is just the First Bill.......

We pay $5,892.12 every YEAR for the honor of having this particular medical insurance policy plus $4,000 in family deductibles.

If you compile the costs of  ALL the insurance--Dental insurance, Vision insurance, Long Term Care insurance and Life insurance, we pay $9,907.56 for medical/life coverage a year.
And that's if no one gets sick and has to use any of this fine coverage!

Add in the $4,000 in deductibles for a grand total of $13,907.56 paid each year(before co-pays).

Wow!!!

I think I'll keep a running tab on my side bar for the rest of the year for our medical costs that we pay out of pocket in 2013.

On second thought, maybe I don't want to SEE the grand total we are paying out. 8-(

And I just remembered that this is a family plan HMO that doesn't increase per number of people in the family....the "family" can be 1 person or we can be the Duggars, we pay the same for however more people than just the person who's name the insurance is in.
The daughter can't use our $13K+ a year insurance plan in Louisiana, except for the prescription drug benefit and ER visits.
We have to buy her a separate policy which will cost us about another $70 a month, for another $420 in insurance costs(before co-pays)for 2013.
This raises our coverage costs at the moment to $14,327.56.

Don't get me wrong.....I appreciate that we have medical insurance!
But this third party payer system is insane!
Let's charge someone a smaller amount if they don't have insurance but if they do, well Nelly bar the door!, let's charge their insurance provider up the wazoo because we know they have deep, deep pockets.

And Obamacare?
Yah, I don't even want to see what 2014's rates will rise to!
Whatever happened to "you can keep the insurance you have now and your rates will not go up", and all that "free medical care"?
Oh I remember.....it's an illusion.  It's a lie.

It figures that as soon as I go into menopause someone figures out a scheme to give woman free birth control.
The one freebie Obama has given to the masses and I can't benefit from it......lol

The medical bills from this latest health adventure I am on are starting to come in fast & furiously.
I don't have much hope for socking any money away for my $20K Savings Challenge this month.
And that is a really sad state of affairs since May is a 3 paycheck month for us.
sigh


 So what is YOUR medical insurance and all insurances(except property insurances)costing you a year?
You might not want to add it all up.......

Sluggy