That pain I had in my face a few days ago that made me weep like a small toddler who’d just had her candy stolen? It was dentistry related and several hundred dollars later, I’m right as rain.
Last November, I had to find a new dentist. My old dentist had gone out of business and because I’d moved, I had no idea – so I started making some phone calls. I thought I was in luck, because I found someone right across the street from our office – which is a total score, logistically speaking. What I didn’t realize is that what I’d traded for the ease of commute was any basic knowledge of medical billing.
It started like this:
I go to the appointment, they tell me I need to have all of this work done, so we make up this treatment plan.
They tell me that my portion of the bill is $208 and some change.
I pay my portion and visit two more times to get the work done.
Between my second and third visit, I get a note from my insurance company saying I’d “reached my plan maximum”. So the phone calls start.
I thought we had it all squared away in January, when I never heard from them again.
I was wrong.
Yesterday, when I decided it might be a good idea for me to get my xrays from them and go see another Dr. – they informed me that in order to get them, I’d need to pay off the balance on my account. Ugh.
More faxing, more calls, more frustration and I’m still not sure things are as they should be.
I did, however, find a new dentist and he’s great…so far.
I’m anxious to see how the billing comes out. I paid the ‘estimated cost’ yesterday and it was very similar to the amount I’d paid at the other dentist – so we’ll see.
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In other medical news – my meds were altered yet again. On my way to the dentist yesterday, my Hepatologist called me to tell me that my numbers weren’t coming down, so we’re back up to the dose I was on in Sept/Oct. I’m especially not excited about this, because my face was just starting to not have those bumps on it and the thought of dealing with more and more swelling in my feet and ankles kind of makes me want to crawl under my bed and cry…but we’ll see.
I’m still hoping to paint my bedroom this weekend.
I’ve also decided, I think, that I want to hire a cleaning lady again. The stress of having to get it done myself (or fight with the kid/husband to get them to do it) is just to much…it takes much less effort to write a check – so that’s what I’m going to do.
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