Adventures in Medical Land part two

So, I was supposed to have the knee operation today, but here I am typing and not recovering from the operation. Yesterday I had my day-before-the-operation visit with the surgeon. We chatted, he told me that he would see me the next day for the operation and I went on my way to work. At lunch I received a call from his billing operation with the stunning news that they no longer accept my health insurance, and in fact did not accept it when I first visited the doctor in January! Needless to say the operation was called off. The doctor offered to let me make payments on the operation if I wished to proceed which I (not surprisingly) declined. I later got a call from the doctor himself who apologised and told me that 'it was just one of those things' and that he felt bad about how it all turned out. He referred me to another doctor in the valley to see.

Another surprise, the doctor saw me that same day and the surgery is scheduled for Thursday; same location, different doctor. Of course I had to do the same procedures with the new doc that I already went through with the previous doc which will result in more bills and co-pays.

I had contacted my insurance company twice to be sure that the doctor was covered by my policy. They assured me that he was but he wasn't and the contract that they had him under had expired (according to the billing office) years earlier. It seemed that I had taken every precaution regarding the insurance and it still had problems!

Stay tuned for further developments after the operation....