Adventures in Medical Land

As a card carrying middle-aged grouch I've noticed that my body is falling apart faster than a Yugo sedan in a Detroit winter. The eyes went bad a long time ago and the hearing is also on the fritz. Then a disc herniated in the back which caused excruciating pain. Weeks of ice, pills, and therapy including being stretched on a modern version of a torture rack finally got the pain to a manageable level. "Our goal is to manage your pain" the therapist told me. I thought the goal was to make the pain go away. More recently shoulder pain in both shoulders turned out to be torn muscles. More therapy, ice, pills. "Our goal is manage your pain" the therapist told me again. This was starting to get old - wait, that's me, I'm getting old.

What more could happen? How about a torn something or other in my left knee that randomly causes me to be crippled and literally unable to use the leg until whatever has come adrift floats back into its corner to lurk and strike again. That was enough - I'm getting something fixed once and for all. No more therapy, no more 'managing the pain'.

Sooo...see the surgeon, set a date to get the work done. Easy, huh? Not so fast Bub. First I need to get the pre operation inspection from my primary care doc. This means a co-pay, plus deductibles, plus time off of work. Ok, I will do that. Ready now? Nope, then we have the 'day before the operations visit' with the surgeon. This means another co-pay plus deductibles, plus time off of work. Ok, I will have to do that. So, every thing's ready? Are you stupid? Of course not. Check with the Surgeon's office: do you take my insurance? Yep. Great. Check with the anesthesiologist: do you take my insurance? Nope. Great. Now what? Call the surgeon's office - what do we do now? He has no clue. Mary suggests calling the insurance company ( I was going to that next anyway). The anesthesiologist isn't covered, but the facility is. So, in a round-about way the knock out doc is covered. Great! Not so fast. When the sleep doc submits his bill it will be rejected. Why? Well he isn't in my medical plan, you twit! But, when the surgery facility submits their bill then the insurance company will acknowledge that the sleep doc is in fact more or less covered under the plan and pay his tariff. Unless they forget all of this and fail to pay the bill. Which means that I will have to arm wrestle UHC best out of three to force them to recognize their own policy and pay up.

It's almost enough to turn me into a socialized medicine proponent. I said almost enough, not enough!! Sheesh!

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