Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Afternoon reading...

Okay. So here's a pretty good story from last week.

On Friday, when the doctors started talking about sending Olivia home on Monday, the wheels started turning. The discharge nurse began diligently working on all the little things to get us out of there. We are still "between insurance companies," so a major concern was, who do you bill when we get prescriptions, oxygen, supplies, etc... In order to start Olivia on the All Kids program, she has to meet a "spend down." However, the hospital refuses to bill for a patient until after discharge. So, how do we meet our spend down when we have no medical bills until she's discharged? And she can't get discharged until she has her medical card to be able to buy the necessities for home. To make a really long story a little bit shorter, the discharge nurse explained the situation and said that the hospital had to fax at least a partial bill to Olivia's case worker or she will be in the hospital for eternity. Her response: "I can't fax the bill. It's 445 pages long!"


Here it is. The partial bill. It is important to note that this does not include surgery, anesthesia, anything done by St. Jude, radiology fees, lab fees, physician fees, etc... I went to pick it up from the billing office and it was located in a box on the receptionist's desk. A box! Oh, the memories this girl is making!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I thought we had it bad when our oldest came home after 5 weeks in the NICU. The first check to his pediatrician revealed a medical file about an inch thick, compared to the 10 year old who went in before us who's file looked like it had barely been used. Good luck, I hope everything goes ok with insurance, I know what that's like!
Becky (Kristen's sister)

Lindsay said...

Your kids look so happy to be together! I'm sure if there was a picture of you, your smile would be even bigger. God is good!

Ardell Thompson said...

Dear Zac and Family: Just got a chance to peek in and the picture of your children together says it all. Nothing in the world can match it. Enjoy the rest of the summer. I will keep peeking in.

Judy said...

It's so great to see the three of them together at HOME!! I hope you've had a moment to take a deep breath and savor the family time together :)
That medical bill is incredible, although I can believe it. It's almost hard to imagine how the hosptital can keep it all straight with all the changes they were constantly making to Olivia. I hope the insurance and paperwork part of all of this isn't a nightmare! Does anyone actually have to read that stack??

The Newmans said...

Julie
I am so excited for all of you and hope that you all enjoy being home again