Well OK, I'm going to tackle something I actually hate talking about....bills and money primarily medical bills. This makes me cringe just thinking about it and I get so worked up about the insurance coverage the misinformation red tape and ineptness and constant barrage of under explained and overpriced bills, its just..... aaggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Yesterday I wrote about stress and how to handle it. This is where those tools for handling my stress really come into play. I have always said that when I left my job at the candy store that I felt the stress began to ease up and that I could no longer be a benefit to the company or myself. I enjoyed the chance to rest initially and accepted my new role as a patient (although a bit reluctantly). Then the bills started rolling in from the first hospitalization and I freaked out. The bills and were coming in a rate of about two or three a day, and coupled with phone calls about payment. Not to mention I was pretty much stalked in the hospital by the lady from the billing department who finally found me in radiology where she followed me back to my room to discuss my bill and handed me a "cost of care estimate" and asked if I wanted make a payment at that time. Really??? I don't even have on underwear and you want me give you money? where's my wallet well I guess she thought I had shoved up my butt or something ( which is where I wanted her to put her "cost of care estimate", if you know what I mean!) I felt so violated.
The bills were confusing and had to be reviewed constantly , they would overcharge you, double charge you, payments would cross in the mail, or they would never get thereat all, offices had crazy hours and more often than not you could never get anyone on the phone, much less get them to call you back. Sometimes I never even got a bill it just went straight into collection.
All I kept thinking was how can I can rest now I have to get busy with the bills, then I was realizing how is this going to work. I have no job, my husband can barely support us on his salary alone, we don't qualify for any kind of assistance, I can't even get food stamps to help out. What the hell are we going to do??? I was totally stressed out, as was my husband, and it was only getting worse. I think the phone calls were the worse, the collection departments were relentless and some were just plain ass mean. They would threaten, call you names, and some would just be rude. I got tired of being the financial victim and decided to be a bit more proactive. I talked to hospitals negotiated a lower bills, talked the collection companies got on payment plans and eventually found a The Help Save One of Own Foundation through a longtime family friend who cleaned the foundation chairman's home. Things started to get better slowly, the foundation helped with the insurance deductibles and other things as well. I could now focus on getting better.
It was a full time job manageing everything, and it still is. I have now become a secretary with bad typing skills and poor eyesight, a twenty year old desktop, a new laptop that I can't figure out to use, and an old printer that is somehow always out of ink, but we make it work and get it done.
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