<p>How bout some good things about a hospital?</p>
<p>In the town I went to college, there are two hospitals. The local school district changed their insurance where only one hospital was “in network” and in order to include the second hospital, employees would have to pay an upcharge each month. This second hospital says this was all done without negotiations and it seemed to be pretty heated in the paper. But what the second hospital has agreed to do is to pay these individuals up to $500 for co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses. If you rack up extensive medical bills, this may not seem like much, but it’s better than nothing ;)</p>
<p>While I wish my husband was going to be home for the holidays - he’s in Afghanistan on a nine month tour - I am thankful every single day for our health care and insurance. </p>
<p>In over twenty years of service, we only had to pay out of pocket for my meals when I was in the hospital with our three babies. We had one tussle with our local civilian hospital for bills they sent to us when our son was seen in the E.R. We knew we owed nothing, and it was settled correctly three months later. </p>
<p>My daughter recently broke her arm. We went directly to a military hospital, where I filled out a half page form, showed her I.D., and they had her on a morphine drip almost immediately. (Very clearly broken. Her wrist was wavey in places a wrist should be straight!) </p>
<p>The downside is that we do have to play the game correctly. Go through our orimary care provider to get referrals to specialists, and we choose to stay with specialists (some military, some civilian) at military facilities. The upsidenis that we never, ever, see a bill. </p>
<p>Everytime people gripe about the spector of single payer systems, I think,“Oh, if you only knew how easy life is…” </p>
<p>My husband is an active duty physician, and earns a fine living, by the way.</p>
<p>I have had the same BCBS insurer for my whole life–more than half a century. The upside is that about 80% of our state is covered by them, so most providers are used to working with them. </p>
<p>I have honestly not had all that many hassles with them, for which I am grateful. When I have had problems, we are eventually able to work things out, after many phone calls and conversations. </p>
<p>The hospital where I got a $800+ rest billed me for it, which surprised me because my share is always well under $100? I asked how much insurance had paid and why it was so high. Was told I had to pay, so I did and called insurer about it and they said I should get nearly all of it back. Called hospital again and they seemed surprised I wanted a refund, which they immediately processed. </p>
<p>Have gotten several weird irs tax notices which we’ve always forwarded to our CPA, who resolves 85% of them without any money being paid. </p>
<p>Once got a hospital bill for D’s birth more than two years after she was born. Told hospital I wouldn’t pay unless they could itemize and explain what charges were for, since insurer said it paid 100% of charges. Hospital said they didn’t keep itemization a that old and just forget the bill, which we did. </p>
<p>Still remember arguing for 6 months with insurer for right to buy portable nebulizer instead of renting it. Finally, they made an exception and allowed me to buy the blasted device and paid their share.</p>
<p>Not looking at the hows and whys of collections, does anyone else wonder how a hospital can stay in business getting roughly $3000 for a several day visit?</p>
<p>Maybe I just don’t know enough (entirely possible), but it seems the salaries of all involved (nurses, etc), the cost of the machines and upkeep, the electric bills, water bills, and general maintenance bills would add up - not to mention any insurance they, themselves, need.</p>
<p>But you have to remember it’s not just one person paying that amount. If they have 100+ patients then at $3k each that does begin to add up. It’s not perfect; just a thought…</p>
<p>OP-
Macy’s has had that weird $1.00-$2.00 charge for a long time. Most people probably don’t notice it because they simply include it with the rest of your purchased. I noticed it the one year I used my Macy’s card for a special discount and then turned around and immediately paid it off. Later, I couldn’t find my paper statement and when I called the 1-800 number, I was shocked to find out I had a $2.00 bill! When I spoke with Customer Service, I was informed that Macy always includes this $2.00 bill. If you pay your balance in full, they remove the charge before sending out the paper statement which is why I never noticed it before. While I have always paid off my balances in full, I canceled the card because I found the entire thing shady. </p>
<p>The thing that drives me crazy is those “recurring monthly fees” that hit your credit card after you have used a service that you thought was a one time deal. </p>
<p>When my elderly mother lived with me, I once used Care.Com to find a home aid when her regular nurse went on a vacation. The website had a fee for a 30 day use of the site which I signed up for. I must admit that I am a person who does not regularly review my credit card statements. Many months later I did review a statement and saw that I had been charged $70 per month for the last 6 months. I immediately called Care.Com and was told that it was MY responsibility to call after the 30 days to cancel the membership. The website does not state this if you had signed up for the 30 day membership. Needless to say I was infuriated and told them what they were doing was illegal. After much negotiation, the best I was able to do was to get a refund of 4 of the 6 additional months. </p>
<p>These companies are very short sighted. Don’t they realize the negative impact this sort of thing has on their customer relations? I will never use Care.Com again nor will I ever recommend them.</p>
<p>I check my credit card bills religiously, pay off balances every time, and this is the first time I’ve seen the weird $2.00 charge. Macy is playing with fire here, IMO. The ticked off customers like me can defect to Amazon or other retailers.</p>
<p>Ok, here is my next Macy’s rant. I got some dishes over the weekend, but it turned out that with their FF discount even without the sale the dishes were cheaper by $60. Calling did not take me anywhere, so I just ordered a new set and will take the first one back. How efficient is that, Macy’s?!</p>
<p>My favorite…my insurer paid for a regular delivery when I had a cesarean. Needless to say, the doctor AND hospital (doctor was housed in the hospital so the doc bills were also processed through the same billing department) were NOT happy to get a low payment. So they billed ME the balance. As soon as I could drive myself, I went in person to the hospital billing department.</p>
<p>Me: I just received this bill for the balance of my hospital and doctor bills. Apparently you submitted for a regular delivery. I had a cesarean.</p>
<p>Billing Person: Are you sure you had a cesarean?</p>
<p>( no kidding…I wanted to pull my pants down and show her the scar).</p>
<p>Me: yes, I am quite sure and you can call Dr. X right now to verify this.</p>
<p>There is a huge difference in price when surgery is involved in childbirth!</p>
<p>I bill each incorrect biller $75 for my time, with a statement of interest to be applied, and a note stating that responses to any further bills received and responded to will be charged at the same rate, and that their sending of the bills is an acknowledged of the amount owed for services received.</p>
<p>Works like charm. (and I once had a doctor pay it).</p>
<p>I have never billed the insurer for having to straighten out billing and would’t want to add stress to my already over-stressed healthcare providers. I would like to bill the insurer for the 6 months I had to fight with them for the privilege of buying a nebulizer (which is similar in price to an electric toothbrush) and allows our family of 4 asthmatics to stay home instead of urgent care or ER when we are having bad problems with our asthma and breathing. </p>
<p>Recently, I have noticed that when I make returns at Macy’s on unused items of clothing, the computer comes up with random amounts that it re-credits me for, that don’t seem the same as the amounts I paid. I have purchased a LOT from Macy’s recently, so I can’t readily lay hands on the receipts. I know that years ago, the computer wanted to reimburse me far less than I paid for Macy’s items and I had to dig out the receipt to prove the amount I had paid. Makes me question their computer system–me thinks it has some glitches.</p>
<p>I like that with Costco, you can bring your receipt of an item purchased within the last 30 days or so and they will make a price adjustment, no Qs asked. They are also just so NICE at our Costco about their customer service and returns. I can see why they are so popular and do such a thriving business.</p>
<p>Years ago, I ordered two twin-size mattresses from Macy’s. Of course they delivered one mattress and one box spring. No, I said; take back the box spring and bring me another mattress. Months later, after several deliveries of other mattresses, they finally did.</p>
<p>Then there was the time B. Altman’s (now out of business) delivered my room-size rug, but not the pad that had been ordered at the same time. So there I am, little me, with all my furniture pushed into the corner, and Altman’s is telling me it will be another two weeks before they can deliver the pad that’s in New Jersey to my apartment in Manhattan. That was the time I actually said, “If they can put a man on the moon, you can bring me the rug pad from New Jersey to New York today.” They complied.</p>
<p>Reminds me of the time that my 9-week-old baby was hospitalized with RSV, a serious illness that affected his breathing. He was in the hospital for five days - they put him on oxygen and gave him nebulizer treatments. When I got the long bill, it had a $500 charge for “operating room.” I called and said, “Excuse me, but he was NOT operated on.” And the person replied, “Were they THINKING about operating on him?” NO! Good grief. Back then, when we had good insurance, I was not even responsible for paying that $500, but it annoyed me that the hospital was trying to get away with it.</p>
<p>I started buying nebulizers online without a prescription or anything. I got tired of dealing with insurance over such a minor cost.</p>
<p>My D’s phone charging port had been going for quite a while and on December 8th, she couldn’t get it to charge at all with any charger in any position. The contract on her cell was up Dec. 24th (Christmas present two years ago, obviously!) and the rest of ours are up within a month. Our carrier no longer allows us to grandfather in on unlimited data so the plan was to switch when our contracts were up. I told her to just go to a Sprint store and get the phone she wanted and sign her own contract since she’s in NYC and I don’t want her to be without a phone. I had paid her bill through the 10th anyway. I figured I’d just pay the remaining 14 days on her current cell contract and then call them to cancel it. She ported her number over which triggered a $120 early termination fee on the contract- for terminating 14 days early??? I called and they did straighten it out and actually chose not to bill me for the insurance on her phone for those 14 days, but what a hassle. </p>
<p>Son’s contract is already up but mine isn’t up until Jan 17th. His phone is in super bad shape but I would like his and mine to migrate together so I have to figure out how to do this so the same thing doesn’t happen again. Ugh.</p>
<p>Macy’s is one of the few department stores remaining with convenient locations, since they closed Sears and Penny’s at most locations near us. I’m not a fan and only usually buy Christmas gifts there. Every December while shopping there and making any needed returns, I remember why I generally avoid them.</p>
<p>I hate dealing with cell phone carriers. They are worse than airlines with their bait and switch. My dad lost a phone and got a new one on Monday. We were trying to get a new one for mom and kept getting different answers from the kiosk in the mall we were trying to deal with until they finally admitted they are an authorized AT&T authorized dealer, NOT AT&T. We will be going to AT&T today instead and try to get straight answers.</p>
<p>“I have never billed the insurer for having to straighten out billing and would’t want to add stress to my already over-stressed healthcare providers.”</p>
<p>Why is my time worth any less than that of their poorly paid medical assistant?</p>
<p>I guess I have a relationship with my medical providers and errors we have found are generally from insurer, NOT the provider. I do think billing the insurer is an interesting concept and one that has crossed my mind a few times. ;)</p>