7/11/04
First, I'd like to state for the record that Tessa and I are not actively trying to have kids, even though most readers of this blog think I've been coyly hinting at it. She gets mad if I go farther than that into our personal lives, so I'll just state that the avoidance of sushi and the intake of folic acid is something all women of childbearing years have to consider, unless they want to die childless, alone, and drinking Ol' Grandad in a dishwasher crate.
Which leads me to Today's Rant: A person very, very dear to us just went through a miscarriage, which, as anyone can attest, is painful and miserable. I know it first hand, since my mom had six miscarriages between Steve and me. You'd think she might have gotten the hint after the third or fourth miscarriage that something was gumming up the works, but hey, it was the Summer of Love and there was a lot going on.
My dime-store latent Mormonism (or my desire for a happy ending) tells me that I was just standing in line, waiting for the right body so I could come on out. I would have preferred one without gout, but you can't have everything.
Anyway, our dear friend, whom I'll call Louisa, had to go back to the doctor yesterday to have a post-op check-in and get a clean bill of health. And what a bill you get: apparently, having a miscarriage is not only awful, but awful expensive.
So expensive that Louise asked if her original $350 hospital deposit - required at this well-respected OB-GYN on Park Avenue - was going to help offset the cost. "No," was the snotty reply, "that money was for the pregnancy."
"Let me get this straight," she asked, "I have this HUGE bill AND you're keeping my original deposit?"
"Yes."
"So not only do I get a miscarriage, and a huge bill, but I'm further punished by giving up my deposit?"
"Yes. That deposit was for this particular pregnancy, and since you didn't go through with it, you don't get your money back."
"What? I didn't CHOOSE to have a miscarriage!"
"It doesn't matter."
"Can I use my deposit for the NEXT baby?"
"No."
And so I must ask, my fellow Americans: in what fucking world is this acceptable?
Posted by irw at July 11, 2004 11:36 PMThey don't ask for a deposit in iowa. I'm thinking that's an east coast screw job.
Does your friend have health insurance? She should take a look at her insurance policy to confirm whether the Park Avenue twit is correct. Your friend can file the NY equivalent of a grievance and appeals with her insurance carrier as well. If the deposit is part of the OB/GYN's contract with the patient, I would ask for someone (hopefully there is a kind-hearted person working in that medical office) to show me exactly what contractual language supports this kind of craziness. It could be the twit's interpretation of the language instead of the actual contract language. Doctor's offices and the people who work there drive me nuts! Oftentimes, they make decisions without knowing the proper protocol dictated by the insurance policies. People like your friend are often too upset or distracted by medical problems to question what the twits are saying. Sorry to hear about your friend.
And if none of the stuff suggested by Laurie works (or maybe even if it does), she should write a letter to the physician(s) who run the practice outlining how ridiculous that fee is and asking for a refund within 7 days or else she will take her business elsewhere (and maybe cc the hell-raisin' consumer advocate of her choice). And then do it. It ain't like there aren't plenty of good doctors in NYC. Because healthcare is such an emotional issue, people forget that as a patient you are your doctor's "customer." If Home Depot rips you off you raise hell and demand a refund. You have the same rights at a doctor's office. Or a lawyer's -- 'cause they tend to do the same thing. Nothing will change until people question doctor and lawyer fees. It's a free market economy, but for a century or more doctors and lawyers have done a great job acting like they're above that. If we all acted together, they wouldn't be.
What Laurie said. Sometimes it takes 4-5 calls to straighten these things out. It's a sad fact of life.
I have a relative who has some mental health issues, and I often am the one who has to make the calls because after 2 or 3, he's on the verge of a breakdown. Which is one thing the well-to-do don't understand about how hard it is for low-income people or people with problems to get the right kind of help and support...but I won't digress into a political rant here.
Anyway, in short, that's ridiculous.
i am happy to say that i just prevailed in a situation like this with a hospital - although i am depressed that i had to go through it.
after getting a $1500 bill (after insurance), i just kept calling people and saying, 'this is insane and i am not paying this.' eventually, i got someone who agreed with me and the bill was cancelled (i had already paid over $300 AND my insurance company had paid over $300). it is unbelievably insane, and i can't believe how much more upset i would have been if my condition had been serious or tragic.
Having nearly died twice in the past five years (meow, huh?), I'm intimately aware of how frustrating it is to deal with insurance companies and doctors' offices. Louisa has my total sympathy (especially considering that she's going through something so gut-wrenching at the same time - also something I can identify with) and I hope she's able to get this straightened out. Give 'em hell.
I should have asked this on the last blog, but had to catch a plane shortly after my last post. Scruggs, if you're reading this, were you a ZTA at Carolina? I had a sorority sister by that last name and putting the puzzle pieces together with the help of the GAA directory, I think it might be you.
Jennifer, yep. guess there aren't many of us.
shannonvecc@charter.net
1) I'm always very sorry to read about miscarriages. My condolences and sympathy to your friend.
2) Things like this make me deeply grateful I live in Canada. Best of luck to your friend in getting all this straightened out.
P. S. There is no good reason to avoid sushi in pregnancy. No studies exist that show that it's bad for expecting mothers or fetuses. Thousands if not millions of Japanese women have eaten sushi during pregnancy with no ill effects. I'm eight weeks pregnant myself, and I asked my (Guatemalan MD) midwife, who has attended 500 births, about sushi. She said it was fine.