Some Good News and Some Possibly Good News

The Good news:

My dad is going home from the hospital today!  ODD compiled a list of his ailments a while ago so I thought I’d post it here with a couple of updates.

-41 days in two hospitals (5 days in one, 36 in another)
-25 days on the ventilator
-a trip with life flight
-H1N1 pneumonia
-Bacterial pneumonia
-Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
-Severe pyrexia
-Deep Vein Thrombosis to both calfs and groin
-Pulmonary embolism
-Hemothorax requiring a thorocentesis
-Pneumothorax requiring a chest tube insertion
-Respiratory acidosis
-Delirium/”sun downing”
-Ileus
-Likely transient ischaemic attack vs drug-drug interaction vs diffuse intravascular coagulopathy
-A code for hypoxemia/bradycardia
-Multiple reintubations (some intentional, some not)
-4 feeding tube and nasogastric tube replacements (some intentional, most not)
-Having Jazz admitted at the U with another heart arrythmia complication and at the same time missing Thanksgiving
-Getting Acinetobacter – a bacterial infection that has colonized.

He’s going home today with oxygen.  There are still 4 weeks ahead of no outside contact because his immune system is so compromised but at least he’ll be in his own bed with all of our family again.

The Possibly Good News is:

I called about my whole ridiculous insurance thing this morning.  Again.  Yes.  Again.

*sigh*

Will my existence in the seventh circle of hell that is government insurance never end!?

I’ve been calling both Anthem Blue Cross (through medi-cal) and the hospital Billing at least a couple of times a week for the last, well, what feels like forever.  Finally on Monday when I called Billing again they made the realization that they had been sending the recoded (for the 80 millionth time) bill to the wrong people at the wrong address, and had also tried e-submitting it again.  I reminded them it MUST BE SNAIL MAILED!! and confirmed the correct address for ABC.

I called Billing again today to make sure it was sent.  They didn’t have a note of it being sent so I had the lady on the phone actually write in my notes the correct address and in big, bold letters that it must be mailed and she said they would try it again.  I also asked if they could send me a copy of the claim they will be submitting to ABC so if they persist in not doing it perhaps I could submit it myself for crying out loud and put an end to this unbelievably long line of idiocy.  I was told they can’t.  I’m still not happy about that.

Then I called ABC to see if they’d received anything yet.  Since I talked them everyone on Monday I didn’t think it would have reached them and been processed yet but low and behold, THEY HAD A RECORD OF IT HAVING BEEN RECEIVED!

Folks, that is what I call a Christmas miracle!

After almost 9 months of this garbage I may finally be getting somewhere (I know I’ve said that before to no avail but still, one can hope).

Now I get to wait 30-45 days (yeah, right) for it to be reviewed.  When I asked the guy on the phone what I could do to make sure they stay on top of it he told me to call back in two weeks to make sure things are still moving forward.  So that means I’ll be calling back in one week.

On another high note – I didn’t call anyone a liar today, though my mom was a little disappointed to hear it (she found that incident rather humorous), and I remained relatively calm while conversing with these people when all I really wanted to do was scream obscenities at them and tell them how badly they’ve done their jobs, though I did passive-aggressively let them know that this was something I’d been dealing with for a ridiculous amount of time and their incompetence was the reason for it.  I’m polite that way.

ODD was home during my calls today and continues to be shocked by the (dis)service we’ve been receiving.  Honestly.  It isn’t me just being an idiot.  The lack of helpfulness is astounding.

So. . . yay?  I think?  I hope?  It isn’t over yet but now that the claim has been received that should be a big step forward.