I really like my surgeon...

Dec 20, 2010

I really like my surgeon and the other doctors and the nutritionists.  But my doctor's office staff sucks!

I have to self-pay for the surgery.  Because I am disabled, I have Medicare part A and BCBS.  Since I am going into the hospital, BCBS won't precertify and Medicare doesn't precertify.  With no pre certifications, the hospital won't schedule the surgery without some money upfront.  Just so you know, it took the doctor's staff three months to explain this to me.  Not because I wasn't understanding, but because they didn't understand or maybe because they didn't want to do some extra work to have an understanding of it.

So I took out a loan with Care Credit and paid for everything with that.  I asked the doctor's office how many months "interest free" I could have.  They said 24 months.  I said great, let's do 24 months "interest free".  So they put it through and I prayed all was done correctly.

I didn't' pray hard enough.  I got my first statement and they put the wrong codes in.  In fact the clueless wonder that did it put it in for 24 months of a fixed payment WITH interest at 14.9%.  I was furious!!! 

So when I called Care Credit to find out why my account was like that, he informed me that the office did not enter the correct code and told me to tell them to enter it such and such a way and if they had trouble they should call Care Credit to walk them through it.

So I got the clueless wonder on the phone.  I was really trying to be nice.  Really.  I was.  She told me that's not what I asked for.  I said are you kidding?  We had three conversations about "interest only".  So fix it and here's how.  She tells me she can't because the checks have been cut.  So I said oh you're going to fix this since you screwed up.  I am going into surgery tomorrow morning, drinking this liquid diet and I had a family member die a week ago (Prudence, though a cat, is more loved than many members of my family).  Oh and I raised my voice. 

So I told her to get it fixed today and call me back or my mother would be coming over tomorrow to the office after my surgery and the last thing they want is my mother fooling with this while her daughter is having major surgery.

I got a phone call 30 minutes later saying that they had corrected everything.  But they could only give me 18 months "interest free".  I said fine.  I just don't want to pay interest, otherwise I would have written a check.....

I will be reviewing my surgeon and the staff later in the process.  It's going to be pretty mixed up! 

0 Comments