It never hurts to ask!

So, a HUGE stress in our life right now is the fact that we discovered that our insurance does not cover maternity stuff. Yep, that's right.....nothing related to having a baby. NOTHING. The frustrating thing about this is that when we purchased our plan 3 years ago (we really like our plan and have never had any problems).....we intentionally added the maternity rider because we definitely planned on having another child in the near future. Unfortunately there was a big miscommunication between us and our insurance agent and the adding of that rider never happened. So, for 3 years we thought we had it and were paying for it and we weren't.

Once we found this out I ended up on the phone with every Ob/Gyn office on our side of town to find out what it would cost me to use them. I made a decision solely based on $ when I chose my doctor. Thankfully, he was the doctor my primary care physician had recommended and I like him, so I don't feel so bad that I made the decision based on money because he's a good doctor. Then, I was on the phone with the 2 hospitals that my doctor will deliver at to find out what their self-pay price is to have a baby there. So, I've picked my hospital and as long as we pay 30 days in advance of my due date.....we'll get a pretty significant discount. THEN....came the things not included in those 2 fees - lab work and ultrasounds.

For my last ultrasound if we paid on that day we got a 25% discount bringing the price down from over $500 to $399. Isn't that crazy expensive??? Then...the bills for my initial pregnancy work ups came in from the lab. I SHOULD have told the lab up front that I was going to be self-pay and gotten a discount that day but I didn't really know how all this worked at the time. So, I didn't. But, this week an angel that works for Mid-America Labs has helped me out. Her name is Kathy and I'm sure I'll never meet her since she lives in Pennsylvania but I really really really like her.

I just called and explained my situation to her. I had one lab bill for $438 and one lab bill for $369. Normally if insurance were covering the procedures.......insurance would tell them what they could charge me and it would be much less. So, I just asked if they could give me an "insurance" price even though I wasn't an insurance company and had no real negotiating power. She talked to me like I was an actual person and ladies and gentlemen....she got the job done. She called me back this afternoon and said, "Hey Jill (like we were best friends now).....kuddos to me.......I got one bill down to $191 and the other down to $175. You will be getting a new invoice in the mail and you can just get rid of the other ones." So, yes....kuddos to Kathy. $191 and $175 is still a lot of $ but it's much much much better!

So, it never hurts to ask! And, yes there are people out there in medical billing that are understanding.

And, did you know that in 2014 this wouldn't even be an issue? Because at that point every insurance plan has to cover maternity stuff. Agh! Doesn't help me now, huh?

Just wanted to share this because it made me happy to have someone so helpful. Seriously we were on the phone 3 times this week and she was always great. Thank you, Kathy whoever you are. And, thank you God for ALWAYS providing for what we need. We may never have more than we need but we always have exactly what we need.