Early Present From Unlikely Source

Boy, I received a heck of an early Christmas present from Blue Cross/Blue Shield today.

Let me give you some background info. First of all, as we all know, insurance companies are evil. Darth Vader, Hitler, Rod B., child sex offender kinda evil. That one in the middle might be a stretch to make evil, but you get my drift. Cindy had a special level of loathsome-ness for insurance companies. I think her exact quote was, "I hate ‘em."

I, too, have a love-hate relationship with my health insurance. So it was surprising to me when a couple of weeks ago I received a condolence card from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Inside was a magnet with a lady’s name and an 800 phone number. Written in the card was: "If I can be of any assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to call me at the number on the magnet." I was shocked. BCBS is huge and every time I have called, there’s a new person to deal with in "Customer Service". So today I called the magnet. She said that from now on, I am to call her and she will take care of everything. I explained the $16,000 bill, the $12,000 bill, the $9000 bill, the $1000 bill, the $1000 bill, and the untold others which are still pending from Cindy’s many stays at Barnes or with Hospice.

She listened. I explained. I questioned. She said she would work on it. We agreed she would call me back on Friday with any additional information. At 3pm today she called back with my present. She said she just couldn’t wait until Friday to give me some good news. After some wrangling with Barnes, she was able to convince them to write off the $12,000 bill. She said the $16,000 bill needs additional information which she would request herself from Barnes, the $9000 had yet to be processed, and the two $1000 bills were penalties for not getting pre-certified at Barnes within 24 hours of the admittance. She said she was not done working on all of these and would call me back on Friday.

At 5:30pm, she called me again. She just had to tell me that she had one of the $1000 penalties waived because the hospital pre-certification was late getting to BCBS, but they still received it. The second penalty was still there and Barnes needed to send the pre-cert notice and then she might be able to get that waived, too. (After all, if you waive $12,000 - what is another G?) She also said that she had the $9000 bill processed and it was covered 100%. I told her she "did good work today!" WOW.... I hear all the time about major medical bills sinking families for a long time - if they ever recover. Is there a more appropriate time to worry about money and hospital bills than right after your favorite person in the world dies? What a load off my mind. She said that she would be getting back to me in about 20 days with an update on the remaining amounts but told me to call her anytime if I had questions.

I don’t think she owned a sleigh or had a red suit with a bushy white beard, but she sure did come bearing presents!