Yesterday I was supposed to have an ultrasound along with my prenatal appointment. We tried twice and no dice:
We got there at 9:30a for the ultrasound before the prenatal appointment (Kyle got off work so that he could come), and we found out from the tech that our insurance requires all ultrasounds to be pre-certified/pre-approved by the company, which no one had bothered to tell us. Thank the Lord that that tech was looking out for us instead of just going ahead and doing it; we would have never been able to foot the bill on top of everything else that’s been going on.
So we decided to go ahead and have the prenatal exam and reschedule the ultrasound for 3:30p same day to give the office time to go ahead and hopefully get the approval. I took Kyle back to work so he could teach his afternoon class and we headed back when he was done. As we were walking in the door, I got a call saying that the office had been unsuccessful in contacting the company to get approval. Since we were already there we decided to go on up while the office tried to call again.
Once upstairs the receptionist said that the company was saying that our insurance company was tellling them a different start date for our policy. Kyle and I had been told that the start date was Oct. 1st and the company was insisting that it was Oct. 19th. Now Kyle starts calling people to see what in the world is going on, while I try to keep from crying in my frazzled and rather frustrated state.
After several phone calls, Kyle was finally able to get through to someone with at least some partial answers and there has been some major miscommunication going on about our policy. Apparently, the company and the school had just resettled their contract for a shorter 30 wait period instead of the 90 wait period for new teachers and Kyle’s signing on as a teacher fell inbetween the time windows. Our cards arrived in time for use after the 30 wait period and since the school had insisted that we would be good to go by the beginning of Oct., I went ahead and scheduled my appointments. If I had known that there was a later start date, I wouldn’t have made my appointments.
What’s really weird is the fact that the start date that the company had given the office was after a 60 day wait period, which is completely wrong. Kyle said that the rep. said that we were placed in the wrong waiting period and that half of the people at the office said we should be in the 30 day while the other half said we should be in the 90 day period. Kyle should be getting a call today to find out the final answer from the ‘discussion.’
I have two other ultrasounds scheduled; one for this Friday and one for next Friday (which would be the end of the 60 day period). I’m praying that they go ahead and put us in the 30 wait period so that we won’t have to pay for the appointment yesterday. If they don’t, we’ll be receiving a bill. And then I still don’t know if they’ll approve the ultrasound. What a mess, and I certainly wasn’ta pretty site yesterday with having to deal with 5 weeks of anticipation to be plummet twice in one day. I hate emotional roller coasters, especially when I have less control of said emotions.
neumatikos 
Yikes, sounds worse than our first Ultrasound experience. Our ultrasound was scheduled early because we weren’t able to hear heart tones on the doppler. The lab we used was very busy and the staff was edgy. They even had me wait in another room while they asked my wife “personal” questions… Though, it’s all just water under the bridge now. Once we saw our baby, our smiles returned and good tears came to our eyes.
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Fortunately for us, it was the insurance that was weird. The OB staff was wonderful. In fact, the great terror would have been if we had not been told these things. We would have gone ahead with the ultrasound, only to find that our insurance wouldn’t pay for it – leaving us with a $420 medical bill. NOT what we need right now.
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How frustrating! I hope things get smoothed out with the ins. soon.
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