Damage
So, I was in a bike accident a little over a month ago, for which I spent a little time in the hospital. Yesterday, I got a bunch of my bills. Jesus. Even with health insurance, this is the 3rd most expensive thing I’ve ever had to pay for (behind my house and my bad-ass Macintosh). The strange thing is that they send you each bill separately, so you get one for the CT scan, one for the stitches, etc. This is sort of panic inducing because you don’t really have an idea of what the total is. It just keeps going up and up the more of the bills you look at and you don’t know where it will stop. This is cruel. With all the money they will be getting from me, I think the least they could do is add it all up and send me one bill.
Besides giving me a financial heart attack, yesterday was also the birthday of two old friends of mine, so Ariel and I did a little party hopping. Seeing a bunch of friends and meeting some new people managed to erase the earlier panic nicely (or was that the booze?). The most interesting small world encounter of last night goes to a Russian woman we met, who’s name I sadly can’t remember. In the course of conversation, it came out that she went to the University of Tuebingen in Germany. Tuebingen, besides being an absolutely beautiful city, is the home town of an old family friend named Birgit and is relatively close to Heidelberg, where I used to live. - (Aside: It’s fun to speak German with somebody who has a similar dialect as you. Normally, Germans make fun of me unless I make the effort to speak in “high” German. I imagine it’s sort of like hearing a french exchange student speaking English with Australian accent. Which I’m sure is very funny.) - Anyway, it also turns out she is from Siberia, so I mentioned that Ariel’s cousin had gone to a camp there last year on an exchange program. Totally coincidentally, this camp happens in the same tiny little town she grew up in. The woman that runs the camp was her neighbor. “That tiny town in SIBERIA that your cousin spent last summer in? I was born there.” Crazy.
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August 27th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Funny you should use that example. I know a French woman who emigrated to Australia–so she spoke English with a French-Australian accent. It was quite lovely. She had been there long enough that a lot of the French was gone and mostly she sounded Australian to me.
Glad you are healing…hope your heart can hold up until all the bills are in.
August 28th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Dude, I just got the skinny on your injuries via trawling A’s Flickr account (via Yelahneb). Yikes.
And now you’re being nickel-and-dimed to death by hospital bills. This is all just wrong, so wrong.
I’m glad you’re OK, though.
Cerise
August 28th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Thanks.
I’m fairly lucky all things considered. I can’t complain too much, since my head is still functional (at least as much as it ever was:). And at least I have insurance. I can’t imagine what you would do if you had none, which is the case for many people in this country.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Man, I do not know. Moving to Sweden…
August 30th, 2006 at 12:25 am
When it comes to medical bills I learned my lesson this past year myself. Planning a homebirth in order to save some money? Think again. With an average of $5000 (without complications and not including the monthly fees for insurance) it’s not a poor people’s thing - which I got accused of!
Das haelst Du doch am Kopf nicht aus! ;D Nix mit Sozialsystem hier…
August 30th, 2006 at 7:31 am
Eben jetzt wenn mein Kopf wieder gesund ist! Die machen wohl Witze.
August 30th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
more unsolitcited advice from the frequently injured: make sure that you confirm that these are not covered by your insurance!
i can’t tell you how many bills i received from the hospital that should have been billed to my insurance company. either they were trying to double bill, or insurance required documentation they didn’t have or the insurance company might be pushing back and negotiating the amount due, and they will sometimes bill the patient in hopes that they’ll get paid faster or that the patient will pick up the difference.
at any rate call your insurance company with every bill to confirm what should be covered.
on another note, a member of my team at work was killed in a cycling accident last night. so i just wanted to let you know again how very happy i am you are still with us my friend.
August 31st, 2006 at 11:37 am
Damn. I’m sorry to hear about your co-worker, that’s terrible. My heart goes out. That’s not an easy thing.