CD7, Insurance Basterds

I cannot believe I'm about to write this super boring post, but I figure this is a big part of the IF experience, too, so I might as well take note of it.

Insurance woes!

(I'm going to try to keep this short.)

I'm a little worried about my insurance coverage.

2 weeks ago I was under the impression that we were fully covered for IUIs, and then I got a voicemail from my RE's office saying "can you please call us, we need to talk to you about your insurance." I got the voicemail at around 7pm, so I had to wait to call until the morning, and I couldn't believe how much agony I was in for those 12 hours. I thought for sure they were going to tell me that my insurance had cancelled me or something (how that would even be possible I don't know, but I was thinking worst case scenario). Turns out that I'm not covered for IUIs after all. Wait, what? I've already done 2 IUIs with you guys, and I spoke to someone in your billing department who told me "you're definitely covered, I checked twice to make sure." But now I'm not? Apparently now my insurance company is saying I'm not covered, I've never been covered, end of story. So, the good news is, it seems I'm covered for b/w and u/s and office visits. The bad news is the IUI itself is not covered, and it's $500. Which means as of right now I already owe them $1000, and in another week I'll owe another $500. Okay, not the end of the world, but certainly not good news.

Then today I opened a bill from the lab that processes my b/w. It was for $247 from a hcg/progesterone/beta test from 9/28/09. What? I've had a TON of b/w already and I've never been billed before. I then noticed in my drawer that I had a bill for a $20 copay from this same lab that I paid back in October, also for hcg/progesterone/beta, on 9/30/09. This one said that my insurance had covered it. Weird.

So, now I'm worried. And now I'm starting to think, maybe I'm actually not covered for anything... and maybe they just haven't been sending me the bills yet? Or maybe they've covered some of the b/w and u/s by mistake, and if I call about this bill it will alert them to the mistake and they'll tell me that I now have to pay for everything.

But, I couldn't just ignore the $247 bill, so I called the lab and asked why the b/w from 9/30 was covered, but the same b/w from 9/28 was not? They told me that they submitted the b/w that was not covered to my insurance company, and because my insurance was not "in network" with them, it was not covered. But the other b/w was submitted to my same insurance, but in a neighboring state (what?!) and that insurance company covered it.

WTF?

Anyway, she told me she would go ahead and resubmit the bill to the insurance company that covered the other one and I could, for now, ignore the current bill.

I am so confused. And worried. If we had to pay $247 every time for the b/w, that would be about $1000 each cycle, plus the $500 IUI. And if it turns out the u/s and doctor's appointments aren't covered either, we could be looking at $2500 a cycle, I'd say. At that point I would consider it no longer worth it to do IUIs. $2500 for a 15% success rate doesn't make sense when you could spend $10,000 for a 50% success rate. Right?

Ugh, I don't know what to do. I'm too afraid to call my insurance company and draw attention to myself in case they've been unwittingly covering things that aren't really covered.

This was a much longer post that what I'd planned. And even more boring than I'd thought it would be! Sorry!

In other news, my last shot of gonal-f (75iu) is tonight. No shot tomorrow and then RE Friday morning, and we'll see if these estrogen patches have "fluffed" (thanks to Such a Good Egg for that lovely way of phrasing it!) my lining to a nice pillowy thickness!

Oh, also, I realized that in my next to last post (the one about the changes I was making this cycle) I wrote "no alcohol until I'm knocked up." As if I will begin imbibing again as soon as I see that second line. Let me clarify: no alcohol until after I'm done making (or not making, as the caase may be) a baby(s). Now let's see how long I can stick to that one...