October, November, December and January or the Busy Surgery Season

Ahhh. The first of the year. My co-workers and I will be re-verifying all the scheduled procedures, the authorizations and that moms Medicare/Medicaid combo didn’t get turned into a Med-advantage plan and now mamma needs an authorization for that hip surgery you conveniently scheduled for the 2nd business day of the new year.

Also, we are looking at the list of insurances that we are no longer contracted with. We have a few new ones to watch out for. Ugh. Don’t shoot the messenger when you get that phone call that says “Hey, we no longer take your insurance. So, we need s $40,000-dollar deposit for that hip surgery.”

October, November, December and January are probably the busiest times of the year for scheduled procedures. Either trying to get the procedure done while your out of pocket is met or dragging on until the first of the year when your eligible for that exchange or new employers’ program.

I was just going to talk shop and complain about the new year, but let’s take a minute to talk about…

If it is emergent, go to the ER. The insurance process for an ER admission is way different then scheduled stuff. If your having what feels like heart issues, ER. If you truly can wait – the ER will tell you what you need to follow up on. Usually there is no coming back from dead, just saying.

Sometimes, if you wait and see your family doctor, they will do an EKG in house. Then they will send it to someone to read, because it may not say enough. The specialist reads it and wants an appointment. You go to the specialist appointment, and they wheel you from the specialist office in a wheelchair to the ER cause you should have gone there in the first place. Worked the ER greeter and my desk for one of my financial counselor jobs was in an office off the ER greeter desk.

Don’t mess with your heart and don’t mess with your eyes. 

There is another scheduled surgery season, when kids get out of school for the summer.  These were primarily dental procedures in the last facility I worked at.  No were near the push at the end of the year, but if you looking at these surgeries, try to book the surgeon early so you get a better choice of dates from your provider if its for your child and your doctor is okay with putting it out until summer.