It’s almost been a whole year with K. again! A whole year of her private practice up and running well. And it’s almost taken that whole year to figure out how to get my insurance to reimburse me for our sessions.
What a frustrating mess it has been, to navigate Independence Blue Cross. I have submitted claims, resubmitted, resubmitted, and resubmitted and they kept getting denied for odd reasons, like “provider name not on claim form.” Ehhh…yes it is. That’s sort of the most important information and the first line you fill in!
I made so many phone calls to them, too. It was a nightmare. Each time I’d get a young woman who was clearly sick and tired of being yelled at all day on the phone, and they were worn so thin they just didn’t have the heart to help. You could tell all they wanted to do was end the call and move on to the next. On one call, the woman said, “We told your provider last time to submit X and Y.” When I tried to correct her, that nobody told my provider anything, she has never called, and I have never signed a consent to release information to Independence Blue Cross, they were like, “No it says right here your provider called.” And she went on to repeat the conversation I had with them previously (not K.).
I also wrote letters and (I hate to do this) but got to the point of threatening legal action. Finally, I had no choice but to involve the Pennsylvania Insurance Commission. Anyway, that did the trick. I have all my sessions from last year reimbursed and this year through March.
One of the things they wanted from K. is all the sessions neatly tallied for the month on one paper with a bunch of codes. She gives me individual receipts at each session with the same information (but they didn’t care for those). Right now, she is tallying up April and May for me to mail in.
I’m reviewing at at home, and I see two sessions are missing. I call her back and leave a message. We have a phone tag conversation. Essentially she says she wants me to check my receipts and she will check hers.
I have a basket on the kitchen table where I keep receipts, bills, and mail. I’m digging through the individual receipts and wouldn’t you know, I can find every single one on the tallied sheet but not the two that are missing from K’s. list.
A week goes by. She asks me to keep looking.
Another week goes by. She asks me to keep looking.
Now I’m frustrated I can’t find these two receipts. Well, this morning I was putting some bags into the trunk of my car as I was heading off to work. There, I see two folded-up-in-squares papers sticking out from underneath my trunk organizer (where I keep the extra washer fluid container, jumper cables, etc).
“That’s odd.” I think to myself. My trunk is super organized. Everything has its place. Why are these two papers there and folded up so small? I slide the organizer over a bit and yank out the two papers. As I unfold them, I can clearly see K.’s logo on the top of the page. “Son of a — it’s those receipts!”
So, on the way to work, I call K. and we start playing phone tag again. On the way home, she calls one more time and we finally connect.
“Hi Nel, it’s K.!” She says cheerily.
“Hi, K.”
“I got your messages, and the information on your receipts matches the copies I have.”
“Oh, good.” I sigh. Now she can re-type the tally for April and May, and I can go through the process of dealing with Independence Blue Cross again.
“I just wanted you to know the issue wasn’t that I didn’t believe you had the receipts. I wanted you to actually locate them.”
“What?” I hate…hate…HATE when K. has me doing something and then I find out there was some psychology trick behind it. “And WHY did you want me to find them?”
“Because those two sessions are important. They led up to a very difficult session afterwards with someone, and I thought they might have been around prior to actually talking to me in session.” She says.
“C’mon, K., they were receipts. It’s not that big of a revelation. I just misplaced them.”
“Uh huh.” She says like she doesn’t believe me. “And where were those two receipts?”
I pause. There’s no getting out of this unless I hang up on her, and I don’t want to do that. I know she’ll call back. “Folded up into tiny squares and hidden under some things in my trunk.” I said in a If-I-have-to-admit-you-are-right-I’m-doing-it-begrudgingly way.
“Yup.” She confirms. “Stuff for us to talk about!”
“Horray.” Meg pops in facetiously.
K. hears her and says, “Well you’re driving right now, so I will let you go.” She always gives Meg a hard time if she gets behind the wheel of a car–being that she’s 14. “And I will see you on Monday.”
I laughed a bit. “I’m just gonna laugh for a while. Bye”
What rapid switching roller coaster. I’m feeling mad that she psychology-tricked me. Meg is her normal irritable self. And someone else meanwhile thinks it’s hilarious.
Like this:
Like Loading...
