New Year and Co Pays

[ML]

Ugh. I forgot about that. I called in a prescription refill for asthma inahler and the nice Pharmacist told me it would be 338 bucks, yes that's with insurance. Then I remembered our 300 copay we have to meet before insurance kicks in. So before we can fill our own personal pharmacy in the ML household we have to shell out some bucks. Now our credit card REALLY is maxed.

 

[tiredmommy]

Ugh... I feel your pain! We have a high deductible plan so we pay out of pocket until summer (I swear!). Do you have a health savings account?

 

[donna723]

$338 for an asthma inhaler? I had no idea they were that expensive!

 

[susiestar]

I am sorry. We used to see a chiro in OH who would charge whatever your insurance would pay. He had every patient come in a couple times in January and he would charge up your deductibles for you. He never charged the co-pay or co-insurance. Didn't even take credit cards or cash. Never bothered with it. Just checks from the ins companies.

After we moved away we learned this is illegal, or at the least unethical. I didn't know as much about insurance then as I do now. It was nice though.

 

[GoingNorth]

*ouch*. My VA medical insurance acts as my part D provider. Luckily I only have a 50 dollar deductible to satisfy at the beginning of each year.

I did get clobbered once this past year. I didn't get my refill paperwork for my Seroquel sent to the VA in time to get my "free medications by mail". I had to go get a RX filled at a local pharmacy.

My COPAY was two hundred dollars!

 

[gcvmom]

I hear ya! We get one more month on husband's old insurance plan via COBRA (which is a VERY good plan) and then we switch to the new empolyer's plan -- no copays and we have to pay a flat % of the fees, no coverage for glasses (only the exams), no orthodontia (good thing I prepaid difficult child 2's braces last year), and I'm sure there's more surprises in store. That's gonna hurt a lot, considering all the specialists we have to see.

 

[KTMom91]

Yep...Hubby will be laid off on Monday. Insurance will run until the 31st, then COBRA, if we can afford it. I have a doctor appointment Monday, partly to see which of my medications I really have to be taking. Getting all optical and dental taken care of, too.

 

[Andy]

I have some dental work planned this month as well as a yearly exam and cleaning so that will take care of my dental deductible.

difficult child will be seeing all five (5) of his out of town doctors this month so that will take care of his deductibles. I am sooooo glad that his neuropsychologist exam was rescheduled to just before Christmas so that should be taken care of from 2009 expenses.

In a way, it is nice to get some of those deductibles out of the way as soon as possible with planned yearly check-ups (dental, vision, physicals, pharmacy) so that if anything does come up during the year the non-planned events are almost taken care of). I guess I would rather pay deductibles on planned medical expenses than the unplanned ones.

I have to remember to remind our insurance staff at work to check our clients who do have inusrances to remind them there is a new deductible. Just another large loss for our facility. I am sure most of our clients don't pay their co-pays, no way will they pay a large deductible bill.

 

[SRL]

I got a cold about a week before my surgery was scheduled and it threw me into a big panic because of costs. I was only a few hundred dollars short of meeting my out-of-pocket deductable for the year and if it would have been postponed to the near year it would have been a significant unexpected payment right up front. Thankfully I was far enough along that my doctor went ahead with it and it's a huge relief to start seeing the bills come through totally paid. It's always plenty just managing the usual regular costs these first months of the year.

 

[crazymama30]

I feel your pain. I really have good coverage--but have been very spoiled as I met our out of pocket max for medications in August, so I have not paid at all for medications since then. I just called in for refills for 5 of husband's medications, and am not looking forward to picking them up. It won't really be too bad considering, but it will be a shock after the last few months.