Colonoscopy Playlist

Yep. They want to make sure they didn’t accidentally perforate your colon. If you can forcibly pass gas, it means your colon walls are sealed up and the gas can’t leach into your abdomen.

 

Live look at Killick

 

Stay with it. You'll be tempted to quit when you're about 2/3 through with your jug of colon blow. "It's coming out clear, there's nothing left".

Don't do it, get a good clean prep.

 

The best healthcare.

Always submit insurance claims twice. Never accept their first offer.

 

the union of the snake is on the climb
moving up it's gonna race it's gonna break
through the borderline

 

A coupla things:

* Check and see if your state has a surprise bill law, in which insurance companies must pay an out-of-network provider the in-network rate if it's either an emergency procedure, or if you're at an in-network facility and an out-of-network doctor comes in to treat you without you being able to plan for it. Not all states have the surprise bill law, but if they do, it's very helpful.

* Sometimes they'll have two anesthesiologists because one is supervising the other, so they both bill.

* Always check beforehand with your insurance company (NOT the doctor or facility) to see if you need any preauthorization, and if you do, then let the hospital and doctor know. If they're in-network, then it would be a violation of their contract if they didn't get preauthorization. You know how when you call an insurance, they always talk about how "this call is monitored for quality assurance"? Well, if you call the insurance, it's recorded, and if they give you the wrong information, you can point out that the wrong information is on their recording.

 

It was NOT a good night. Two-for-three is great for the batting average, not so good for bathroom runs in the middle of the night.

Again: That George Brett clip isn’t as hilarious as it once was.

 

When I worked in the lab at a family practice, it was pretty routine for us to get old folks who came in with questions about a bill. Insurers have contracts with the reference labs that perform the blood work, setting the agreed upon prices under contract. In some cases insurance says that all lab work must be sent to a given lab, say Labcorp, because of such a contract. These people would come in with a bill from the lab, asking them to pay the difference between the contracted price and their "standard" price. These were completely unjustified bills, the lab had already been paid the agreed upon, contracted, price. They just sent them on out, hoping that people would not question them and would simply pay to avoid having a late bill on their credit record, or because "They billed us, we must owe that part."

Slimy bastards.

I hated dealing with insurance companies, and half to two thirds of my job was lab work, which meant filing insurance claims.

The other thing about lab billing that sincerely pissed me off was that they charged patients with no insurance much higher for the same test. A metabolic profile that Blue Cross screwed them down to $8 for (because they have so many patients and so much leverage that the labs would bend over to get their business) would cost a private pay patient $35. Or more. The "justification" was that the insurers screwed them down so hard that they weren't making any money and they needed to make a profit somewhere... so they did it on the backs of those least able to afford it.

Did I mention that they are slimy bastards?

Many labs are damn expensive, and doctors often don't realize the patient's insurance status and order labs as though they were insured, resulting in a $200 lab bill for a relatively routine visit, or much more for a potential cardiac event or similar.

 

Way back when, Aetna was the insurance my company offered. It rejected EVERY claim. You had to call to complain and they'd say, "Oh, OK, we'll put that through."

I had a minor office procedure that required a local anesthetic. Two dudes came. Later, I got a bill for their service. I called and the person said, "Just your bad luck, they were the ones on call and they aren't in your network." I wanted to say, "Just your bad luck, I ain't paying it." But I didn't. I said, "Please just ask them if they will accept the network rate." And they did.

Earlier this year, my Blue Shield supplemental plan (I have Medicare) upped the premium from $182/mo. to $194/mo. This is 8 months into the year. I called on that one, too. They said, "We're an insurance company. We do that because we can."

 

Slimy bastards.