It has been almost three months since my car accident and I am still recovering. Today I had my first mammogram ever (right of passage) to find the lump in my right breast is due to the tremendous amount of trauma caused by the seatbelt that left some angry bruising on my breast. The large hematomas are easy to feel and scared the you-know-what out of me. So Kaiser ordered a diagnostic mammogram along with an ultrasound on that breast to be sure it was nothing more serious. I still have a follow-up and since they were there, the did an ultrasound on some other "benign" looking masses. I found out I have dense breasts and she did about 9 or 10 films.
I also found out my insurance company settled with the woman who's car I hit. She is recovering well and I was pleased to hear they agreed to cover her yoga which is helping her soft tissue injuries. I really was glad that I took the brunt of the injuries.
Me? I am a mess, even though I got the brace off the left arm it is still showing a fracture, it did break in multiple places and was displaced, the steel holding it together helps, but I am still not allowed to lift more than ten pounds. The arm hurts, my shoulder froze up on me (that made the mammogram a lot more fun!) and my mobility is limited from being able to make a fist to being able to type still. I try to type with both hands but find that my fingers come down too hard on the left side and it just hurts like hell. My hand still swells up quite a bit, starting in the morning, so soreness is just an all day thing.
I just haven't had it in me to write much, it physically hurts me to do so. And now that I am back to work, more is expected of me everywhere else. And my fibro seems to have decided to come back in full force, so everything else is hurting along with this sad, sorry arm of mine.
I thought, as I went through this, that I was lucky at least to have health insurance.
I am.
But I still have not gotten over the explanation of benefits that I received from Kaiser Permanente.
I was brought to a trauma center a about 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon and had surgery on my arm performed at sometime around 8pm. I was discharged the next afternoon. I had lots of bruising, couldn't walk on my own due to the concern for my arm, the right ankle was badly sprained, the bruise in my right knee is still there and I cannot kneel yet.
But the shocker to me were the charges.
Over one hundred thousand dollars.
$100,000
Now Kaiser disallowed $50k off the top and that is probably why they bill so high, someone has told me that when you pay cash you get charged a lot less. And when hospitals charge other insurance companies, the overcharge like crazy. That helps.
Then Kaiser took $61,000 and paid them $49,000. Now mind you, this does not count the cost of labs, surgeon costs, other doctors, etc.
I have a stack of these documents explaining to me what the hospital charged, or tried to charge Kaiser and what Kaiser actually paid.
And on top of it, I spoke to the nurse in charge at where I was today to complain that after I had been discharged I wound up with cellulitis on my left foot because of a cut that was never cleaned or bandaged the whole time I was there.
I also explained how when I left, it was not really clear how extensive my soft tissues were. And she thought, out loud, maybe they rushed me out a bit because I was a Kaiser patient and wondered why they did not request a transfer rather than sending me home?
Well, that's a good question.
So much money on mediocre care is what we are learning and this is California, a State that is pretty damn Blue, Report: Fewer than one in three California voters registered as Republican and yet our legislature cannot pass a single payer system that would help lower these costs! And it was Democrats who failed to pass it!
Yes, I am lucky to have healthcare, but at what cost, what kind of healthcare do we have if more do not have access? Those who have it continue to pay for those who do not with poorer outcomes, less preventative care and a system based on shame.
It was still a gamble for me if I would get the care I needed just because I happened to have Kaiser? Thank God I do not have to pay this bill on my own.
I just cannot believe that legislators feel more beholden to health insurance companies than the do to their constituents! And theses are Democrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's the real shame.