Paperwork

10/29/2013

Last night after dinner but before television watching, I sat at my desk surrounded by ten months of medical bills that I was supposed to put in some sort of order so that we could get reimbursed for our out-of-pocket expenses.

After working for two hours shuffling papers back and forth, I was exhausted and had made no real progress.  What I was trying to do was send "x" bills off to my health care spending account so that I could get some of my money back  Sounds simple doesn't it?  Well I can assure you that simple is clearly not the word to describe this particular chore.  And chore doesn't really an adequate word for this paperwork shuffling process.

First you have to have the medical bills that you want to be reimbursed for in hand.  Now that sounds easy doesn't it?  That is merely step one.  Step two is finding the explanation of benefits for each bill from the insurance company and matching the "EOB" and the bills together.  I have in my health care spending account $2,500 that I need to use up by year end.  This in theory is a piece of cake because all I would need to do is send in is one of many hospital bills and the money would be spent in a New York minute.  So what's the problem?  I have the EOB for each of my hospital stays this year but don't actually have an itemized bill that I can send in with the EOB in question.  In order to get my money back I have to produce the actual bill along with evidence that the insurance company has paid all they are going to pay - and then - and only then - will I be able to submit my medical bills.  If you're still with me, then I'm sure you're exhausted just reading the lengthy and mind numbing process that is involved.

So last night I did what any person in their right mind would do - I shut down my computer - and shuffled the papers off to the side to be looked at probably tonight.  After that I retired to my sofa and turned on the television remote!  I watched several episodes of storage wars - New York and Texas.  These shows are not great television by any stretch of the imagination, but they sure are fun to watch.  I keep thinking that if I was involved in some sort of reality show (and that ain't ever going to happen), I would have a hard time behaving naturally in front of television crews and cameras.  So maybe this inability to act normally is just a condition that I suffer from - but I don't think so.

Well it's Tuesday and time for me to get ready to go to the hospital for my program.  I hope your Tuesday is a good one.  Take care.

P