ER bills

On Thursday we received a $100 bill from Evan for Oliver's ER visit on December 29. I called our insurance company because I didn't think we were supposed to have to pay a $100 copay if the ER visit resulted in a hospital admission. They said the hospital used the wrong code, and if the hospital changed the code that they would pay the $100. I called the hospital, and they wouldn't change the code because he wasn't admitted there (was transferred by ambulance to another hospital). Later I called the insurance company back, and said that THEY know he was hospitalized because they already paid the bills for his PICU stay. They said they will reprocess the claim. I think this means we won't have to pay the $100. On Friday we got a bill for $70 from GMC for Ian's ER visit in January for his chin. Paul had paid $30 in the ER. I had taken him first to GMC's urgent care clinic because our co-pay is $50 for urgent care, but the doctor there said that his wound needed more than glue. She said I had to take him to the ER for stitches and sedation. But actually the ER doctor just glued the wound.

If the urgent care doctor had glued the wound, it would have saved us $50 and two hours of our time. Plus the insurance company had to pay a lot more for the ER visit than they would have for an urgent care appointment. I am going to see if I can get them to lower our bill to $50, but I am not too optimistic. When I took Ian to the ER for a similar wound two years ago our co-pay wasn't nearly as high, but even then afterwards I said next time I'd just stick a band-aid on it (in part because that time the glue didn't stay on very long so it all really seemed pointless). This time the glue did stay on for a week, but I really don't think was worth $100 or three hours of our time. Hopefully he will use his hands to protect his face when he falls, and we won't be forced to make this decision again. We're trying so hard to live within our means, and the medical bills lately have been making that difficult. We spent a few hundred dollars at the eye doctor even though we have vision insurance. The new eye doctor did a great job of getting me a much better Rx, but he wasn't keen on giving me the prescription so I could order my contacts myself (which is what I have done the last several years), and since I wasn't familiar with our new insurance (we didn't receive a card or any paperwork in the mail about it) I thought maybe we *had* to get them through the eye doctor. Sadly, I paid a lot more money for a MUCH smaller quantity of contacts, and the contacts are not as comfortable as the other brand. He switched me to a different (far more expensive) brand. I had brought in a box of my old contacts in the hopes that he wouldn't switch brands, but he did without telling me. Bummer. Lesson learned.

I wasn't planning on getting glasses AND contacts. I've never gotten both in the same year, but he said it was important because it was such a big change with the prescription. He said there was a deal to get a pair of glasses (lenses and frame) for $99, so I agreed. They showed me the section I could pick from, and I picked the one I liked the best, but then she said that rimless one I picked cost an extra $30. I realize $30 isn't a large amount of money, but I looked at it as increasing the cost of the glasses by 30%, and I was already in shock over how much I owed for glasses plus contacts. So I very quickly picked another frame. I had to do it quickly because I needed to leave within a few minutes so that Paul could get to his appointment on time. If I could go back in time, I would have gotten the rimless ones OR at least come back another time and more carefully selected another pair. The ones I picked are AWFUL. Paul couldn't believe I picked them. Also, I realized after wearing them that aside from preferring the appearance of rimless frames, I also get distracted visually by the rim on the bottom. Well it doesn't matter how ugly they are when I wear them around the house. I will try my best to only wear my contacts out of the house, and if I really need to wear glasses out of the house, I think I'll just wear my old frames even if the prescription is wrong. The moral of the story is that it is NOT always best to focus on the cost. I sincerely wish I had splurged and paid the extra $30 fee!! Hopefully I did a better job helping Paul pick out his frames! He hasn't picked his up yet. He did get rimless frames.

I am by nature a penny pincher, but I have been reflecting lately that it is very different to do so because you want to rather than because you have to. In my first years out of college I made very little money because I was teaching at a Christian school. I remember one budget I had for myself gave me $20 that was unaccounted for each month. That's not much wiggle room! Eventually I earned more money, and I was able to start building my savings account. The next time things got tight again was 2001 because within 8 months I bought a house, paid for a wedding, paid for a honeymoon in St. Lucia, bought our bedroom furniture, etc., but after that I went back to being frugal because I wanted to, and because of the money we kept putting in the savings account we were able to pay for attempts at adoption in the US and Ukraine and IVF.

Until we can sell this house and move, we are going to be in the frugal mode unless I find a part-time job, and so far I haven't succeeded in that. It's a lot easier to make ends meet by making a little more money than it is by trying to save a few dollars here and there. I submitted an application at Bloomsburg to be in the their temporary pool. When I taught there (2004-2012) we was always a need for several adjuncts each semester, but in the last couple of years the enrollment has declined and that isn't the case right now. Paul's chair contacted the education chair at Bucknell and gave her my resume, but again they don't have any openings at the moment. I've submitted a few applications for part-time positions teaching on-line courses (Grand Canyon University, Concordia, etc.), but thus far I haven't heard anything. When I resigned from my position I thought it would be easy to become a part-time adjunct at some point in the future - supervising student teachers or something like that, but it seems right now that's not the case. While I was at Bloomsburg none of our adjuncts had a doctorate, and that was the preference (we hired those who had a master's degree and one time a woman who was working on her doctorate).

Hopefully I can find a way to make ends meet on Paul's income until we move from this house. I know that worrying about it won't do any good, but not paying any attention to it isn't the answer either, or I'll end up with credit card debt for the first time in my life. It's a lot more challenging to make decisions about what to cut or not cut when there are five people involved. For example, I thought we should stop Nadia's gymnastics classes, but Paul doesn't want to do that. I love staying at home with the kids and am going to do my best to figure out how to live on Paul's income. I am thinking of giving up our cell phones for a Magic jack phone, for example. We've switched from Netflix to Amazon Prime, which is a little cheaper for watching tv plus includes free shipping on Amazon. In a time when many are facing unemployment, I am very thankful Paul has a job. The things we have to give up (like buying takeout pizza) are very petty when you think of all the people around the world who are homeless or don't have enough money to buy food. We are blessed beyond measure.