The Adventures of Kate and Brian: Paying for Maya

Yes, I realize that we will be doing this for the next 18+ years, but I'm currently in the stage of figuring out the payment for her birth. I've spent the past few days reconciling bills, reading the fine print of our benefits package, on the phone with the insurance company, and in the HR office at Gustavus. All in all, it's been a very frustrating few days. I am proud, though, of the fact that I can tell you to the penny what our bills have been and which ones have and have not been reimbursed. They sure don't make it easy to do that!

I noticed last week that we had paid out more for the bills than we were reimbursed for, even though I thought I had plenty of money to cover it. When I sent in one of the bills for reimbursement, it was denied due to insufficient funds. Well that wasn't right, so I got on the phone with the insurance company. Long story short, the increase in our health care reimbursement pool (our Flexible Spending Account) happened on 9/2, when Maya was born. However, the "date of service" on the bills is 9/1, when I went into the hospital. So, the company thatt handles our FSA refused to cover any of the bills associated with Maya's birth because they happened before we had money in the account. Grrr! I have a number of frustrations with this.

1. I asked our HR office in April when we were signing up for benefits if I should put the money in the FSA then or when Maya was born. They suggested I wait because then I could see what the costs would be...after all, once you put money in the FSA, you lose it unless you spend it on approved medical costs.

2. Nowhere in our printed information does it state that FSA money added after the birth of a child can only be used to pay for services after the child's birth date. Everything in the fine print just talks about the fact that services must be provided within the plan year (which I interpret to mean June 1-May 31). And, of course, no one in the HR office mentioned this either.

3. I specifically put in $500 extra into the FSA to pay for the lactation consultant because I called the insurance company (spending 30 minutes on the phone with them!) to ask if lactation was covered by my policy. It wasn't, they assured me. However, when the bill came, all but $2.10 was covered by insurance. On one hand, that's great. I'm so glad my insurance covers lactation consultants. On the other, WTF!?! I spent 30 minutes on the phone with you so that you could give me wrong information? And remember, that the $500 I set aside to pay for this is gone if I can't find an approved medical expense to use it on.

4. They also denied over $1,000 of Maya's bill due to insufficient funds. I'm pretty sure that her date of service is on or after the 2nd. Oh, and did I mention that according to their records, I still have $2,800 in my FSA?

Honestly, this has been a very frustrating experience. I'm hopeful that we will get Maya's bill reimbursed and at least a little more of my bill (I sent them an itemized bill from my hospital stay and will force them to cover everything that happened from the 2nd through the 4th). But seriously, how much time and effort have I put into this?! And think about all the people who face similar problems but don't have the time and resources to deal with it! No wonder insurance companies make such good money!

Okay, I think I have all my venting out. How about a cute Maya picture to finish things off...after all, even if we have to pay for her twice, she's still worth it!