Before You Pay That Not-covered Hospital Bill:

It’s IBS Awareness Month, and honestly, I want to talk about the most annoying and frustrating part of IBS. I lose about an hour each day to it. That’s right. An hour. Half an hour in the morning, and half an hour in the evening. Yep, I start and end my day on the toilet, and while I’m nervous sharing this, I want people to think about that. Imagine being sick for an hour each day, every day, and there’s nothing you can do about it, and you lose that time. You have to wake up earlier than average people to get ready for the day, you can’t start your day until you’ve been sick for half an hour, and you can’t end your day until you’ve been sick for half an hour.

I have other symptoms as well, and I know everyone's IBS is a bit different, but wow, it is such a time waster for me.

and ibs otter, which i made mostly for me lol. i really want her name to start with cy…. cypres…. cyril….. hmm

𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Introduction

Hello! If you've found your way to this blog, congratulations! Or condolences, if the circumstances that brought you here suck. Either way, welcome!

I am someone who works in the health insurance field (and will be remaining anonymous due to my obligations to my employer), so I've got some insider tricks. Not only that, I have multiple chronic conditions which means I've dealt with insurance from both ends.

The purpose of this blog is to help people (Americans, mostly) understand health insurance, how it works, and how to make it work for you.

All this to say, I see a lot of bullshit in my day to day life. I watch people pay more than they should or not receive the care they need because of a lack of understanding and knowledge.

I want to change that, one person at a time.

Below the cut are important posts and resources for basic information. Always feel free to write an ask if you don't see your question answered or want more detail.

**Disclaimer: No information on this blog is legal or medical advice. This is meant to be a resource for common questions or problems people run into. All information on this blog is generalized, and may not apply to your health insurance policy. This is based solely on my experience and is not binding information. The information here does not reflect the opinions or policies reflected by my employer. Always consult a medical professional for health questions, your insurance policy for benefit/claims questions, or a lawyer for legal advice.**

Basic Terminology

Types of Insurance Plans

Calling Your Insurance

So you want to make a doctor appointment...

Preventative vs Routine Services

Investigate Your Providers

Medical Malpractice/Lawsuits

What the &$#* is a claim?

My claim got denied...now what?

How to Pay Your Bill

Collections Agencies and Credit Scores

Medical Binder

HIPAA Part One

Resources:

United States Preventative Services Task Force

Healthcare.gov Preventative Services

If they claim they can cure your condition that you have been told is incurable, run. If they claim they cured themselves, run. If they claim they have cured everything from cancer to lupus holistically, run. If they claim you have to buy only supplements from them, run. If they claim they that only thing that will cure is x but x costs tons of money, run. If they refuse to run tests or address your diagnosed conditions before insisting you do an expensive treatment not covered by insurence, run. If they offer a one size fits all treatment/cure, run.

I have been scammed by "holistic" and "naturalistic" people before as a chronically ill person. In fact it was an actual doctor who went to medical school who scammed me for years. So watch out. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

Ah yes, my favorite chronic illness game: is this normal, is this new, or am I dying?

*banging metal objects together*

if your patients don't understand what you tell them, you are not an adequate or effective healthcare provider !!!

This site comes recommended by a friend of the blog, and oh boy does it look useful! Since it’s meant for use by doctors as well, the information it will give you doesn’t go through the kinds of “for the patient” filters you’d see on sites like WebMD.

The interface is clean and simple, and once you’ve gotten a list of conditions and selected one to investigate, it opens an on-the-page window for you with the Merck Manual’s entry. There’s in-depth data, a quick-view of the highlights of the condition, and there are even links out to other providers like Mayo Clinic, Medline, WebMD, Google, and more.

What’s particularly nice is that when you’re done looking at one condition, you can click “back to results” to get straight back to the list.

This one seems to do a good job of pulling up the common but quote-unquote rare diseases in the list, which certainly makes it feel a little more trustworthy.

Nonbinary folks, do note that it requires you to enter a binary gender.

Thyroid Awareness Month! Waking up and feeling like a normal human being is always a gift that is never taken for granted.