Saline Infusion Sonogram

My SIS was on Wednesday.  It came with a little bit of stress before hand though.  Less than 24 hours before my appointment, I was informed that $736.87 would be due upon my arrival.  I was expecting maybe a few hundred.  I was not expecting over $700!!

I responded to the financial advisor (FA) questioning the large amount and if my insurance would cover any part of it since it was a diagnostic appointment.  My insurance covers NO part of infertility treatments, but they do cover diagnostics.  Every single thing has been out of pocket (or a loan that we are paying off).  I had thought since this was to check my uterus following the D&C and to look for polyps or fibroids that might have developed, that this procedure would be covered, even if only a little bit.  I asked if there was any way the appointment could be coded differently.  FA (you can read that as Financial Advisor or F-ing A**hole, you decide) informed me that because this was an infertility appointment, it would not be covered.  He also proceeded to inform me that "coding is done by the physicians and it is inappropriate for me to ask them to code it differently."

Really?  I mean, really!!!  I was so pissed off when I read that message.  It's inappropriate for me to ask why I am having to spend $736.87 less than 24 hours before the appointment?  Like I have that kind of money just sitting around that I can just pull out of my pocket at the drop of a hat.  It's inappropriate for me to ASK?  What. the. bloody. hell!

It's not like I was asking them to LIE about it!  I do know that there are different ways you can code these things.  I do take responsibility for the fact that I could have and should have checked on this sooner, but quite frankly, I didn't know I needed to.  For the last 16 months of IF treatments and working with this clinic, I have never been blind sided by such a large amount before.  I also realize that maybe it was a complete misunderstanding on my part what this appointment was for.  Was it something I could have gone to my own OB/GYN for and paid less for the same results?  Probably, but I LIKE my RE.  I didn't question scheduling this appointment with her.  I was looking forward to seeing her.  It didn't even cross my mind NOT to go to the IF clinic.  And I was given less than 24 hours notice for the amount due, so I felt like I had no choice.  It was too late to cancel.  I got the message about the amount the night before and my appointment was at 11:45am so I had no time to cancel or look into it at all before the appointment.

I decided I was going to talk to Dr. W about it anyway, even though it was "inappropriate" to do so.  I am so glad I did.  When she started talking to me about the SIS procedure, I asked if this was a follow up to my D&C to see if everything was all clear in my uterus, and to check for fibroids/polyps.  She confirmed that it was.  Then I got all (embarrassingly) emotional and told her what FA had said.  Dr. W said it was absolutely NO problem to code it as a necessary procedure due to the D&C, rather than for simply IF reasons.  She said that happens all the time.  She also said that FA doesn't have a medical background and doesn't know my history.  He just does the billing.  I can understand that, although it still pisses me off that he said it was inappropriate to ask.  It's also unfortunate that I had to pay $736.87 just to see Dr. W in the first place.  I still don't know what or even if insurance will cover any of it, but I feel much better (and justified) about the fact that I have a chance of that happening, and maybe I will get some money back.  I'm not sure how that will work out.

The great news from the day was that my uterus is all clear!  I have no scar tissue and no polyps to be concerned about.  We are ready to move forward with the FET.  Now it's just a matter of waiting for AF to come for her next visit, which should be sometime the first week of April.  I'm very ready to move forward.  Now to just get through my softball season.....

*I do want to say that I absolutely love my clinic and the RE's and I would highly recommend them to anyone.  I've only ever had billing issues and one bad experience with one nurse, which was fired shortly after my incident with her.  That's something that happened before I started blogging, but would definitely be a worthy blog post!  All the other nurses and the doctor's have been amazing.  Even the receptionist knows me by name.  Wait...maybe that is a bad thing because I've had to go in so many times over the past year and a half!  haha!