Bear with me.
Remember when I was thinking of changing doctors due to my new insurance plan, which gives me both an HMO and a PPO option (and charges a bunch more for using PPO doctors)? And obsessing over it, and then changing my mind?
Somewhere along the way I got myself an HMO personal physician, and even though I used an OBGYN who was not on my HMO, the hospital bill was COMPLETELY 100% COVERED by my insurance because I got "prior authorization" from my HMO doctor. Yup. I saw the dude, he confirmed my pregnancy and typed something into a computer, and boom. Insurance paid thousands and thousands (and THOUSANDS) of dollars and I will end up paying very, very little for an incredible birth experience that could not have possibly gone any better. I just have to pay my small deductible and 20% of the OB's bill.
A lot of it is luck - no above-and-beyond care because Leo was perfectly healthy and everything was pretty textbook; no anesthesia bill; etc.
Funny how, in all of those phone calls I made to my insurance company, no one ever mentioned that if I received authorization from my HMO doctor the hospitalization would be paid for. I guess that's one of those things that they hope you don't find out. They told me that if I used an OB who was not on my HMO, I would pay a huge chunk of everything out-of-pocket.
[Funny if it weren't so sad: Fela's end-of-life medical care cost more than Leo's childbirth. Ugh. too soon]
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