Here is the update on my psych evaluation. I arrive on time and fill out the preliminary paperwork, insurance etc. Then the fun starts. For the next 2 hours I fill out at least 500 different questions, yes-no, somewhat, a little, a lot. You know how that goes. It takes me about 2 hours, sitting in a little room. After this is done, they send me back out to the lobby and the doctor (who seems like a very polite and kind person) comes out, and invites me back to his office. He asks me to get comfortable while he looks over some details. The questions are pretty rapid fire, and I answer as honestly as I can. We spend about 20 minutes together in total. He hasn't received my test results yet, but tells me that if anything strange pops up on them he will call me personally and we will review them. His simple diagnosis is that I am mildly depressed but seem to be managing it with the medications my PCP has dosed me with.
I leave his office to go to the front desk and pay my insurance co-payment. This is $30.00 currently. They take forever reviewing my paper work and the lady I am speaking with is speaking with the woman that checked me in and learns that she never called the insurance yet, (Mind you, I have been here 2.5 hours at this point. I am told they don't really have that information yet, but they can see in my file that the tests I took today are not covered by my insurance and so I owe them $179.49 upfront before I leave. WHAT!? I question them and ask what they mean because the insurance is requiring that I see the psychologist, why are they now telling me that it's not covered. They explain that the tests they perform are not covered, but since they haven't sent in my insurance information as of yet, they don't know what else isn't covered. I am getting pretty angry, The doctor stops to look at my file and doesn't say anything, He walks away to do whatever else is on his list of things to do. Not me obviously. And, I understand there may be some things that aren't paid 100% but that is usually billed out after the visit. I fork over the money and leave. In my car I call the insurance company and get absolutely no help. The agent doesn't seem to want to get involved in this and just tells me that she sees no claim and it wouldn't have happened today anyway because claims take a long time.
I call the doctors office back, still sitting in their parking lot and tell them I want the dates they made these claims and they made the claim back on 7/8 and received the rejection from the insurance 7/18. So, they preemptively sent the info over so they would know in advance what is covered. I call the insurance back and explain this more in detail. The agent this time is a little bit more helpful and explains that even though the insurance requires the hoop jumping, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything is covered under my policy, I vent my frustration with her a bit and tell her I am going to get the documentation and fight this because I feel like I was railroaded a bit. She's sympathetic, but there's nothing to be done.
I take off back to work and get another phone call. It's the psychologist himself. He asks me if I fully knew what I was going to be charged when I arrived at his office today. I am not quite understanding him and tell him I supposed the $30 co-pay that is required on all office visits. He tells me I am not understanding him, did I know I was to pay the $179 when I showed up today and I tell him not in the least. No one had told me to expect that. He tells me it's not very fair that I wouldn't be told this, so I could have the shopped around for a different doctor that might not charge these fees. And because he doesn't believe his office did the right thing, he is going to refund me the $179.49 in the form of a check because I should have been aware. I am so impressed, thank him profusely and tell him to please deduct the $30 co-pay I should have paid him because I completely didn't deal with that in the midst of all this. He agrees and wishes me a better day.
In all my years, I have never seen anything like this. That's integrity. But, what's right is right.
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