insurance question

i will double check my statements, but i believe i only paid co pays when i saw my dr....i saw my radiation dr. once a week while having radiation.  as far as chemo, i saw my dr. each time i had a treatment, so i had a copayment each time.

that does not seem right...i had radiation, 5 days a week for 5 weeks...that's an insane amount of money to have to pay out...why have insurance???

 if i were your husband, i would bring it up to my employer...they should be aware of how their insurance company is handling this situation.

I am sure it varies from insurance policy to insurance policy.  When I had 25 radiation treatments, I had a copay only when I saw the doctor privately, which was 4 times I think.  Similarly with the chemo and consultations with the medical oncologist.

I would talk to the administrator of your policy about your concerns, especially if it is a financial burden.  When I talked to my administrators at Blue Shield of CA,  I found knowledgeable and helpful people.  Good luck.

walking Jim

Hello....Insurance companies are nightmares. Leave me tell you about what happened to me and my husband. My husband has rectal cancer and he had tomo-therphy raditation. With this raditation treatment...the lazer is set with a cat scan before treatment can be given...without this you can NOT receivce the treatment. Blue Cross/Blue Sheild  WILL pay for the treatment of raditation BUT not for the setting of the lazer with the cat scan. He HAD 32 treatments and we HAVE to pay for the 32 Cat Scans.

 When he started his chemo 5FU in a Pump 7 days a week 24 hours a day.....They PAID for the chemo being put into the pump BUT NOT the rental of the pump. All I can tell you and everyone else is to call the doctor or whoever tells you that you owe them money and ask them what the best they can do for you AFTER your treatment is done.....UNTIL then I am sending everyone what I can afford each month be it 25 dollars or more......all I can give them is what I got and as long as you TRY they will NOT ruin your credit. I DO NOT belive they can refuse to treat you......we have NOT had any problems with doing this.  NO ONE should ever think that having cancer... that they will come out NOT having any kind of bills...BUT coming out well and NOT bankrupted would be nice. SO you take it one day at a time........

If you have a copy of your insurance info, it should say what is and is not covered. We got a new set every year as the rules and copays changed. Policies vary widely in what they cover. In our case, radiation and chemo was totally covered with no copay. We only had a copay on the days he actually saw a doctor to cover that part of the visit. The radiation people were relentless in insisting we owed them money but I had all the insurance statements saying we did not. Copies of the explanations of benefits from the insurance company should clearly state who is responsible for what. If the insurance company says you are not responsible for any balance, then you are not.

Some things were considered out of pocket expenses (like dr visits that did not go toward deductibles), while other things (like hospital stays or day surgeries) went towards the deductible.