Queen of Billing

If I didn't check, and push, and follow-up, I'd be this old by the time we have our first child! You have to be so on top of things, so proactive, to make a PGD happen. The lady from the billing department at RGI called me this morning while I was still in bed (Chicago is two hours ahead of us). She said it's time for payment. Okay. However, when she quoted the price, I discovered that she still didn't have my insurance coverage information! Sigh...Our insurance told me that they had faxed everything to RGI in the middle of February, but you know the golden rule of fertility faxes - It takes two phone calls to get a fax actually sent! She put me on hold and contacted my PGD coordinator, and said now she did have coverage information for the PGD, however, not for the IVF portion. She said IVF is not covered because it's not for infertility. So then I call my insurance, they verify again that yes, the IVF is covered, but they said the IVF was not specifically included in the benefits advisory I requested since the letter from my genetic counselor only included the special codes for the PGD. Although IVF was listed in the letter, the special IVF codes were not. So, yes, the IVF is covered, but she can't give me anything in writing because to do that I need to request a benefits advisory for the IVF portion. So, I call the RGI billing lady back and leave a message, then call my genetic counselor and leave a message. My genetic counselor calls back and says the billing lady will take care of it, then the billing lady calls and says that she will submit the letter with the IVF codes included. So now I don't have anything to do but wait for my insurance to get back to billing with the official IVF portion approval.

I'm sure you readers weren't particularly interested in all of that, :) , but I thought I'd just give you a taste of some of the problems that you have to take care of yourself. Of course, now, I shouldn't have to do anything, right? But I know better by now. After a couple days I'll call my insurance again, and verify that they have received the letter from the billing department, ask what the status is, and fix any problems that arise. Then, finally, I can pay the $2,000 optional chromosome testing fee, and the 20% out-of-network portion.

On a more positive note, I've made all our Chicago travel arrangements! We got two free tickets using our credit card points, one week of a free rental car also using credit card points, and a good deal on a Hilton, which was the result of a lot of searching. Credit card companies don't make it easy to use their points either, but after all this PGD stuff, I'm getting more used to getting down and dirty and just doing what's necessary to get what we want. I know it's paying off.