30 September 2022
As we wait out the year before Joyce undergoes any more aggressive treatment, the system isn't exactly leaving us alone. After Monday's billing adventure, we had a vaccine adventure. Not to mention my mother's trials trying to get vaccines at home.
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I MADE AN APPOINTMENT for her to get the latest Covid-19 booster on Tuesday afternoon. Immediately after clicking the button, I ran down to my computer and logged in to make one for the same time.
Nope. Had to wait until the first week of October. And even then only one appointment time each day was available. Huh?
Well, I made the October appointment just to have an appointment.
On Tuesday afternoon I drove her over to the vaccine clinic in the old Sears building on Geary just up from Kaiser hospital (her vaction home). "Yes, we have an appointment," we confirm to the guard. "Go to Station One," he says.
Joyce signs in with the nice lady there. "Would you like a flu shot too?" she offers. I had planned to walk us down the hill to the administration building where they usually give flu shots but this was terrific. "Yes," I answered for her.
Then I asked if I could get both shots today too.
She said she'd ask and went over to the walk-in table (where they would have sent us without an appointment, apparently) to enquire.
"You're the last one today," she smiled.
When she saw Joyce had trouble walking over to the waiting line, she asked if she had a mobility problem and found her a chair so she could sit out the wait.
And when we got to the vaccination station, the nurse gave her the Covid booster but then apologized that she didn't have a flu shot for her. So she got up to get one. I briefly entertained the idea of suggesting she get one for me too while she was up but some guardian angel stopped me.
I saw her come back with three boxes of vaccines. She dropped two off at other stations that were also depleted and kept one for herself. Thoughtfulness observed in the wild is so remarkable.
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MY MOTHER is not so lucky.
I called San Mateo's HR Support to schedule her Covid booster, as I had for all her other Covid vaccines (she's up to date) but they informed me they no longer do that for the homebound.
Try MyTurn, the state appointment system. I called them but they told me they no longer do homebound vaccinations. Call HR Support.
Uh, no.
Same problem with the flu shot. I called the county and was told the program had been discontinued.
So when I was at my mother's house Wednesday, I took a break to walk over to the Doelger Senior Center and enquire about homebound vaccines. The county used to give them at the gym there and I was hoping to find a nurse who liked to take a walk on her lunch hour.
The gym was not doing vaccines but the Center information office was open so I popped in and asked Terry about it. I told her I'd already tried HR Support and MyTurn.
She suggested I call Maria at HART (Healthy Aging Response Team). If anybody knows, Maria knows.
I left Maria a message that afternoon and she called the next morning. She's been doing this (helping the aged) for 20 years, she said. I told her I'd already tried HR Support and MyTurn. That's what she would have suggested, she admitted.
She said she's had help from Pam DiGiovanni on the Daly City council, so she'd give her a ring and see what's going on and get back to me.
Too bad she doesn't have Kaiser, Maria told me. They send their nurses out with the vaccines.
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THIS MORNING I thought we'd better follow up with Kaiser on the outstanding $21,029.40 bill. So Joyce called the help number and they looked up the case number and informed us we had filed an appeal and would get a decision in 30 days.
An appeal for what?
That's what a billing balance enquiry is, Ariana told us, although Rene hadn't mentioned the word "appeal" when she said to fax Special Services the bill.
But 30 days is beyond the Oct. 12 payment deadline.
Ariana looked up the case and said Kaiser had indeed gotten the fax and would be in contact with Dignity Health over the St. Francis Hospital charge. They'd notify us in writing of the outcome in 30 days.
Period.
So I thought we should call Dignity Health and let them know 1) we received their bill, 2) sent it to Kaiser for payment and 3) it would take 30 days to resolve.
It was an awful connection with such bad feedback we could hear ourselves better than the heavily-accented chap on the other line, who was nearly inaudible until he said, "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"
Let's see, I tried to figure out the problem, each session was $2,500 so payment is missing for about 8.4 treatments. How do you dispute 0.4 of a treatment? The treatments were approved by Kaiser in two 20-session batches. So one batch was paid and one apparently not completely paid.
Her first treatment was on March 7. Her last was May 4, a Wednesday. So the calendar doesn't explain the discrepancy.
But (do the math, kids), 40 treatments at $2,500 would be $100,000 not $54,768, which is what the Dignity Health statement says. So is this a failure to pay a part of the second batch?
But then why was her copay $105 for 40 treatments. Or was that just for 20? Or was the true cost of the treatments $1,369.20 each for which Joyce paid a nominal copay of 2.63?
None of this is detailed on any invoice. The Dignity Health statement (dated April Fool's Day) only lists charges in aggregate, no detail.
We're in the dark. And hung out to dry.
What a system.