juggling the ugly realities

Well, the medical bills have found us... in triplicate...

Now begins the process of getting everyone paid in a timely manner, without putting our budget in the toilet...

We have done okay with the past 2 month's lack of income, because we had saved for this rainy day... and as far as paying normal bills and staying a float, we are okay there... but we didn't plan ahead well enough for the level of debt we would be left with once the insurance got done, and in the face of loss work not covered by separate insurance contingencies, we have unexpected short falls... Deductibles and co-pays can be quite large and in this case were... So, this time we need to juggle, way more than we thought we would need to... [In light of this, I am encouraging everyone to look carefully at every insurance policy you have and read ALL the fine print and then ask a lot of extra pointed questions... Because what you think is covered, may not be...]

Our current reality means calling each medical provider (and there are a significant number of individual bills... it seems everyone, from every specialty and separate lab, bills individually from the other providers... even though almost all the services were performed at the hospital...) Anyway, understanding that each of these providers need to be treated fairly and paid something... we need to set up payment plans with each, because we really want to be fair and honest... unfortunately a few providers are not very willing to be patient, and a few don't care if anyone else gets paid... they want everything, now... so there is some unpleasantness associated with this process...

In the meantime, at least hubby is working again, so we can pay these bills in a timely manner... and I don't think our reputations will be permanently scarred... not to mention, I personally sleep just fine, because I know we ARE attempting to be fair, honest, and monetarily diligent with each provider.