[akasohappy]

Our ped. ordered International Adoption bloodwork work up on Kate after she was home.
I couldn't do that to her right away so we waited almost 4 months.
Long story short, we have received a bill for the above stated amount.
My DH benefits rep (he works at Ford Motor Co.) went to bat for us and they still won't pay it.
I am really suprised.
Did anyone else experience this?
On one hand it is nice to know that she does not have HIV, Hep, Syph, etc., but on the other hand I was told this before by my agency.
I thought if the Dr. ordered a test you went in got it done - no questions asked.
Posting this not just for my own curiosity, but to put it out there in case someone else is in this situation and
wants to ask if it is covered or not before they have the tests done.
Are the IA clinic's covered by insurance?
just wondering.
Good thing it is income tax time. ha ha

[mommytoEli]

i don't know. i have kaiser, if they order it, it is covered....maybe less a copay, but that is all. yikes!

[akasohappy]

bumping........
totally thought I was busted by mommytoEli and had to see what she wrote. ha ha

[drjeanne]

You're not alone! It happened to us although it may not be exactly the same situation! We took our daughter to the ped soon after getting her home and we decided, together, that we wanted to check her titers before we went and re-did all her vaccinations...she was 14 months old when we brought her home. We had to take her to the lab and have blood drawn twice and tested and we ended up having to re-do one vaccine. Everything was sent to our health insurance and we ended up paying a lab bill for over $600. The entire lab cost was over $1500 and originally it was rejected by the insurance altogether but, I got on the phone and the insurance rep told me it was because the physician's office had coded it incorrectly to the lab and so the lab had coded the tests incorrectly to the insurance...once I got that cleared up, they paid $900 of it. It was something to do with a wellness code. You might want to check on that?

Yes, I think everyone should take a minute and call your insurance to ask if these lab bills will be covered! You never know these days!

Best of luck!
Jeanne

[DPline]

Well, the amount I believe as I get statements from Blue Cross when I get blood drawn and the fee totally amazes me. Luckly it is covered and I am so shocked this wasn't covered for you. Seeems like good preventative care, but what do I know?! I do agree that you should check with the doctors office about the coding and see if it was incorrect or if they could resubmit it under different coding.

Good luck!

P.S. My husband works for Ford too. Where are you? PM me if you want.

[jsminnie]

I'm sorry to hear that you had to pay that much. I never checked into it but my son had 10 vials drawn at Childrens and my insurance company paid 100% of it.

[bekalynn]

Hey guys,

So sorry you had to experience this. That is painful.

When we brought home our first son and took him to his first well baby, our dr. told us he wanted to do a blood work up on him, but also told us before he scheduled it, he wanted us to call our insurance company to verify it was covered. We did and it was.

(I am a benefits person, but our insurance is not with my company but through my husband's employer)

As for -my- company, we are fully insured, meaning we dictate how our plan is written. Our plan treats adopted children like biological children (as all plans should) and they are not subject to pre-existing conditions, etc. We also cover labwork, but our plan also has a deductible for labwork, so it is quite high.

I strongly urge ALL parents to call your insurance companies -first- to verify a blood workup for your new children is covered and then to ask what the cost to -you- is (deductible, copay, etc) so you are not shell shocked when or if a bill comes in.

Is it worth it? I absolutely think so, because the bloodwork up our peds do is much more extensive than what is done in Guatemala. That is just my humble little opinion.

[crayolamom]

Thanks for this post! We have lab orders from our Dr, so I will first call the insurance company and check out all fees prior to our appointment.

I am scared to take the little guy for the tests and this gives me a couple more days to get my nerve up.

[SkippyRCIS]

I would keep trying. Start first with checking the billing codes. This should be covered at least partially. Do you have a HR person that you could take it to? They really know the insurance standards. Look at your policy also and see what should be covered. I too got outrageous bills and my HR person (she is wonderful) got the bills reduced greatly. Good luck!

[TheFoxx]

Ours was covered but my son suffered from seizures shortly after we arrived home so our insurance was socked with over $20k in bills.

[dance_muffin]

So sorry you got that kind of a bill! My insurance covered 100% of all of our DD blood work.

You should definitely call your ins. carrier. Speak with a supervisor (document the name of person,date and time of phone call). Make sure the billing code was correctly inputed and there was a correct diagonosis. This is a common mistake that can easily be corrected. Your claim will get resubmitted and paid.

If that's not the case; you can file an appeal with your ins. carrier. There should be info as to how to do that on your statement of benefits that was on the claim that you received that it was not paid. It needs to be put in writing. Contact your HR person to determine the appeals process that's available to you. It will require work and follow-up but you may be able to change their decision.

The other benefit that you might want to look into for the future is a Flexible Spending Account. We do this every year and it is a great way to cover all medical incidentals that are not covered under your insurance (i.e. co-pays etc.) You would be able to submit your bill for the blood work and be reimbursed.

Good luck!

[ChristyQO]

I just talked to my Dr. on Tues morning about drawing titers... He did some homework and found out how much it would be to draw them thru our lab (I work at the same hospital as Dr.). I then talked to HR people and turns out, he was right! It was going to cost over $1200 with insurance!!! And yes, the Dr. office coded it right.
So... we won't have them drawn. I do know that the important ones (Hib/Hep and MMR) were given by the US E drs. so I know those are good. We finished the series here. She also has to get boosters before K for certain ones, so I think we are ok.
Why does it have to be so expensive?!?!

[Smokey_Kat]

When we had took our DD to the IAC near where we live, they took 12 vials of blood (so painful!) to test for EVERYTHING possible, including checking her titers.

The hospital billed us for $3,500 for labwork alone! Thank God for insurance. They knocked it down to about $400 that they paid and I paid about $50.

(On a side note, I will never go back to that lab. The woman drawing the blood had zero empathy for a scared, crying baby and yelled at us for not holding her tight enough. She left bruises from her fingers on my DD's arms!)

[JustBarbara]

Yikes - I'm sorry you got this bill - going forward you might want to have a 'concern' about your child that would need an IA specialist - I did and was able to get all the bloodwork and followup visit covered. But yes, it is still worth it to put your mind at ease.

[saranbr]

We had to pay the co-pay for the office visit and then up to the deductable ($200) on the lab work. After deductable the insurance company picked up the rest and the office sent us a bill and a 20% off offer if we paid in full by a certain date.