Every Cancer Patient Needs an Uninvolved Provider in Their Camp

I think I've mentioned that Sib4 is an independent health care provider so she understands the EOBs and bills in a way that I never will. So yesterday I took my binder of paperwork over for her to take a look. 

If I recall correctly, the phrase she used repeatedly was "They can't do that!" 

She noticed that EOBs and bills that at first identified my portion as a "co-pay" somewhere along the line converted to "co-insurance," and the corresponding amounts went up significantly. Even better, she's agreed to give the insurer a call on Monday to figure out what's going on. 

Which is great for me, but not so great for the patients who receive bills and lack the expertise -- or resources with the expertise -- to understand what's being billed and, most important, where the bill might be in error. And it seems errors aren't as uncommon as one might hope. As our medical system has grown increasingly complex, with a single event generating multiple bills from multiple sources going to multiple payers, the opportunities for things to go wrong have expanded beyond any reasonable tolerance. 

Which might be tolerable if you're dealing with the odd doctor visit for a sore throat or whatever, but pretty much isn't if you're dealing with some terrible condition -- like cancer -- that requires vast quantities of ongoing care. 

It really shouldn't be this complicated, but until that changes patients really ought to have access to someone with some expertise (who isn't connected to their insurer or provider) who can help them understand their bills -- and make sure they don't wind up paying for something that isn't their responsibility.