Dead Women Pay No Bills

I didn't mind this morning when Cheerful Lady called from the hospital to bump my scheduled time for an upcoming D & C.  The doctor has an earlier opening. I'm all over that idea. The sooner she's in, the sooner I'm out.

Call Number Two from the hospital today was to recap what I had already answered 11 days earlier in the registration call. And 3 days later during the lab visit. "Listen, ma'am, I've answered these same questions three times for the hospital.  I hope you have a pen and write down my answers this time. I make this stuff up as I go and it's darn hard to be consistent."

Call Number Three was the clencher. A review of the same questions and same answers then "...I would like to collect your co-insurance now." Say what? You have to be kidding. I have to pre-pay for a hospital visit? And why? They don't want to risk being unable to collect after the fact. Seems the local bad economy has bitten me in the uterus.

If I thought the implication was simply that I'm a deadbeat who can't or won't pay I wouldn't mind so much. I'm more concerned that this is a confidence problem on their part--they know they can't collect from dead people.