Friday . . . words can not describe how much I have been waiting for you, Friday!
I am ecstatic!
Got up, got ready, got the kids ready and headed to work. I love Fridays at work because they are usually so relaxed, occasionally we get the Friday from hell, but this Friday was great and easy going. The kids were good, Preslie took a nap, Uncle Jordan took them both out on a walk, they watched Pirates of the Caribbean, Mom got some serious paperwork done, and then we left.
Not to mention, I got some AMAZING news while at work . . . seriously AMAZING!! Like cry-worthy amazing.
When Preslie was 6 weeks old, she went to the ER with a temperature of 104 - too high for a newborn. They did all sorts of testing, including a lumbar puncture, and in the end we got sent home . . . with a $5000 hospital bill, on top of the $1500 we had from the tests they did on glucose when she was born. Funny thing, we HAVE insurance, we have GREAT insurance, don't ask me how we always end up paying out so much with these lovely hospital stays we seem to perpetually have with our children. Well, we may be alone in this one, but there is no way that we can fork out $5K to a hospital just because they want it, but we also are honest and pay off our debt, so we set up payment plans. St. Luke's sold the payments to QUE financial and we have been willingly making payments to them for over a year now.
With Preslie's April hospital visit, we once again landed ourselves with a $4500 bill from St. Luke's (not to mention the bill from the first day at West Valley and their ER Visit) and told St. Luke's Sorry, but we can't pay that completely off, let's set up a payment plan. So they had us fill out this huge financial application (as extensive as the one you fill out for a bank when buying a house) and sent it in and waited for them to tell us how much we had to pay off. First they came back and said we want $200/month, and I said I'm sure you do, but so does the oncologist, the infectious disease specialist, QUE financial, and the other hospital, try again. Then they said, we will give you an early payout option. You pay us $1900 and we will write off the rest. Umm yes, that sounds amazing let's do that. So we paid them $1900 for our $4500 claim and they wrote off the rest. For those of you that don't know this is an option, REMEMBER IT!!! It has saved us TONS of money in the past. Most hospitals will give you a certain percentage off when you pay them everything up front. It saves them the energy/cost of having to collect payments over years. Same concept as the early payout from the lottery (not that I've ever had THAT option).
Well in June, I didn't get a statement from QUE (the people in charge of payments for her first hospital stay). I figured it got lost in the mail, unfortunately something that has happened too often, and so I sent in a check with a note saying to apply it to such and such account. It was cashed, went through our account, so I didn't think much of it.
Then again in July, no statement. So once again I sent in a check and this time a note saying please apply it to ###### account, and ps do you know why I'm not receiving statements please give me a call at ###-####.
So today I got a voicemail from someone at QUE saying she was calling with information regarding our account. I assumed she was calling to up our payment (every three months they up it by $10 or so) so I called back. The girl says, "The reason you haven't been receiving payments is because you no longer have an account with us." I'm thinking what? And she says it was included in our early pay out option with St. Luke's.
WOW! That sounded good, so I hung up the phone. Then it started to stew in my head. There is no way St. Luke's accepted only $1900 for almost $10000 worth of services NO WAY! So my curiosity got the better of me and I called back. The second lady I talked to was SO much more knowledgable. But she said the same thing, our account no longer existed. I told her "Don't get me wrong, this is incredible news, but what happened to it?" She said the financial application that we had filled out a few months back made St. Luke's look into this QUE account, and they decided to write it off as a charitable contribution.
SAY WHAT?!?!?! This is incredible news, yes? How amazing is that? Finally after paying $400/month in health insurance, and at least that every month since we have been married in medical bills(YES FOR 5 YEARS we have had non-stop medical issues - miscarriages, broken ankles, babies, ambulance trips for Parker when he stopped breathing, Multiple Sclerosis testing, Preslie's ER visit, her leukemia bills, then hospital bills) we finally catch a break. I am beside myself today with gratitude for being the recipient of such an amazing gift from the hospital, and with love for a Heavenly Father who recognizes our desire to do what is right and rewards us for that.
That is my good news for the YEAR. No joke!
Now it is 7 o'clock on Friday night and the day just keeps getting better. I have a Groupon I have to use up for Old Navy by tomorrow, so the kids and I are headed there to look around, then we are headed to the airport to pick up this major hottie! The kids are so excited to see Daddy again, and I am excited he doesn't have to leave again.
Plus . . . . I really really REALLY need my back popped. :)
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