91100 100 set
to the book
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2003
- Posts
- 694
So here I sit with a lame hand. Last Saturday, my girlfriend and I were setting up a fish tank. Long story short, I broke the glass vase, cut myself very badly, and ended up taking my first trip in an ambulance to the ER. I gave myself a 4 cm gash along the base of the my right thumb, in the process, I severed the flexion tendon on my thumb, and apparently got some nerves too.
The ER people got me cleaned up, stitched up, splinted and wrapped up, and sent me on my way with a referal for an orthopedic surgeon. I went to see him today, and set up a surgery time for tomorrow. All this before I called the insurance company. Turns out the doctor/facility I was refered to is not in my insurance network. My insurance will pay 70% of the "contract rate" after a $200 deductable for a non-network doctor. For a network doctor, they will cover 90% of the actual rate with no deductable.
Unfortunately, I cannot risk paying 30%+ AND a deductable versus only 10% and will have to cancel the surgery, and start from scratch tomorrow calling the network doctors to get set up with one of them. Wish me luck with that.
And then we have physical therapy after the surgery. Fortunately, after the fiasco with the non-network doctor, I learned my lesson and am already tentatively set up for that with a network facility. The first doctor said it will be 6-8 weeks of therapy, splinted most of the time during that period, so I will probably not be able to work during that time (we will have to see).
So (part of this post is simply for me to gather my thoughts, so bear with me), so far I have an ambulance ride. Supposedly, the volunteer FD that responded provides completely free ambulance service (maybe living in a nice neighborhood is worth the extra money?), but I'll only believe that after I don't get a bill!
I have some ER bills. Erie County Medical Center (Buffalo, NY) is "in network" (I learned that after the fact), so hopefully that won't be too bad.
One visit to a non-network doctor. Who knows what that will cost...
And hopefully tomorrow, I'll be getting set-up with an orthopedic surgeon in my network to get my hand fixed up. Apparently I will probably lose some range of motion, but not in a debilitating manner, and maybe some loss of nerve sensation, hopefully not in a debilitating manner.
But after I spent about 2 hours on the phone with the insurance company, and as I sit here, gradually learning to function without the use of an opposable thumb, I've had a chance to think about a few things.
Something like this can happen in an instant. One moment, I was happily spending quality time with my girlfriend, the next, I was on the kitchen floor bleeding, feeling woozy, breaking into cold sweats, waiting the ambulance to arrive. Why am I on a soap box you may ask?
When us young pilots are out there looking for a job, or trying to advance our careers, we look at hourly rates, scheduling issues, things like that. Alot of us don't look at things like health coverage, disability coverage. Those things are intangible UNTIL you find yourself bleeding on the kitchen floor. It all came into sharp focus for me at 9:55 Saturday night. Health coverage is an important thing. For everybody out there, reading these message boards, trying to find leads on that job that might get you "someplace better", think about what might happen if you find yourself lamed by a stupid accident.
The ER people got me cleaned up, stitched up, splinted and wrapped up, and sent me on my way with a referal for an orthopedic surgeon. I went to see him today, and set up a surgery time for tomorrow. All this before I called the insurance company. Turns out the doctor/facility I was refered to is not in my insurance network. My insurance will pay 70% of the "contract rate" after a $200 deductable for a non-network doctor. For a network doctor, they will cover 90% of the actual rate with no deductable.
Unfortunately, I cannot risk paying 30%+ AND a deductable versus only 10% and will have to cancel the surgery, and start from scratch tomorrow calling the network doctors to get set up with one of them. Wish me luck with that.
And then we have physical therapy after the surgery. Fortunately, after the fiasco with the non-network doctor, I learned my lesson and am already tentatively set up for that with a network facility. The first doctor said it will be 6-8 weeks of therapy, splinted most of the time during that period, so I will probably not be able to work during that time (we will have to see).
So (part of this post is simply for me to gather my thoughts, so bear with me), so far I have an ambulance ride. Supposedly, the volunteer FD that responded provides completely free ambulance service (maybe living in a nice neighborhood is worth the extra money?), but I'll only believe that after I don't get a bill!
I have some ER bills. Erie County Medical Center (Buffalo, NY) is "in network" (I learned that after the fact), so hopefully that won't be too bad.
One visit to a non-network doctor. Who knows what that will cost...
And hopefully tomorrow, I'll be getting set-up with an orthopedic surgeon in my network to get my hand fixed up. Apparently I will probably lose some range of motion, but not in a debilitating manner, and maybe some loss of nerve sensation, hopefully not in a debilitating manner.
But after I spent about 2 hours on the phone with the insurance company, and as I sit here, gradually learning to function without the use of an opposable thumb, I've had a chance to think about a few things.
Something like this can happen in an instant. One moment, I was happily spending quality time with my girlfriend, the next, I was on the kitchen floor bleeding, feeling woozy, breaking into cold sweats, waiting the ambulance to arrive. Why am I on a soap box you may ask?
When us young pilots are out there looking for a job, or trying to advance our careers, we look at hourly rates, scheduling issues, things like that. Alot of us don't look at things like health coverage, disability coverage. Those things are intangible UNTIL you find yourself bleeding on the kitchen floor. It all came into sharp focus for me at 9:55 Saturday night. Health coverage is an important thing. For everybody out there, reading these message boards, trying to find leads on that job that might get you "someplace better", think about what might happen if you find yourself lamed by a stupid accident.
