Dental Hell

So far so good, right?

A few weeks ago I received a bill from the clinic saying that I owed them $79.00 due to "underpayment by insurance". That's all it said. So I took my bill in along with the EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) I'd received from my insurance. The EOBs were pretty useless, so I asked one of the financial types there what happened.

Well, it turns out that the information they have at the clinic is also pretty useless; the detailed information ends up at a central financial place that they use.

Moreover, she told me that they hadn't finished processing their August bills yet, but that I'd soon be getting a bill for another $650.00!

Holy shit!

I wrote them a check last spring for around $1000.00, and their system thought my insurance would cover the rest - about 60% of the bill. But it seems the insurance only covered about 30%, sticking me with a huge bill besides!

Needless to say, I plan to call their financial place to learn what the scoop is, and call my insurance to complain to them, too. This is ridiculous!

I don't expect I'll get the bill reduced at all, but at least it will make me more knowledgeable about which procedures I should have done when.

It really sucks. But Mom has no sympathy for me (she said jokingly) because at least I have dental insurance.

Which I guess is something.

But boy, what a sucky way to start the day.

The rest of the day dragged after that. Our mail server went down. I finished writing up the minutes of a meeting I attended earlier this week, but couldn't send them out. Yay. I also interviewed a candidate. I think I'm gradually getting better at doing interviews.

Later in the day:

Yuji is a new member of our development team, which is somewhat misleading. He transferred here from Apple Japan, where he'd been using NeXT technology since something like 1994. Which makes him one of our most experienced people. He's Japanese, obviously, and his English was not too strong when he arrived. He works mainly with Tom (who speaks Japanese, although not well enough to use professionally).

Today Tom was out somewhere, and Yuji wanted some feedback on a design he was working on. I always have a bit of a block working with people whose English is not strong (possibly because I have zero aptitude for foreign languages myself), but I realized that Yuji's English has really gotten a lot better since he first moved here, and the only trouble I had understanding him was that I put his question in the wrong context at first, because I'm not familiar with the part of the system he's asking about. Once I figured out the context, the question was a snap.

Not that I had an answer. Well, I sort of did. But it also turned out to be a tricky question involving a user interface decision. On the plus side, I seem to have the same opinion as Yuji. But I suggested he bounce it off Tom anyway for a third opinion.

Anyway, it was a conversation that stuck in my mind. It actually didn't feel as awkward as it might sound. And I tell myself that no matter how I might feel about it, Yuji probably feels even more awkward, being the one who's in the strange land. But he's a good guy, and I was impressed with his learning skills and pleased that the conversation went well.