| This is the latest in a long list of medical horror stories that have appeared on these pages. It is by no means the worst of them. After all, my family is among the lucky ones. We've made it through our medical emergencies physically intact; we have health insurance; and we are, at least in theory, middle class. Imagine what it must be like for those on the bottom of the economic heap, uninsured, and facing crippling illness as well as the billing department. In fact, you don't have to imagine it. Their tales are found right here.
Nevertheless, this is still George Bush's America, and the Naismith clan is faced, if not with complete ruin, then with extreme financial burden. |
| In my case, what happened was this: As some of you know, I have a Special Needs toddler with a rare genetic disorder called 4Q deletion. She's missing a little sliver of Chromosome #4. We have no clue how she's going to grow up. She's three years old and neither walking nor speaking, although she communicates in ASL, just a little. And she's continually falling down and hurting herself, getting flu-like illnesses, and sometimes being rushed to the ER because her breathing almost stops, and she panics and makes terrifying wheezing noises trying to draw breath. We've invested in home oxygen tanks for emergencies, but not before a couple of close calls.
Then there's my mother, who has Lewy bodies' dementia and who has been declining by millimeters before our eyes since 2005. She is almost completely bedridden by now, and too immobile to get into trouble, and her main expenses are for her various prescription medications and for the nursing aides who come to look after for the three hours each day that are covered by her long term care policy. But her condition does prevent my wife from working outside the home, and we pay some members of the extended family to help with her care as well.
What really broke us was the embolysm my wife had in June of this year, and the accompanying hospital stay. She thought she was going to die, and actually wrote a farewell message to me on her laptop, but she pulled through. That one cost over $26,000, of which the insurer paid all but $5,000. The insurer also paid a good deal of what was charged by the anaesthetists, the radiologists, the gastrointestinal physiologists, the ambulance, the hearing and speech center, two sets of emergency room physicians, the laboratories and the Oregon medical group, but what was left over totaled more than I make in three months.
I've been paying dribbles toward them each month, but it isn't enough. And now they're threatening to send the biggest ones to collection agencies, unless they receive almost $7,000 all at once, within 30 days. I've been paying as much as we can afford toward them all along.
And so I'm sending out an SOS. Between us, we've raised thousands in contributions for our red-to-blue favorites. Can we raise just a few thousand to keep my medical bills out of collection?
I'm posting the info on the three biggest bills. If those are paid, or at least a dent put in them, I can finish paying all the smaller ones in full by January 31, 2009. 700 readers paying $10 each would do it. 700 readers paying $5 each would cut it in half and make them think twice about sending the accounts to collection. Any and all contributions would make a difference to my family.
Here is the billing information. I am not asking anyone to send money to me personally.
Billing #1:
Peacehealth Medical Group.
Account/Guarantor no. 391434
Patient name: Jennifer Rosenberg
Current balance: $4,417.17
Address: PO Box 569, Eugene, OR 97440
(541)335-2149
Accepts Visa/Master/Discover
Billing #2:
Peacehealth Medical Group
Account No. 02043757
Patient name: Jennifer Rosenberg
Current Balance: $1,281.45
Same address/phone as above
Billing #3:
Oregon Medical Group
Account No. 30787
Patient name: Jennifer Rosenberg
Current balance: $1,473.54
Address: PO Box 6000, San Francisco CA 94160
(541) 687-4905
Accepts Visa/Master/Discover/American Express
Apparently, neither Peacehealth nor OMG are set up for online payment. I'm including links to their websites pretty much to confirm that.
http://www.peacehealth.org/Ore...
http://www.oregonmedicalgroup....
Again, thank you to anyone willing to help. The monthly book posts are fun and will continue. |
