Growing Up

I've been married for 8 years and 3 months. We are going to have our first baby. I've graduated college with my masters. I've had multiple "real" jobs. I haven't grown any taller in the last 10 years. I'm pretty grown up. But, there are still a lot of things to do.

Now I can mark one off the list, meeting a health insurance deductible, and scaring myself at the same time. How so you ask?

Yesterday at my doctor's appointment (which went fine), I paid for my pregnancy and all bills in full. That met my deductible. Then I got home and was like, "oh crap. I just paid 1000$ and met my deductible 1 day before it resets. genius." Needless to say, I was rather bummed and wishing the doctors office was still open so I could call and cancel the payment.

But it was after 5:30. No go. So all I could do was think. I thought, "hmm... maybe the deductible resets on January 1st, not December 15th. That would be good (but not great still, only 15 days left). I'll ask work in the morning." But that still gave me time to think. So I thought some more, "Maybe the payment won't go to this years deductible, but next year since that's when the service will actually be performed." Bah, still had to wait. Really hope I didn't just waste 1000$!

So today I talked to work and our deductible resets January 1st (which now I know is pretty normal). I also talked to the doctors office and they don't charge until the service is actually performed (which is also pretty normal). So good. No wasting of 1000$! :)

AND, I know more about insurance and deductibles then I have the past -> Growing up!

Effective Collections

This morning I went to a seminar presented at Manhattan Medical Associates office on Effective Collections. The company presenting was Account Recovery Specialists Inc., and the presenters were Sally and my mom!! Mom gives lots of seminars for ARSI, I've never had the chance to go. But giving one in the town I live in on a day that I didn't have anything else to do, it was the perfect time.

I'm glad I went to. It was a short seminar, only about 1 hour and 20 minutes, where they are usually 2 and a half hours long. But it was still interesting. Since I don't know, mm...basically anything about what she does, it was neat to listen to some really basic info.

One thing I did learn about is PIP. I'm sure some of you may know more, but PIP insurance is personal injury protection insurance. And if you are an insured Kansas driver, you have it. Not all states have it, but here in KS, it applies to any no-fault motor vehicle accident. It will pay for up to 4500$ in medical expenses. Crazy. I'm sure there's way more to it, but still, I didn't know about it.

I learned other things too, and I'm glad I went. As for the Hallmark interview. I studied for no reason. The closest thing I got was, "What's your favorite statistical method?" It was good though. We'll see. If they call back and offer a day of interviews then I'll go and we'll just see what comes of it all.

My Eyes

Recently I have been having problems with my vision. My contacts make my eyes red, but I can see. My glasses don't make my eyes red, but everything is blurry and hard to focus on. No matter which I wear I am extra-sensitive to light. It is really hard to drive the car sometimes because I can't keep my eyes open. But...I went to the eye doctor, and she gave me a prescription for these eye drops. She was just going to give me samples, but she had none. I need my eyes to fix so I didn't even ask if it would be expensive. I want to see.

So, I got it filled at Lafene and put some in my eyes. They aren't healed just yet, but I am supposed to use them for a week. The bottle is pretty small, only 5 mL of fluid. That really isn't much. But I am only using them for a week. The small bottle was $70.50. Wow.

But I learned something at the pharmacy today. My health insurace in GTA insurance and it costs 90$ a semester. Pretty cheap, usually has matching cheap-advantages. But they do pay for prescriptions, up to 7$ on monthly ones and then 250$ per year for others. Swell. This little bottle of tobradax almost cost as much as one semester of health insurance, but I didn't have to pay for it.