My OB's office has amazing insurance wranglers. The most impressive was when they pre-authorized a sonogram while I was having it.

meara, with our CVS Caremark (totally agreed that it BLOWS), we can get a 3 month refill at a CVS. In fact, after 2 months on any meds, you are required to get 3 month refills after that.

My med issue is, of course, Grace-related. She takes Xoponex that Caremark pays part of and then Medi-Cal picks up the $90 copay. Yes. $90. But Medi-Cal only pays the copay for 8.5 weeks of the 12 we need for Grace. So we cover it with albuterol, inhalers and lots of wishes. It's headache inducing.

My OB's office has amazing insurance wranglers.

Mine too! She got an authorization for a non-network hospital while I was in labor and the authorization covered not only ambulance transport and the c-section, but also the millions and millions of dollars of NICU expenses.

Going for three...

ita and other hospital-ly types, have you seen the state hospital chargemasters before? They detail in an excel spreadsheet all the billables for a given hospital. (For example, at Huntington a 4% Cocaine solution (!!!) is $149.... Grace's trache tubes are $330+ each, a day in the NICU is over $5000).

It's FASCINATING to see what is available and what it costs. Centinela charges $21 for a single 200 mg Advil!

Amazing.

Anyhow,

we can get a 3 month refill at a CVS. In fact, after 2 months on any meds, you are required to get 3 month refills after that.

See, there's the rub--I had already filled one and thought I was being proactive ordering by mail...and there's no CVS where I live.

also the millions and millions of dollars of NICU expenses.

Dear Jeebus. And here I freaked out about the $45k bill we got.

and there's no CVS where I live.

Be prepared to explain that to them every time you call with a mail-order problem.

Be prepared to explain that to them every time you call with a mail-order problem.

Oy. Apparently the closest ones are in California (though I admit, I did not search Idaho)

Lee, how does your mother get the science so wrong? I mean, I am beginning to shake my head and kinda accept she's going to say stuff in a less than ideal way but she's got the science all screwed up too!

Or stop when they don't even have a sign and wave people through? *I* get to be the irritated one there.

People want to wave a left turn in front of them. Yeah, I have subscriptions with that one. I bypassed issues about ten minutes after I moved here.

There is some insurance company who even made a commercial about it. Cause we've got a different way of doing things here. Drives me BATTY. It's wrong. It's illegal. It's dangerous. And most of all it makes me really angry.

Dear Jeebus. And here I freaked out about the $45k bill we got.

Noah's stay alone, just for the 1:2 daily nursing in the NICU was $545,000, not including any treatments, food, therapies, surgeries, etc. And he was the cheap twin.