Baby Games and More Insurance Problems

Ben has games and routines now. Josh or I will make a stack of blocks and he loves to knock them over and laugh. Sometimes he likes pat-a-cake or peek-a-boo, he always loves to be read to, and he's got a new circuit he likes to make around the house. He will start in the living room and crawl to the front door, where he can see the chickens in the yard. He will then pull on some of the houseplants in the entry, then crawl to the sliding glass doors in the dining room. If he sits there long enough or starts hitting the doors, the dogs come up to "play" and he thinks this is hilarious. He will then go into the kitchen and open drawers. He found the sippy cups last time. Ben will then return to the living room to pull the DVDs off the shelves, and then start over. It's a pretty safe routine, but I can see that Josh is getting worn out from chasing Ben around all day. I came home yesterday with the gift of a baby gate to try to help contain the baby. Josh wants a baby corral thing, but we have yet to find a good deal on one.

On the medical front, we received more bad news from the insurance companies. This time, related to Ben's first surgery. At that time, Josh and I each had insurance through our employers and Ben was covered under each of us. Josh's company used Coventry Insurance, and they had been withdrawing from each paycheck to cover Ben's medical insurance coverage. However, after the surgery, they refused to pay for any of their portion of the bills and said that Ben was never covered by their insurance company. We appealed this, but received a letter recently stating that the board of trustees voted and denied our claim and refuses to pay any of the outstanding expenses of Ben's surgery. They aren't even reimbursing us for what was taken out of Josh's paychecks! So now we have several thousand dollars owed to the hospital for Ben's first surgery, and haven't even started on the second. The letter from Coventry also noted that if we wish to take any further action, then the circuit court needs to become involved. At this point, our legal costs would exceed the medical bills, so further action is pointless and the insurance companies win again.

Fortunately, Anthem Blue Cross did pay for the majority of the first surgery, or we would have much, much more than several thousand still owed. Theoretically, we should only have the expense of the helmet with the upcoming procedure, because we have met all of our out of pocket expenses for the year. I truly hope that is the case.