Yesterday I had a mammogram. Big fun let me tell you. I have been officially squashed flat. Today I am filling out a Wellness form for a cancer policy that we have. One of the questions they asked was:

Give the actual cost of the Mammogram.

I have no idea what the actual cost of anything Dr. related is. We have insurance. I haven't paid an actual cost(thank God) for anything medical related ever. I had to jump through many hoops to get an estimated actual cost. First I called the Dr's office where I had the test. They don't do their own billing. They have a service. Of course they do. So they gave me another number to call. When I call that number I am on hold for 15 minutes. I finally get a really nice women on the phone & she looks up my info. It's not in the system yet. Of course it's not. It could take up to 2 weeks to get into the system. This is only because I want to send in the form today. I ask if she can tell me what a mammogram costs & I give her credit. She tried. It wouldn't give her the info. So she put me on hold & tried to find out for me. A few minutes later she comes back & says she can give me an estimate. Ok that will have to work. Do you know that a Mammogram can cost $400.00 if you have to pay for it out of pocket? No wonder people without insurance don't get them as often(or at all)as they should.

Now I have to call the insurance company because we certainly don't want to send in the form without all the correct info on it. That could delay payment forever. I had to make my way through several hundred phone prompts first until I got to the place I thought I needed to be. I had to wait on hold for about 20 minutes before I got a person. It only took a minute for her to tell me that an estimated cost is fine to put on the form. But I know if I hadn't called & asked they would of sent the form back. That's how life works for me.

Insurance, can't fill out the forms correctly, can't live without it.