I finally got billed for physical therapy from 1/1 to 2/16. It's a whopping $1689.32. I think I have 2 more sessions that have not been billed. I at least have today's which was my last one. The aquatherapy was a lot more expensive than the regular kind. I only did five of those this year. The ones I did last year were covered 100% since I'd hit my out of pocket cap for the year. Still, they cost $200 more per session than one on land. I really don't see why as you are using less equipment and not using the expensive machines.
Oh, well. All of it has done so much for me. I still have pain issues with standing for more than a few minutes at a time, but not with walking. And the standing will come in time if I continue to strengthen my back.
I have $1000 saved in my medical fund so I just need to come up with the $689.32. I will see what kind of payment plan the hospital offers. In the past for bills up to $1000 they have offered 90 days at low interest (3% or something) and then a higher interest rate (18%) after that. We can pay off the $689.32 in 3 months time. If not, I guess I'll take it out of the emergency fund. I don't want to, but if I do, it'll be my priority to replace it. I'd rather do that than take it out of the tax return or put it on a credit card (obviously).
The nice thing about having an emergency fund is having choices. With this bill I'm getting pretty close to the $2500 deductible. Things will get easier after that and I will also be able to start saving up for next year's deductible. I budget $500 a month for medical. Not all of it is processed through insurance (like the chiropractor, which we can claim on the HSA, but not on the insurance because we go with a family chiropractic plan that allows us weekly visits for each of us and not the one visit per month the insurance allows for). Once we are through with the deductible we'll be able to save $100 to $200 of that $500. The rest pretty much gets spent monthly.
Hmm. I did go to Costco and get the cash back for my Costco AMEX this morning. I was just going to put all of that in my emergency fund, but if I take that $177 then I will only need to come up with $512.22. That I can do in 2 months. Maybe I won't need to dip into the EF at all, just stop contributing the $100 each month I normally put in for 2 months. That leaves $312.22 and I can scrape that up. Just cut out our rare few meals out and cook more out of the freezer and pantry and less from the grocery budget for a couple of months. I think I can do it.
One of the great things about blogging is that sometimes I will see something like this bill that at first seems really hard and maybe a bit insurmountable, but if I reason myself through it, I realize it's doable after all.
Physical Therapy Bill Finally Came
February 23rd, 2012 at 02:42 am
February 23rd, 2012 at 05:01 am 1329973279
February 23rd, 2012 at 03:45 pm 1330011957
February 23rd, 2012 at 04:42 pm 1330015376
Baselle--Yeah, it is.