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I'd still say that our marriage counseling is going okay, with one slight hiccup: the people at the front desk had said we have a $150 deductible, so it didn't surprise me when I got an email bill for $140—and I just paid it. I did not realize they had not even billed through Aetna at all, so I should not have done that. Granted, I should not have just ignored the bill either; I should have checked the Aetna website to see if there were any record of a claim there.
We did get clarification on this from reception at Mindful Therapy Group after our session yesterday, and they told me they would re-run the bill through Aetna. Still, the young lady also gave me the number for their billing department, and so I called them from work yesterday afternoon. What I learned from them was that Amy had been billing as private pay and not through Aetna, and I needed to send her a request to bill through Aetna—specifically using the name and code of her supervisor, who is in-network. I did later send her a message to that effect, and actually got a response pretty quickly that she would also speak to billing.
Just because I wanted to cover all bases, and because I never got clarification earlier from them regarding the deductible, I also called Aetna. The new agent confirmed they offer 100% coverage with only a $20 copay—something I still feel sounds too good to be true, an astounding benefit, but I have now had two separate Aetna agents confirm it—
and she told me that for therapy, the dedudctible does not apply!
I guess I should have asked for clarity on this from reception after our first session last week. At least I seem to be getting clarity on it now. The last open question, assuming things start getting billed correctly going forward, is what to do about the $140 I already paid. We can also ask about all this again after our session next week.
Getting the billing situated is still pending. But, that aside, I remain amazed that, per stated policy anyway, I get therapy for no cost other than a $20 copay. I should have looked into this for just myself ages ago.
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— पांच हजार सात सौ अस्सी —
Not much else to report today. Oh, wait: I did leave work an hour early to go to my quarterly doctor appointment, in order to get my PrEP prescription renewed. I was asked if I had any new health concerns, and I said, "Kind of. Maybe." I have this very small lump on my upper back. It's been there a few weeks, and I figured I would just ask about it the next time I came in.
Dr. Means was able to pull my back collar down just enough so he could see it, and he recognized what it was immediately: an
epidermoid cyst, apparently caused by a sort of malfunction in a hair follicle. Dr. Means assuerded me it was "not medically dangerous," and if I just left it alone, it could remain without changing or growing for months or years. I could also have it surgically removed, or even have him "drain" it right then—I wasn't crazy about that idea, especially as he said in that case it would likely just grow back, albeit somewhat slowly. I suppose I could look into how much coverage my benefits offers for something like
this, but given that it's clearly not a medically necessary procedure, I doubt it's very much coverage. (Granted, I get way more coverage for therapy than I expected—but, I already know that I get only 50% coverage for certain expensive dental procedures, for example, setting aside the fact that the dental insurance is different). I decided I would just leave it be for now.
My time with Dr. Means was otherwise fairly brief. I went down to get my blood drawn and leave a urine sample, and then I caught a RapidRide G line bus home. I had caught a bus downtown to begin with, and the only walking I really did was from 3rd Avenue to Virginia Mason. It was very wet and cold, though, and I didn't feel like walking in it. It's been cold enough that Shobhit actually turned the heat back on last night.
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We made veggie burgers for dinner. Shobhit already had french fries made when I got home—baked and with no oil, just a perfectly subtle amount of seasoning. Zero Weight Watchers points, he said! I was amazed. I'm sure the burgers were a very different story.
Shobhit asked if we had something to watch. I said there was a movie I'd like to watch, and so we did:
Hundreds of Beavers. I had heard many raves about this movie for several months, and the score on MetaCritic is a stunning "Must See" 82.
In the end, I found it wildly overrated. I can fully acknowledge it was impressively inventive on a clearly low budget, but I got a few chuckles out of it at best, and I had been promised something hysterical. I maintain it would have worked far better as a short, or even a short feature—like, 80 or 85 minutes. This movie is 108 minutes long, and easily half an hour of it could have been cut. Shobhit chuckled a few times, but not even as many times as I did, and half way through the movie he was asking how much of it was left, and by the last fifteen minutes or so, he was checked out and scrolling on his phone.
I had considered making this a movie watch in the theater downstairs with Laney sometime. I'm glad I didn't waste both our time with that.
— पांच हजार सात सौ अस्सी —
[posted 12:32pm]
