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While I was on the phone with my health insurance company, I also asked about co-pays for annual preventive care visits. I was told that although my card did not say so, my plan did cover co-pays for annual visits to both my general practitioner and my OB/GYN. I had not checked on this before, so for the last four years, I had been paying $25 and $45, respectively, in annual check-up visit co-pays. That's $280 I spent that I never owed.
I do not blame the doctors or their offices for these charges: they deal with too many plans for too many patients to be expected to know the policies for each patient. It is my responsibility to know this, and when I went for an annual visit this week, the office did not ask twice when I told them there was no co-pay.
What is the lesson I learned from this? One must always make the time to place a call to her healthcare insurance company about any billing question. It may not be an urgent matter, but it is always fiscally important to not pay bills one does not actually owe.
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"There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- God damn it, you've got to be kind."
-Kurt Vonnegut