Not a Laughing Matter

There's a pile of medical bills on my dining room table. They are from physicians groups, hospitals, radiologists, doctor's offices, lab facilities and pharmacies. I incurred most of them from one trip to the emergency room as a result of my tamoxifen-induced anemia.
Our insurance says a trip to the ER will cost $100. My question is how does that work? Do the 5 different billing sources know it and divvy up the money? From the looks of the bills, no. Everyone wants way more than $100.

Of course I need to account for the deductible, the co-insurance and the fact that there's obviously an upcharge if anyone does anything for you in the ER, like bloodwork or an exam or test, etc.

Why would I go to the ER and not want people to run tests, etc. to figure out what the heck is wrong? Who goes to just stop by and pay $100?

The most frustrating thing is that some of the bills just arrive demanding you pay a large sum. There's a ton of information about doing so pretty darn quick or they'll send you hither and yon to mean people who will ruin your credit rating. But there's no breakdown of how they got to that big number or if and how much your insurance has paid.

For all I know, some of these bills aren't even legit. I could envision a scam where someone steals the names of people recently admitted to ER and sends them bogus bills. They'd look no less real than the ones I'm getting by the day over here. And I'm sure they'd make no less sense.

This getting bills from many sources is new to me. Back in smallish town, healthcare was monopolized for the most part. Even though billing there was fractured and a mess, at least every bill came out under the same recognizable name.

Having to pay one company for the facilities, one for the doctor, one for the tests, one for the reading of the tests, one for the lab work and another for the medicine is just overwhelming. I'm having trouble remembering the names of my new doctors; I'm really not up to understanding the labyrinth of their billing procedures.

But too bad, I'll have to figure it out. It's not like anyone else will do it for me. This thought was confirmed as I went to my first appointment with my general practitioner today. A stack of papers in the middle of the reception desk informed patients that we are not to call their office with any billing questions; we must handle those ourselves with our insurance.

I imagined everyone else in the waiting room--alone, at home with their own piles of medical paperwork. It was funny, in a very unfunny way.