Billing.

And wouldn't you know, Bravest (the spouse) and I have both run into a bad streak of billing errors?

Bravest got told he had to pay a huge sum for a visit to the dermatologist.  Turns out, someone had written the wrong code and thought he had maxed out on his yearly visits to a chiropractor. Neither of us has a chiropractor. (The phrase "manipulative visits" was a clue.)

I had a mysterious bill from Brigham and Women's with a previous balance of Quite A Lot of Money. I had never received a bill for that amount. Turns out, it was for services on August 3rd, the pre-op visit, which is the day I updated my billing and insurance information with them -- but the change didn't move as fast through The System as the bill did, so they sent that one to a place I haven't lived in more than 15 years, and billed the wrong insurance company. (I had to tell the lady on the phone to stop interrupting me and stop calling me "hon", too.)

And then I went to pay the anesthesia bill today -- same hospital, different department -- and it says I had shoulder surgery. Someone entered the wrong code. So there's another energy-draining phone call.

While we're on the subject, I fully expect to receive at least eight separate bills from Brigham & Women's, and probably more, to whit:

1. Lab work.
2. Pathology.
3. Radiology.
4. Nuclear medicine (yes, they are separate.)
5. Surgery.
6. Anesthesia.
7. Postoperative care.
8. Any doctor who so much as glanced in my direction.

This expectation is based on our experience with Bravest's various hospitalizations and surgeries. The separate billing (to separate addresses, with separate numbers to call if you have questions) is an historical artifact dating from the days when radiologists, anesthetists, and surgeons were all considered to be in separate practices so their payments had to be managed in separate piles of money. Now, it's just because it's too damned expensive to rationalize the computer systems.

But God protect the poor people who aren't technically sophisticated and don't understand, for instance, the difference between an EOB and a bill. It's hellishly confusing for me and my husband, and we are reasonably astute consumers of medicine.

And then there are the ER bills...