Answers

After finding out that Titus has single handedly maxed out his insurance cap for the year in his first days of life, we were a bit discouraged (to say the least). They had paid all they were going to pay, which left us with a balance of around $12,000. I don't know about you, but we didn't happen to have an extra $12,000 lying around ! Iit seemed like all the different "ologists" wanted their payment RIGHT NOW!! How do you explain to 7 different doctors and a hospital that they're not the only one who we have to pay?! Should I even HAVE to explain?? You'd think that they'd have the common sense to realize that "Oh, this patient was in ICU for 6 days, I probably wasn't the only doctor that saw him". It really made us feel like it WAS all about money and not about taking care of people. We had been in debt before and after moving here the Lord had allowed us to pay off ALL our debts, even our home and vehicles. We now thought...Lord, why? We're trying to honor you and stay out of debt, why would you allow us to be put back into this postition?? We were so discouraged, but we began to pray. We shared the problem with some people and they also began to pray. The next thing to do was to keep praying and wait on the Lord.
One day, while on the phone with the hospital billing coordinator, we set up a payment plan. We would pay 10% of our total bill as our monthly payment, $100. Great. Only 7 more doctors to make payments to, this is going to be interesting. We got it all set up to make payments for 10% of our total bills until it was paid off...sometime after the next millenium.
About a month later, I called the hospital back and asked about getting my account balance combined with Titus'. Oh, yes, they can do that! No problem. Then, Joanie, our billing coordinator said "Hey, would you like to submit some information and see if you could have some of this balance written off by the hospital?" WOULD I, SHE ASKS?! OF course!
The process is very simple, you tell them your family size and your monthly income and then they write off a percentage of you total bill based on some equation that they've set up. Sure, I can do that. It wasn't invasive at all, they barely wanted any personal information about our family, no third degree or probing questions, just the facts. Family of six, big bill, little money.
About a week later, we received a check in the mail from the hospital for $100. A check? from the hospital? What's going on??!! I called the hospital accounts office.....Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me the status of my accounts, I received a check in the mail today and am unclear about what is was for. Okay, let's take a look...What is your account number? Acct # xxxxxxx....hmm, the balance is zero....Let's check the next one..... ....Acct. #xxxxxxx........hmmm, that balance is also zero.....was there another account that had a balance? ....Um, no...but do you suppose you could find out what this check is from? ....sure, just a moment.......waiting......waiting....... Mrs. Hayden? ...yes.......that check is a refund....your ENTIRE BALANCE was written off and they refunded your payment (!!!!!!!!!) PRAISE THE LORD! Thank you so much for your help!!
When the Lord provides he doesn't just do a halfway job! Not only did he take care of the debt, but he gave us a refund to boot!! What an awesome God!
Sometimes our problems seem so big and hard to understand. Why are you letting this happen to me LORD? If we would just remember to believe that he WILL take care of us then things would be soooo much easier. On our own we were sunk, but the Lord carried us through AND beyond. Praise HIM.