Health insurance nightmare continues

Recall, if you will, that I was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes in August 2006. I started taking 2 forms of insulin every day, and testing my bloodsugar 4-6 times a day. I also began 1 on 1 counseling with the Diabetes Education Center at the local hospital to learn how to manage the whole thing. I checked first that it would be covered by insurance.

Roughly 5 months later now, and my insurance has never covered a test strip (costing me roughly $130/month). Last I've heard is that I need to mail in the receipts and a claim form because it's medical equipment, not medication. Of course, I can't do that yet because no claims I submit will be processed until their medical review board finishes looking at my profile. In other words, either trying to prove Diabetes was a pre-existing condition, or just use red tape to deny paying my claims.

So I ran around to all my current and previous doctors, authorized them to release my medical records to the insurance company, and faxed off a list of doctors required for their review. I thought all was finally moving along.

Earlier this week I received a hospital bill for $800. I called and told them about the situation and they noted it on my account and said not to worry about it.

Lastnight I received a letter from a collection agency on behalf of the hospital, this time for $180. So I called the hospital to explain again. This time I find out that I don't have *one* account at the hospital. I have 6. One for each visit. It's idiotic and I don't understand it, but it's not the problem right now. The problem is that each of the 6 accounts was treated differently by good old Blue Cross.
One was paid.
One was marked to be paid by me as part of the deductable.
Two were pending the medical review completion (which I thought was already done).
The other 2 they simply denied payment for.

The grand total? $1139. Due by me, now. If I ever manage to get Blue Cross to pay for this, I will be reimbursed some of it, but that doesn't help me now.

This is what the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies Insurance Devision is for. You can bet they'll be getting a call from me in the very near future.

I could also burn their building down.