Butt Bills
About a week ago I received a bill from an anesthesiologist. It said I owed a $55 co-pay for services rendered. Hmmm. I looked at the date of service. It was from my colonoscopy last December. This was my fourth separate bill for this procedure. One for the doctor who did the deed. One for the lab that processed my biopsy. One for a mysterious facilities fee. And this one.
I thought maybe this was a hoax because so much time had passed. I checked my insurance company website and, sure enough, there was the explanation of benefits. I paid it without complaint. It seems kind of ironic that a procedure that involves getting something shoved up my ass would result in bills that felt the same way.
Vaccines
Yesterday, I was signing up for a flu shot appointment online. The webpage asked me if I wanted to get the new RSV vaccine. I had seen articles online that said the shot can cost as between $150 and $300. I said yes but before scheduling the appointment I decided to check to see if my health insurance would cover it. The last thing I wanted to have happen would be to get a big bill months from now for the shot. I called my insurance company and asked what my financial responsibility would be. The agent had no clue. So I checked the website. Nothing. (Even a basic search of RSV came up empty.) Then I used the insurance app on my phone. Nothing. An hour of my life down the drain.
So as a last resort I went to my pharmacy, waited in line another 20 minutes, and asked the pharmacy clerk. This particular clerk never has impressed me with her knowledge. She looked up my information and told me that my flu shot was covered. I asked her when that was since I had had a Covid booster in August. Perhaps I had a forgotten about a flu shot at that time. She was referring to my 2022 flu shot.
Now what does my 2022 flu shot have to do with anything? She told me it was paid by Medicare. I informed her that I only have Medicare Part A, which covers hospitalization expenses. She said, “That’s who we billed.” Flu shots are covered by private insurance under the Affordable Care Act. She clearly had no idea what she was talking about. I thanked her for her time and left.
It turns out that there is some question about the safety and efficacy of having the flu and RSV shots at the same time. I think I’ll go get my flu shot somewhere else and ask about RSV there.
Competent IRS Help
Today, I needed to check with the Internal Revenue Service to see if I had an estimated tax payment scheduled. I went to the IRS website and tried to log in but the system didn’t recognize my userid and password. Hmmm.
The website told me that I had to use a new system to create a new, more secure access to my account. This system involved me uploading photos of my drivers license, front and back, as well as providing the usual personal information. I went through the process and the system told me it could not verify my identity. So I tried again. Same result. I tried a third time, this time orienting my license photo in landscape mode. No dice. (My guess is that one of two things tripped up the system. The Department of Motor Vehicles of Virginia has listed my first and middle names as my first name. So my license doesn’t match my tax records. Another possibility is that the phone service I was using was under my wife’s name.)
The IRS website has an option of doing a video conference with a human. So I selected that option. After 15 or 20 minutes of waiting, an agent came on the screen and told me to turn on my computer camera and microphone. Alas, my microphone doesn’t work. She figured out that I was struggling and told me to switch to my cellphone.
This worked. I could see and hear each other.
What she needed to do was to verify my first and middle name (she corrected my records) and to see me hold up my license and passport. This allowed her to verify my identity. She was efficient and pleasant. Once we switched to my phone, the whole process took less than five minutes. All that money spent on new IRS personnel apparently has its benefits.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
I just read a Washington Post article interviewing multiple COVID specialists about their current habits – what they actually do themselves. One said he was getting COVID and flu vaccines together but getting the RSV shot at a different time as you mentioned. Medical bills are weird. I was billed an operating room charge for a procedure done in a carpeted office while fully dressed. They even suggested keeping my snow boots on, though I took those off. I was told Medicare wouldn’t pay for a blood test as it was “not appropriate for your condition”, even though that blood test resulted in a hospital admission as soon as they saw the result. Caveat emptor.