“One more note. If you’ve been sick since Monday, don’t be surprised if your insurance co refuses to pay for your outpatient visit on Thursday. Why? Because it’s not an emergency.”
Interesting story. Many years ago, I was playing with my kids outside, and my oldest accidentally kicked me in the center of my chest. That night, I had some chest pain, and I couldn’t get comfortable – couldn’t lie down, couldn’t sit, couldn’t fall asleep. Finally, around 2:30 in the morning, I woke my wife, and said I was having pain in my chest, and I thought E broke a rib. I was going to drive myself to the hospital. My wife’s famous line to me: “You know, if it’s not an emergency, the insurance won’t pay.”
My wife woke the next morning, and I still wasn’t home. She got the kids off to school, and went to work – at the hospital where I was still in the ER. I had suffered a heart attack, and a few days later I had 4 bypass grafts. It was an emergency after all!
(BTW, my hospital stay between diagnosis until the day of the surgery was over a weekend. I found out a few months later that the insurance company wanted me to go home over the weekend, over the strong objections of my cardiologist. I stayed in the hospital, and I don’t know if the insurance covered those few days or not.)