The Bills We Can Home From South Korea With

This is the folder of hospital records and bills that we can home from South Korea. Rocketman's kidney stone generated an unprecedented amount paperwork including a CD of the surgery.  The hospital bill was amazingly cheap, coming in at $13,446.01.  Rocketman also said that you get what you pay for. This included four emergency room visits, four nights in the hospital, surgery and medication.

In comparison, Rocketman's U.S. outpatient surgery to basically do exactly what Korea did and clean up the problems left by Dr. Ahn was $17,150.07. We were at the hospital about 5 hours and the surgery was completed in less than an hour.

I paid for the Korean bill with my VISA and the U.S. bill was paid for with our insurance. Due to all of Rocketman's Korean bills helping to meet his insurance maximum, the net payment after insurance was $645.00.

When I called our insurance as soon as we returned, I was told that since it was an out of network hospital, they weren't required to pay anything. I told them about this occurring in South Korea which is 14 hours ahead of the U.S.  Since I didn't have a phone, I was unable to call during their business hours because I had to be at the hospital taking care of Rocketman. They were very sympathetic and understanding and then I was told they could cover anywhere from nothing to perhaps 90%. I was to submit everything and it would take 60 days to get a decision and hopefully a check. Tears were to no avail, it was all about the contract that our health insurance had with Rocketman's company.

So when we received this check covering about 92% of the bill, we were shocked and jumping for joy!

Rocketman had also taken out travel insurance for reasons he doesn't even know but thank goodness he did. They told him that they think they would cover what our health insurance didn't. We would submit to them the same information along with what our health insurance paid. We also asked if they would pay the $800.00 in hotel charges for the extra week we had to stay. They weren't sure so it's wait and see with that.

Even with the reimbursements, it was the most costly vacation we have ever been on so every little bit of reimbursement helps. One of the saddest things for me is that Rocketman lost half of his vacation which he fought to be changed to sick time, showing all the hospital records to no avail. So poor Rocketman still hasn't had a nice vacation but we now plan on going to a bed and breakfast for his birthday.

But Louie is having a fantastic summer! He loves to lay on the deck and watch the birds at the feeders.