friday

I did not sleep well at all last night. Was up until at least 12:30AM. Then I woke up when I heard MonsterMustDie stirring around at 5:30AM.
It's been a very anxious, frustrating day. I spent all day trying to deal with the Novant medical bill again with Medicare and Novant billing and got nowhere.

Message from Angela Perry, MD, sent October 6 at 4:40 PM
Good afternoon, I agree that this should not have resulted in a charge for you. I have turned this back over to the billing department to see if it can be resubmitted. Thank you.

Message from Tonnya B, CPT, sent October 7 at 8:32 AM
Hi Julia, I apologize as we can not sent this message to the billing office. Please give them a call at 844-266-8268. Thanks, Tonnya B, CCMA

It looks like the doctor copied all of my medical history from Duke and Atrium onto her files in a way that made it look like she performed an examination and then billed everything as a new patient appointment with my while charging medicare for everything Duke and Atrium did. She actually sent me a message admiting it was a mistake and that I should not have been billed for any of it but the woman in the billing department at Novant Health refuses to speak to her and insists the paperwork submitted states that she performed a very detailed physical exam and that the "coding department" says everything was submitted correctly and there will be no other review or changes to my bill.

I then phoned Medicare again to ask why I do not have my claims forms from them and they said they had mailed them to me nearly a month ago. I still don't have them so I think they believe my monthly Medicare statement is my claims form. No. I checked. The woman at Medicare said I can't ask for another claims form until a month after the last one was sent out, which will be Saturday at the earliest and I have to phone them to ask for the forms to be sent - she could not put in the order for me yet. And no one may be able to do that on a weekend so I should wait til Monday. Then it will take 15 business days to get the form in the mail.

I think I am completely robbed of the money they insist I owe for the nonexistant Welcome To Medicare exam and now there is no way I can have an annual physical exam and wellness visit until after October of next year. Medicare is not easy but I'm still glad I have been able to be treated at Duke for everything this year. I'm glad I was finally able to have a couple of things done through Atrium, like the original mammogram that detected breast cancer, before the problem with Novant happened. I sincerely hope I can continue my recovery on my back and surgeries without any problem. I don't know what to do about updating my Medicare coverage for next year, if I need to, and I have no one to advise me on this. I am trying to do everything right. I am doing my best.

What I ate today:
Rosuvastatin 5mg
Letrozole 2.5mg
Ocuvite Adult 50+ multivitamin
one 600mg Calcium + D3 10 mcg (400 IU) supplement
2 cups coffee
1/2 Asian pecan pastry
2 cups whole milk + Kefir (300 calories) + 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (40 calories)
Salmon filet + brown rice, aduki beans, roasted carrots and broccoli.
1 Ardens Garden Green Energy Machine juice (130 calories) (2g protein)
1 Orgain 30g chocolate protein shake (160 calories) (650 mg calcium)
1 cup chamomile + lavender herbal tea

24 oz water

9:00 AM weight: 112.4 lbs