Based on what we are currently going through, when you think of the benefits that you receive from your employer, put your own health plan at the top of your employer's benefit list. There has been nothing more important to us during the entire experience than how our Health Plan has stood behind us during this crises. We are insured by Anthem (Lumenos Health Reimbursement account) and their service has been beyond outstanding. The hospital and pharmaceutical bills have been through the roof and our coverage has been excellent.
The initial hospitalization at Lee County Memorial (Fort Myers) came to over $85,000 including the critical care stay and the surgery services. To my knowledge, we still have not have received the surgeons charges for my de-bulking surgery from Dr. Javedan. We ended up owing less than $1,000 out of pocket for all of this. Then, there are the drugs that I'm taking or had been switched from. Many have gone generic but many have not. The list included: Dilantin, Keppra, Dexamethasone, Ambien, Compazine, Bactrim, Pepcid, Lotrel, Zyrtec, and the chemotherapeutic, Temodar.
This last drug on that list was the most surprising (I shouldn't really be that surprised). For each charge (either hospital bill or drug charges) Anthem sends a paper statement indicating how much the standard prices are and how much that they are willing to pay based on their contract with the suppliers. The shocker was that for a 45 day supply of Temodar (pills) the stock price was -$13,000. Hard to believe but it's true. We are guarding these pills like they are gold. Our out-of-pocket expense for the 45 day supply pills came to $0.00.
So from this, you can see how valuable our health insurance plan has been to us.
I cannot say enough in how appreciative that we are for this benefit nor imagine what others go through without such coverage.
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