So, Tuesday evening, I sat down and prepared the latest medical bill to turn in to the FOC. There was only one this time, but it was a big one, over $800. We had given a copy of it to BM last month and waited the requisite 30 days and it was time to turn it in to the FOC. I printed off the complaint form, filled it out, and had DH sign it. Then I collected the latest bills and prepared them to give to BM tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went down to the FOC and turned in the one bill. We got a big, thick envelope from FOc in the mail today and it turned out I made a mistake. Rather than sending the complaint form I sent the request for reimbursement form we fill out for BM for the batch of bills we will give her tomorrow. It was an honest mistake, I wasn't paying close enough attention and I corrected that today.

Where it gets interesting is that the woman at the FOC also wrote a note saying we didn't fill out the paperwork correctly. She told us the ordinary medical expenses amount was $357 and we had to deduct that amount from the $804 bill. The thing is, and I have blogged about this already this year, this is the second time we have turned in medical bills to the FOC already this year. We turned in a batch back in February and had to argue with the FOC and the hospital over the bills because the FOC was refusing to take some of the hospital bills. We already deducted the $357 ordinary medical expense amount from the first batch we submitted in February and I had the stamped copy the FOC sent saying they received it.

Anyway, I took my copy down to the FOC with me but kept it in my purse. I handed the woman the paperwork with the correct form and apologized for my oversight and asked about the ordinary medical expense fee. She said it hadn't been accounted for yet this year and I said that yes, in fact it had. She said no it hasn't because this is the first time we have submitted bills for this year. At first, I thought she meant that the bills we submitted in February were not for services performed in 2016 they were still from 2015 and that this one I was turning in was the first bill for services from 2016 and that is what the ordinary medical expense amount was based off, date of service rather than statement date. And I said ok, well we already covered the ordinary medical expense amount from last year AND the one for this year already too. She starts shaking her head and tells me "it's AN-U-A-LLY. You have to cover that EVERY YEAR." I said "we already accounted for that this year and here, I have proof" and started to pull the copies of the previous bills we submitted to shower he and she refused to look at it. Wouldn't even let me get a full sentence in. She just kept hollering "fine, I'll double check it. I'll double check it. I'll double check it." I said "I have the paperwork proving it right here" and she just kept yelling over me "I'll double check it!!!" while waving the paperwork in the air.

I called DH as soon as I got out of the courthouse and told him what happened and said if she had let me get a word in edgewise I was going to tell her that since she was so hellbent on digging through the file of past bills to make damn certain we weren't submitting any fraudulent bills she sure as hell could look through the file to determine that we had already accounted for the ordinary medical expense amount this year since, you know, there was a huge brouhaha over that batch of bills less than 6 weeks ago."

He is writing another letter to the FOC herself requesting a meeting and is going to point that out. He is NOT happy.

Seriously though, how do these people keep their jobs?