Dental Bill/Insurance Hell

I'll chalk this up to the pandemic.  A few months ago, over the summer, I finally went to the dentist's, at the U., for the first time in about 18 months, if not two years.  I had a clean bill of health, which surprised me.  I really thought that all this time meant I would develop at least one new cavity.

Anyway, on my way out, I had to pay.  I thought insurance would cover it.  According to these people, it didn't.  Thought it had in the past.  Because of the way they framed it, I stupidly did not use my HSA debit card but instead gave them my actual credit card.  I don't know why.

Once I realized my mistake, I had to call up my insurance company to figure out how to fix this, so to speak.  I remember doing this the last time I went to the U. to get my teeth checked.  The person on the line gave me a link to a form I had to download and send to them in order to get reimbursed.  That also sounds familiar.  Maybe this is going to happen every time I go to the U. to get my teeth checked.

So I need to fill out this form and send it back, but the insurance company also needs an itemized bill from the clinic in order to do so.  I have called them, several times, to get this bill mailed to me.  All I have come to is a voicemail, which I have left, several times.  Now, the last time I called I did get someone who said it was probably better for her to leave a note for the, uh, billing department or whatever.  But that was last week, and if they saw that note, I would have been sent a bill by now.  Nothing.

So even though I don't have to go into work until 10 the rest of the week, I have to fucking wake up early and, in about a half-hour from when I type this, fucking go to the University of Minnesota, march up to the billing department and demand they give me a bill.  It's absolutely goddamn ridiculous that I didn't even get a fucking bill as I paid for it.  But this is what I have to do, and I need to schlep from where I have to park and go across campus in order to do this so I can finally fill out this form (the instructions to which were given to me by the very nice woman over the phone and of which I have completely forgotten), send it to the insurance company, and get my goddamn money back.

The more I think about this, the more I think this is the fault of the University of Minnesota.  I have stayed loyal to them because I like the idea of young people getting trained in dentistry.  They need people to train on, so why not me?  Besides, they are always going to be looked over by professionals, so I feel extremely confident in the services I get.  That part of my visit is fine.  The customer service at the U., however, has been uniformly shitty.  Not getting a bill when I asked for it several times is really pissing me off.  But I could have avoided all of this bullshit if I could have gotten a goddamn bill right then and there, and the more I think about that, the more I think that's on them, too.

By the way, this clinic is out of network.  I could avoid this shit-ass customer service and pay less if I find someone in network.  I need to start thinking about that now.  I could have slept in a little more this morning if I had found someone, I think.