Medical Coverage and Overtime

I was receiving texts all weekend about being short staffed and very busy at work. I had been spending time with my family so I did not accept the offer for the overtime. I did receive a text message about the short staffing on Monday and offered to accept the overtime shift. I worked Monday night and will make straight time for 4 hours of the shift and will get 8 hours of overtime for the rest of the shift. My manager also put in for a one time 100 dollar shift bonus for coming in.

My manager was very thankful that I accepted the offer to work Monday. She even offered to split the shift with me as the primary bedside nurse in CVICU and I was so surprised. She said that if I didn't want the full shift she would cover the rest. I worked the full shift since we need the additional income to help with moving expenses and the rental fee that we will pay once we break this lease.

We had a lot of health related issues these past few weeks. My daughter was in the ER for those kidney stones. I wrote a post about that. I did not see a bill come in the mail for the balance due since we just got our health insurance coverage and have not meet the deductible. We did have a co payment for the ER which does not get included into the deductible. I found out after looking at the online EOB paperwork that the visits were covered 100 percent after I paid the co payment.

Our doctor visits are apparently the same. I pay 40 dollars a doc visit and my insurance covers the rest of the costs. I had to see an ENT this Monday for persistent issues with coughing since May and I found that the procedure that they performed will be covered 100 percent after the 40 dollar co payment. I am being sent to the speech pathologist next Monday for a video guided swallow study. There is no cost to me according to the diagnostic center because of my insurance coverage.

I am trying to understand this new insurance. At my former position if you did not meet the deductible when you went to any health provider you were responsible for the total costs until you meet the dollar limit.

My new insurance has a individual deductible and a family deductible. I know that co payments and medication costs are not included in the deductible. My insurance demands that we use a mail order service for all medications for chronic conditions. My husband gets his medications filled at CVS due to his prescription coverage through Silver Script in addition to my coverage for him. He is the exception to this, but I am trying to work with my prescription plan to see which would provide the best financial option for us.

We have been to a new mental health doc to obtain our maintenance meds for various chronic conditions. I am so thankful to be able to afford this service as many are not able to and as a result end up dealing with some major concerns with not having their medications. We are blessed in that respect to be able to have access to health care.