further dental adventures

Neither my dentist nor Robert's felt that he needed immediate treatment, though he is being seen and possibly cared for today. And last night while he was flossing (why do all great revelations come at that moment?), he looked down and saw his crown on the floor. He hadn't crunched it up and eaten it -- that sounded unlikely anyways. And the cats hadn't absconded with it either, fortunately. We'll see if it's a simple matter of regluing or whether he gets to go through the whole process again.

And in the "how may we be of disservice to you today" department, I got my first implant a few months ago. This is not an inexpensive procedure. My dentist insists on "precertifying" just about every procedure. They're upfront about costs, both total and the amount that I owe after insurance kicks in. So going in for the implant, I knew that the insurance company had approved and agreed to pay for a part of the procedure and I knew what my share was.

(As an aside, this is in stark contrast to my previous dentist, who never mentioned cost at all. I recently got a bill from them five months after the fact. They had received an insurance check a few weeks after I saw them and then sat on the bill for a long time before contacting me.)

A few days ago, I got a letter from the insurance company saying that the whole implant claim had been denied. I called the dentist's office and got a confused story about how I had been "terminated" from the plan.

Since then, we've had many phone calls -- to Robert's HR guy, to the dental plan, from the HR guy to the benefits people, and back to the dental plan. Yes, we'd been paying our premiums for Robert+spouse. But for some unknown reason, the insurance company ended my coverage after just a month of being on the plan. Of course, Robert's employer says there was a glitch at the insurance company. The insurance company points the finger right back to Robert's employer for having ended our coverage.

As of last night, we've been told that we are once again insured, but the insurance company has to wait for "the tape" to arrive. "The tape???" How old is that technology? Can I snicker now? Probably not while I'm on the phone with either Robert's employer or the insurance call agent.