Does this make the least bit of sense to anyone here? I shudder to think of navigating even a routine surgery's bills, given that this is about as freaking simple as it could possibly get.
Just so I understand you want to stab someone because an insurance company reimbursed you a few dollars more than you paid for a dental visit?
#firstworldproblems
No, I want to stab someone because the math makes no sense and it SHOULD. This is endemic to the US health-care system. No one can understand the billing. Not the insurance companies, not the people actually sending out the bills, not the doctors/dentists/etc, not the hospital administrators and the like. Every single time I've even gone to one of those "what changes are on the way this year" little talks that work has for our health insurance, it makes me want to stab someone because the billing is purposely obfuscated.
How is it that I can take my car to a mechanic and the following happens: I ask for an oil change (non-Mustachian but worth not lying in oil-covered snow for 2 hrs for me). They tell me it will be about $35 unless there's more work to be done. Halfway through the day, they call and tell me the laundry list my 1999 Sentra needs done, I tell them to go ahead with the most critical one, they tell me it will be about $300 total, give or take 20, with the oil change and whatever other thing. I get to the dealer at the end of the day and low and behold, the bill is $314.37.
OTOH, I go to the dentist. First of all, they don't even say how much it will likely be for the cleaning. Just "we'll call you in". I get the tooth thing done. I pay. Then I get money in excess of what I paid, which in no way matches what the itemized billing activities add up to.
Since so far it's unclear from anyone else what the hell is going on, I'd say that it's not that I missed something. It's that is is inscrutable to begin with. And when things are confusing, it's easy to dupe people. It's not the dentist, it's the entire stupid system.