Cancer and . . . Accounting

When I took on the project of killing Grazelda, it basically became my full time job. On the 5-day chemo weeks there's not much time for anything else after 4 hours of chemo, the drive, and the requisite nap. But there's plenty to do on the 1-day chemo weeks, too: Learn all my drugs (they now take up half my kitchen table), keep track of their uses and doses and interactions, memorize the Vitamin K tables, go in for bloodwork, brush my teeth 4 times a day, sort through insurance claims and bills, tabulate my medical mileage, practice accordion, post on my blog . . .

I don't think I've mentioned health insurance yet in this forum, probably because it's such a hot issue, and I don't know enough about what is going on nationally to write intelligently about health care reform. For now it's enough work to keep track of my own insurance and bills while dealing with chemo. I do have health insurance, through my employer. In fact, I have pretty good health insurance, for which I am tremendously grateful, because to put it simply, cancer is not cheap.

I don't make myself do anything on my bad weeks or when I'm not feeling well, but I do keep track of all my medical expenses and match them with insurance statements and bills and receipts. [Okay, so, actually I do this for all of my expenses. It's not that I'm anal, I just enjoy seeing the numbers reconcile at the end, along with knowing about my cash flow. I started as unit treasurer in VS and I simply can't stop.] Now, medical bills get their own spreadsheet and have their own special challenges. For example, my co-pay for chemotherapy is $25 except on Tuesdays and selected Fridays when it's $15. (That sounds like something I'd make up, but I didn't.) Of course it took 2 months of trial and error, and a couple rounds of phone tag with the billing office to figure that one out.


Obviously, the health care system is very broken and much could - and should - be said regarding how to make it better. But here are two reasons I am grateful today:

1) Today I had a breakthrough moment with a bill from my oncologist I'd been puzzling over for weeks, and it made me realize how glad I am to be addicted to accounting. If I didn't derive a strange pleasure from recording and manipulating all that data it would be a large burden in what could be an already very stressful situation (research seems to indicate that cancer causes stress).

2) While I was scouring this bill, my eyes wandered over to the other column of numbers, the ones paid by the insurance, and a really, really big one caught my eye. Now, I know chemotherapy is expensive. Each treatment can easily run about $1000 (charged to the insurance). That much I had gleaned from skimming the insurance statements as they arrived semi-weekly. But this bill was more thoroughly itemized and it charged $7901 on this one line. It turns out that's how much the immune-system-booster-shot (Neulasta) I get on Fridays of the 5-day weeks costs: $8000 for one shot!!! Once again, I am so so grateful I have good insurance.