Okay folks here it is, if you grew up like I did, where your folks split early, and your mom moved from rental to rental, you have very little clue about operating with a home you own. You might not be very mechanical, or handy, or _______.

I had the thought of writing a book simply called "Shit you should know."

Instead of writing this book however, I'm going to put it here, and hopefully as you run into things in your life, you can post them here too for everyone's benefit. I may have saved my buddy 7,000.00 today by sharing the first story.

I went diving in Bonaire, and when I returned suffered a problem with my ear, and dizzyness. Got some meds to clear up the infection from seawater or whatever caused it, and no big deal. This was July 2011. I got a bill in oct for 122.00. I called, and found they submitted the bill to my old insurance. I gave them the right info and they went on with life. I got ANOTHER bill because my current insurance told them no as well (for untimely billing) in early December.

So the meat and potatoes of the story, I was getting pissed off thinking I was on the hook for the bill, and called my insurance. When she said this:

"If a claim is declined due to untimely billing, the filing group can either follow the process to show justification for the untimely billing (for reconsideration), or they can eat the bill. There is no patient liability to pay the bill if it was declined for a billing process failure by the filing group."

I had no idea about this, and neither did my buddy who had 3-4 back surgeries and some of the billing was declined because it was not filed until 6 months after his operation. He got a bill for 7,000.00 and will be calling his insurance company to better understand what his liability is. The hospital will be happy to bill you, but don't just assume that you have any responsibility to pay for it. Find out WHY the claim was not covered by insurance first, it may be the billing groups fault. If that is the case, it is THEIR problem.