I told you last week that I couldn’t tell you our insurance story without telling you a more recent insurance story that many of you haven’t heard yet. It’s a story worth waiting for.

After my surgery on May 9,  I received a letter from our insurance company dated May 14 that my overnight stay for my surgery for a double mastectomy didn’t met “medical necessity.” In other words it should have been done on an outpatient basis! This had been decided by their medical experts. For the first time I wasn’t impressed by our insurance company.

Actually, I was out-raged even though I had been told by the hospital during my pre-admission phone call that “because of the games we have to play with insurance companies,” I would have to be booked as an outpatient even though that was not my doctor’s plan. We took copies of the denial paperwork when we went for my follow-up appointment with my main surgeon. He said, “This will take forever. Please give me two weeks to work on it.”

Two weeks passed and when I called his office, no one seemed to know anything about it. His assistant, Joyce, who usually took care of these things said she hadn’t been told anything. However, she said it might have been a clerical error. “If it’s marked as an overnight stay, insurance won’t pay, but if it’s marked as you being kept for 23 ½ hours for observation, they will.” Joyce said she would look into it. I offered to send her copies of everything I’d given to my doctor but she declined.

More time passed. My paperwork told me that we had sixty days to appeal and I was getting nervous. Finally I called Joyce again. She said Dr. K hadn’t gotten back to her and she seemed vague. Again I offered to send her copies of the paperwork, explaining our sixty days to appeal. This time she agreed and I sent the papers.

I also felt prompted to contact a friend who had been giving my books to members of a Bible Study group she attended. They were praying fervantly for me and my cancer diagnosis even though none of them, except my long-time friend Sue, had ever met me. Eventually I sent out a prayer request about the insurance issue to several other prayer chains, as well.

Donn and I prayed fervently for wisdom and decided to call the number on my denial papers to see if they’d heard from my doctor. I called and talked to a representative, explaining my situation. Eventually, she put me on hold and was gone for a few minutes. When she returned, she said in a puzzled voice, “That hospital bill was paid.”

I said, “Then why do I have a denial lying in front of me from your company? “

She answered, “I can find no record of a denial.”

At last the representative asked if she could do more research on this and call me back. I agreed and she said, “It may not be today but I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

I thanked her and told Donn, “She said the bill has been paid and she can find no record of a denial!” We were torn between doing a happy dance and being worried and afraid some mistake had been made.

Several hours later, the woman called me back. “My supervisor and I have thoroughly researched this situation. The hospital bill has been paid. If there’s some problem in the future, you would have another sixty das to appeal—but how could you because the bill is paid!” She still seemed unaware that any denial existed in our file.

When I texted Sue to tell her the bill was paid and there was no record of a denial, she responded a few minutes later, “There’s some pretty holy shouting going on right now on our Bible Study group text!”

Last Tuesday our EOB came showing that the hospital bill had, indeed been paid, and there was a long line of zeroes under “Our Share.” I wept tears of joy as Donn and I discussed this situation which prompted us to take our walk down memory’s lane of all the things God already knew.

God already knew the hospital bill had been paid and He knows why our insurance company had no record of the denial we had received, and He already knew He would receive all the glory and all the praise for the resolution of this situation.

Could God have provided for our needs in other ways than Donn waiting to take an early retirement so we could keep our insurance? Yes, of course He could. But if I had pushed Donn to do something out of God’s timing, we could also still be paying the price or could even have had to come home from Japan early for lack of funds instead of coming home with money still in our support account.

As it turned out, the missionaries for whom we house sat during our first year in Japan and whose conversational English classes we taught, left the Japan field for good exactly four years later when we were preparing to go back to Japan. We were able to move back into their house, purchase a lot of their furniture, and return to our classes with whom we already had relationships. Such an important development since ministry in Japan, or perhaps anywhere, is much more effective with relationships already in place.

I am convinced that when we walk in God’s timing—we reap the benefit of all that God knows, even though we are not yet privy to all that He knows.

Thank you Father, for your omniscient, unfathomable wisdom which you use for our benefit as we walk with you. Amen.

HEALTH UPDATE

My chemo treatment went well on Tuesday. As I said in my Facebook update that day, even though my white blood cell count is still a little low, it was much better than last week. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Annie was on vacation, but they still put me in her POD where oncology nurse/Office manager, Jessica, the best friend of our nursery school friend, was taking her place. I was so happy to be with someone with whom I’ve already had a good connection. She did a great job and everything went smoothly.

My oncologist also gave me an order for an EKG to see if any reason can be found for the heart palpitations I’ve been having, probably four or five days out of seven since chemo last week. Some yesterday morning too, but none today. Please pray that it will either settle down or the cause can be found and corrected.

Praise God, I’m now over half done with my initial twelve chemo treatments—seven down and five to go! My biggest challenge continues to be getting very little sleep the night after chemo due to the five steroid pills I need to take the evening before and the morning of my chemo. But I am always reminded of how thankful I need to be that although I’m not sleeping much, I’m also not throwing up or even sick to my stomach! Praise God!