Health Insurance, Part 21: Looks like a win!

For those keeping score along at home, it certainly seems like a long time since I sent in my appeal (nearly two months). After receiving my appeal, they sent me a letter explaining that they would give me a response within:

30 days for a two-level appeal process

or

30 business days for a one-level appeal process, depending on the plan.

After more than 30 days of waiting, I called them up to find out whether there was a one or two level process for my plan. The person I spoke to didn't know, but told me they would find out then call me back. I spent the next week plus playing phone tag with this person. They left messages telling me to call, but never the result. Finally I just left my own message saying, "Just tell me!" By the time they'd gotten back with that information, the 30 business days were up. The message said that it was a two-level process, and that the decision was coming soon. I almost called back to say "Too Late!!!" but I withheld. I did call back and ask about the status of my claims. Someone new said "it looks like they're all processing to pay".

Processing to pay! I thanked whoever was on the line and danced around my office. I didn't post anything here, however, only out of fear of what could go wrong.

At this point, I've received a very ambiguous letter from Chickering, a congratulatory phone call from the unaggrivating debt collectors and two EOBs from Aetna. Those Explanation of Benefits seem very promising; it looks like my part of the copays will result in around $500. I checked their website and it doesn't look like any other claims or EOBs are processing. I will start receiving these final bills soon, and I hope the ordeal will be over by the end of the month.

Once things are finalized, I would like to post redacted versions of lots of things I both sent and received.

Also, I would like to say again that I'm very lucky here, not because I was wronged here, but because I was able to take the time to wade through all the levels of mishandling beaurocracy.

Still to be done: I need to try to fix my credit, which must have taken a lot of damage...