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A quick review is in order: all items on your hospital bill originate from a physician’s order. Supplies are charged by various methods either from stickers from the item on a “charge card” which is collected nightly to a scanner.

So why do you read and hear about stories of millions of dollars in hospital overcharges? That is what we will investigate in part I of the problem, human error.

Mistakes happen, that is part of life. And sometimes when we try the hardest we make the most. The same applies to entering orders. A wrong test is ordered, or wrong date or not in proper time sequence. It could happen and it does happen.

I know I have been called by the lab and radiology and even dietary asking about an order in the computer. Just the other day I was called by lab and asked if I wanted the magnesium level drawn now even though one was done earlier in the morning. Since there was no order I said no.

Now that you have decided you want your tubal ligation reversal surgery as the means to having a baby, you have to figure out how to pay for it. Seeking financial assistance for tubal reversal and finding out if you qualify is usually the first thing you try to do.

Finding some financial assistance will usually start with looking at your own health insurance to see if it will cover some or even all of the costs, if you are lucky. This can take some looking on your part. That will start with looking through your insurance policy at surgical procedures and the testing required before surgery to see what exclusions are made.

You may find that your health insurance company will not cover this surgery. They consider it to be an elective procedure. That simply means you are not doing it for health reasons but simply because you want to, however great that want might be. Health insurance is to cover health issues, supposedly, and your insurance company may simply say no to what they consider to be elective.