sucky west

as an update to below post. not-so-great west ended contract negotiations with the hospital, saying they couldn't agree on rates, so it will definitely be non-network. called my doctor, and he doesn't do surgery anywhere else. i thought i would be covered by our annual out-of-pocket limit, but after digging further into it, i discovered after you hit the limit, they only cover 100% of the R&C (reasonable & customary) charge. and not-so-great west's R&C is LOOOOOOOW. very, very low (which should be obvious since they couldn't agree on rates with the hospital, even though the hospital is covered by every major health insurance company i've heard of). so i'd still be responsible for $$$$$ dollars. plus copays are not part of the limit.

so my options are:

1) suck it up and pay $XX,XXX. max out my FSA at $3.5k and then pay the balance out of pocket (sold some stock today, which would entirely go to paying for this.)
2) find another doctor - again, i can count the number of specialists in the entire country on my hands, so if i wanted to find a doctor who i'd have confidence in fixing my knee, it may require flying. and who knows if they're covered by my insurance.
3) per my mom & dad: find a new job with better health insurance coverage (so pretty much, any other company) by the surgery (set for jan 12)
4) per ev:
[14:46] ev: you can..uh
[14:46] ev: get someone to marry you
[14:46] me: hahahhhhhhhhhhhahahahaha
[14:46] ev: LOL
[14:46] me: before january 12?!
[14:46] ev: yes

5) per my coworkers: find a new job, or... find a domestic partner. err... yeah.

actually i could always change the surgery date... but still. none of those options seem so great/plausible.

man. who knew skiing would cost me thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars? ouch.

sometimes being an adult is not so fun. :(