Dani that is the best news I have heard so far on you lately that both places are in network, terrific-that means they get paid at a higher rate by your ins company. Dani how far are you from either of the two places? I can tell you at the Mayo Clinic they have motels that give the Mayo patients nice discounts on rooms. Each facility has a list of participating motels. I do not know about UNM but sure worth asking them about it.
Dani, PaLady is right, the hospital will make payments arrangements with you that are workable and payable. Not only that, most people do not know if you make a monthly payment to a hospital or dr as little as $5 a month and do it every month there is not one thing they can do against you, because you are showing an effort is being made monthly to pay the debt. You can also call the hospital and inquire about how the drs do their billing, is it included in the hospital billing or do the drs bill separate. Since UNM is a teaching facility all billing may be on the hospital bill, worth making calls to both places asking this question. You really do need to call and speak with the financial dept at these places because at this point Dani you have no idea how much money to save and you could be wasting valuable time in an effort to come up with a bundle of money for the drs. No dr or hospital can give you an idea of their fees because until a dr see's you and does an exam he will not know what you may need. So think about this. When you have insurance Dani the hospitals never ask for money up front unless you have not met your deductible for the year. The billing to your ins company is done electronically and the hospital will know up front if you have met it or not.
Also rather than driving around to each dr office to sign for medical records you could call them and have them mail you the "release of information" to sign and mail back to them. Might cut down on your driving time. I know any new dr will want a copy of all of your testing that's imperative but I doubt office notes would be needed, unless its asked for specifically. You will have to pay for copies of your medical records and two yrs worth could really run into some serious money-thats why I say office notes may not be needed. Most drs won't look at them just at the testing reports. The hospitals should be able to tell you what pertinent medical records will be needed by their drs when you see them.
I know it can be upsetting with the friend thing, thats normal. But, at times like these you will find out who your true friends are and who is really a mere acquaintance, sad but true. I would rather have one true friend than 100 acquaintances. My true friend is there for me no matter what. I can honestly say I have two true friends that I have known close to 30 yrs and they both have been thru every major crisis in my life from burying my parents to helping me with my health problems, I can always count on those two.
I got some not so good news on my arm from the orthopedic surgeon Wed. For some reason I cannot make a new post here at the forum, I am only able to respond to someone else's post. I have no idea what is going on there. I plan to email Chutz and see if she has any ideas on this problem.
I am just so excited that you have made the decision to get a second opinion. Doing this will help your current drs know how to take care of you because these drs will put together a treatment plan for drs to follow and that will make their work so much more effective, actually treating the problem not guessing at what to do for Dani.
Take care and keep us posted on how you are coming along. Hugs,