I may very well appeal to them again. We don't attend church regularly, but when we do go, it is to this particular church, and I know they do a lot for my daughter's school, for example, raising the money to pay a reading specialist for my daughter's grade, which happens to be the largest elementary grade in the district (8 elementary schools all together).

This morning, I called the city EMS department, billing. It turns out they did not have my insurance information. My husband may have given it to the ambulance crew, or he may not. My recollection of the ambulance ride and everything leading up to it is hazy except for getting an IV. Plus, my husband had our 10 year old daughter to worry about. It was an emergency, so insurance info could have easily been forgotten to be exchanged. Even though my insurance has a sky high deductible, it sometimes negotiates slight to significant discount charges. It is great on prescriptions, not great on doctor copays, where I will pay $80 for a specialist (in my case a gastroenterologist, and the insurance will claim they saved me $30). I have yet to receive all the hospital bills, but it does look like the insurance negotiated an $1800 claim from the hospital to $200 (maybe the surgery itself?) when I log into our insurance company's online account.

Fingers crossed, the next bill from the EMS department will be much less.