Gama Cards

Are experience in Brazil has been nothing but positive. However there are a few things that haven't gone as well as would have hoped. First the third party relocation company here in Sao Paulo has been a little bit difficult. They were in charge of getting our Visa and our Visa's took WAY TO LONG. It's not 100% within inside their control, but lets just say that Eric sent a lot of emails that were unanswered and a few pieces of paper that should/could have been submitted earlier. Let's just also say that in the INC(International Newcomers Club) Dicas book they make a point of saying that most relocation companies are not super helpful in Brazil. Well that was our case. Whirlpool isn't going to use them again, but that didn't really help us much. They did do a good job of picking us up at the airport, but that's the highlight. Remember it took 2 1/2 months to get us to the Federal Police even though we were suppose to go within the first 30 days we were in the country. Eric has emailed and called them without responses more times that I can count. Let's just hope we make it to the airport on Tuesday.  Okay that's enough about them. 

The next part has been our health care. First off I have to say that I am super grateful for great medial insurance. Eric's medical benefit at work has been a huge blessing for our family. Most of you know that Carli spent quite a few days in the NICU and has required some expensive interventions, so I am very grateful for our health care. The only real problem we had was that the transition from our normal health care to our international health care was a bit rough. 

  Eric and I both went to a meeting with the HR lady about our insurance and she said, " I am not even going to explain it now because we are still in negotiations and a lot of things are going to change before July." I figured that eventually they would send us an Explanation of Benefits and someone would explain how it was going to work. She did tell me that our health care in Brazil wasn't suppose to be used for routine things, so I diligently scheduled all of the girls follow ups, our physicals, and such for before we left. It was pretty clear soon on in the process that we weren't going to be leaving for Brazil in July, so we had a few appointments scheduled for August and as time dragged on Gretta got strep and the normal kid stuff came up, oh and I got pregnant with Twins, so lets just say our doctors visits didn't slow down much. Plus 2013 was an expensive health care year for us.  Carli got tubes, a few sedated hearing tests and her cleft palate repaired all before May, so we hit our Max out of pocket expense in June.

We got new International Cards in June and I figured that they were for us to use when we got to Brazil and we would just stay on our regular insurance while we were in St. Joe. Eric has his physical July 1st so he could complete his 4 "wellness items" before we left. Then he hurt his back later in July and went to the doctor and to the pharmacy. The pharmacy told him our insurance was denied. That's when we realized that they had switched us from the regular insurance to our International Insurance July 1st. Of course I was in a panic because I had all of the girls and my visits already scheduled and it stressed me out to figure out if everyone was now "in-network" and what I was going to do. When we got our cards they came with 4 pages of colored copied explanation of benefits which didn't really explain anything. When Eric called HR she told Eric that anything that was "in-network" with Lakeland Care would be covered. Let's just say that EVERY BILL after that point Eric had to do something to get it paid. Our Family Practice doctor and the pediatrician didn't except our new insurance even though they are part of "Lakeland Care". It took months to get their bills paid. He also had to dispute all of my visits to our chiropractor. Every one of my OB appointments had to be mediated and it took Eric a lot of time to get it all sorted out. We have an agreement. I take the girls to all of their many visits and he makes sure everyone gets paid. Let's just say that dealing with Children's LA for all of Gretta's stuff about did me in, so since then Eric has taken care of the bills. (Children's LA use to send "fishing" bill which are bills you don't really owe, but they are for low amounts and they send them to patients who have good insurance figuring they will pay because they don't really understand medical bills the amounts are usually less than $25 dollars. Let's just say they got in a lot of trouble and we eventually even got money back from them, but it still isn't fun to get bills you know you don't owe that say if you don't pay them they will send you to collections.)  About a month ago Eric got an email that said everyone had been paid and that they had been called telling them that they were getting paid. 

In October when we arrived in Brazil they told us we needed additional cards called "Gama" cards for Brazil to be used at the hospital. They were supposedly FedEx'd but never arrived. Eric followed up a few times and then kind of forgot about it. The ER visit I had in November turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the guy who registered me was super smart and he was able to call someone and not only get my CPF but also my Gama number. Not all registers are the same. At my next visit the lady printed out my gama number for me and I just gave them piece of paper and that worked. Going to the hospital here is a regular occurrence when you are pregnant. I had to go there for my maternal fetal medicine appointments, so regular check ups and also all of my labs. They don't to those things in regular doctors offices like they do in the States. 

Well our last week here I asked Eric about the Gama cards and he just laughed. After switching our insurance 3 months earlier than we left we still hadn't received our Gama cards 7 months later. Eric did find out that one of the HR ladies quit and that might have cause the delay. Well 3 hours left in his last day at work in Sao Paulo and lo and behold the Gama cards showed up on his desk. LOL!!!! 

It's a good thing we never needed them for anyone other than me and some how that nice register figured out my number. 

The other horrible news was that the Chiropractor at home STILL HASN'T been paid. I am mortified. I think he stopped sending bills because he is a family friend and knows we will figure it out when we get home. But it is so embarrassing to me to know we owe him so much money and it didn't get paid!!!!!

The only upside is that since being here in Brazil our International Insurance has worked wonderfully and has been easy to work with. I also feel like we have received top notch care. To bad they just didn't keep us on our regular insurance until the day we left and lets hope the transition back is smoother.