I miss TriCare

I know, right? I'm just as shocked as you are!!! Today, I went in to pre-register for the surgery my surgeon ordered. Half-way through the process the lady turns to me and says, "Okay, your insurance only pays 80%, so we are going to need a $300 down-payment." Hospital lady say what? I asked her for an estimate of the total cost and she completely dodged the question. So I decided to pull back and re-group. We can't afford all that for heaven's sake! Now, I need to can Dr. P. and cancel, call the insurance company and ask if they will go without a referral from my Primary Care Provider (PCP) since I already have a doctor's orders for the surgery, and then go from there. Hopefully the Ins. company will allow me to skip my PCP, seeing as I have never met the woman. The worst part is, I got this information at 5pm on Friday, so I can't do a dang thing about it until Monday. I don't do waiting very well. *sigh*