Another Victim Of The Health Insurance Industry, Me Part II
The other post I blogged about Another Victim Of The Health Insurance Industry, Me Part I still hasn’t been settled, but I’m just dealing with it. I guess my body got used to the forced medication from my health insurance company.
Another incident happened. This time with my ChoiceCare Card. Don’t let the name fool you, there is NO CHOICE.
I had signed a HIPAA Substantiation form which gives CareFirst the access to my medical records so they can pay the doctors without me having to fax them 3,973 things proving I went to the doctor… typical things insurance companies are supposed to automatically do.
I went to one doctor this year, one. My OBGYN… way back in August. In late October they emailed me and sent me a nasty gram saying they denied my claim. My copay of $30 to my ChoiceCare card. I was told by HR I can use my card to pay my copays. ChoiceCare card threw a fit.
After receiving the nasty gram, I talked to the HR about it. They told me what to do. Call my doctor, ask if they filed the claim, if so did it go through, and could they fax it to me. That was the easy part. I got the detailed patient log. The problem was getting in touch with them to fax it. I tried calling them before like 10 times, all the time being put on hold for periods of 15 minutes. I eventually gave up since I have other things to do (my fault since I have to make a living).
A few weeks later I received another nasty gram saying my card had been FROZEN. I tried to resolve the matter quickly, you know, in case something happens to me that I would actually need my health insurance. I called directly at 8:00AM. That seemed to get me to a representative pretty fast. They told me to fax it to them, so I did. I also emailed them later in the day to make sure it went through. No response.
I called earlier today to make sure they got everything they needed so I can have health insurance again. I was only on hold for 16 minutes! What a surprise! Anyway, they were able to unfreeze my card so I have health care again.
It’s a comfort to know in the event of an emergency, my health insurance company can freeze my card over a matter of $30… that of which they already had permission to view my claims.
Ricky
December 7, 2009 - 11:50 am
– You can absolutely use ChoiceCare for the copays.
– Did you fax the EOB to ChoiceCare as soon as you received it? I didn’t do this a couple times because I was too lazy, thus having my card shut down too, but after faxing them the EOBs then calling them all is resolved.
Janny
December 7, 2009 - 12:08 pm
I didn’t think I had to do anything. I filled out the HIPAA release form which gave ChoiceCare card the right to see my insurance claims. They should have saw I used the card for a copay.
It’s ridiculous that people have to keep track of health care receipts and stuff so they can fax them to insurance companies. What are we paying these companies to do anyway?
The ChoiceCare card just sucks. It makes life too hard. I’m switching to Brian’s insurance in January. He doesn’t have to deal with crap like switching medications and keeping track of receipts.
ryptide
December 7, 2009 - 1:19 pm
Ah, but you see Janny… Fixing this would be SOCIALISM!