sucks big time. Cost me hundreds of bucks. I've also discovered
that you are liable for the out of pocket maximum ($4.5K in my case)
with any fee for service insuror that is not an HMO,
since a provider can always charge more than what the insuror
allows (this is with BCBS). You're not really insured unless you
are willing to max out your pre-tax contributions ($5K is allowed) to a
cafeteria plan, if you have access to one. And naturally if you don't use
the money it's gone.
Private insurance is great if you don't get sick.
>
> This is almost funny.
> I have UnitedHealthCare and they are awful.
> They actually tell you it is your responsibility to make sure everything
> done is done "in system" by preferred or accepted providers.
> Recently my wife had some lab specimens sent to an "out of system" lab
> so United refused to pay for it even though he doctor is "in system".
> That labs status had just changed about two weeks prior when it had been
> "in system". She had called to confirm this because this has happen in
> the past.
> United told her it was her responsibility to find out what lab her
> doctor used and if it was not "in system" she should personally take it
> to an the nearest "in system" lab, which in this case was ~300 miles
> away.
> I asked their billing department if they really believed that a doctor
> would give lab specimens to patients or if any lab would accept
> specimens brought in off the street by patients who lived 300 miles away
> and he told me that he doubted they would but that was the patients
> problem, not United's. When told she had called to confirm and was told
> the lab was an accepted provider only to be told later that it was not
> his reply was even more insane. He claimed it is the patients
> responsibility to find out, not United's to provide the correct answer.
> When asked how one could find out other than calling United he said
> calling United was your best bet but was no guarantee or an correct
> answer. I'm not sure where they find people capable of repeating such
> nonsense while maintaining a professional demeanor. The whole thing is
> so surreal during a conversation I can't keep from laughing over the
> absurdity of it.
> No argument in the world will ever get them to change their mind no
> matter how ridiculous are their policies.
> Of course those policies are about saving the company money and nothing
> else.
> Certainly they are not about providing good care.
> I'd much rather deal with a Government bureaucrat than a corporate
> bureaucrat in most instances.
>
> John Thornton
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