[lbo-talk] New AMA report says Medicare out-performs most private insurers

sawicky at verizon.net sawicky at verizon.net
Tue Jun 17 14:46:48 PDT 2008


Ditto.  United Health Care (formerly MAMSI or absorbed MAMSI)

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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> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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