Choose a doc – any doc
Saturday, May 2 2009
You know how one of the great things in American health care is that you can choose your own doctor (as long as you have good insurance). Well, I have good insurance. And I choose my own doctors.
Yesterday I got a call from my medical supplier: “We can’t process your claims,” said the lady, “your insurance says you haven’t chosen a primary care provider.” It turns out that my insurance had refused claims all the way back into February, and nobody had thought to mention this to me until now.
I chose a PCP years ago, and that’s still the name on my card. I have, however, started to see one of the physicians in her practice. I didn’t tell my insurance company because I figured the billing information would remain the same.
So I called the insurance company, and told them my primary care provider’s name. The very polite lady on the other end of the phone explained, “You can’t choose her – she’s not accepting new patients.” But I’m not a new patient; I’ve been seeing her for a year or so. “Well, the system has her locked up, so I can’t put her down as your new doctor.” But she’s not my new doctor. This conversation went on for 15 minutes.
I think what we finally decided was that my file would be sent to the “eligibility” department for an override – so that the old doctor’s name could be added to my file again. In the meantime, I have to wait for all of this to resolve before the stuff I need will ship.
Now you may think, “too bad, mistakes happen.” But I have noticed this stuff happens a lot more now that I’m on COBRA. My insurer wants to get rid of me. My employer wants me off their insurance. The company I mail my COBRA check to – they’re paid to get rid of me. They sent me my bill three days before the end of the month, so my check will be late again. They’ll probably try to drop me again. I’ll probably have to beat on them to re-enroll me.
The whole time I was on the phone, all I could think was that I will be first in line for the public health insurance option, when it becomes available. I will bring a sleeping bag. I will camp out for it.
Wow, that whole COBRA thing is quite crazy… I’d be paranoid as well if the same thing were happening to me. I hope you get better health care soon, and I really do hope that whole “who’s your doctor” fiasco can be fixed asap.