In the bizarre world of American healthcare, my own personal healthcare angst hasn’t involved actual care – thank heavens. It has to do with the idiotic insurance system we have here in America.
I’ll give you just one instance of the snafus dealing with insurance that I’ve experienced. What makes it so awful is that so many, many other Americans run into similar experiences (and much worse ones) every single day.
A while back I suddenly started getting billed mysteriously for services that my insurance covers completely. This went on month after month. It has taken me repeated phone calls to various entities that provided next to no help to finally get on track to a solution of sorts.
Getting on track to a solution here, of course, doesn’t mean this glitch, one that not only affects me but thousands of others receiving similar bogus bills, will actually be solved. Fixing that is apparently beyond human capability.
But at least I may have finally found after hours and hours and days and days of sitting in phone queues only to get disconnected, leaving voice mail messages that were never returned about the inaccurate bills, and/or calling my insurance company and speaking with folks who seemed to have no clue what to do, a path to some relief.
I spoke to supervisors over and over at my insurance company. Some said it’s a capitation problem, some said some other problem. A few nice folks said they’d take a try at calling the billing entity for me.
They get paid to listen to these complaints all day. For me, the patient, the payout is usually nothing except a steadily raising blood pressure.
On my last visit to my physician’s office, though, I heard they will soon put in a special computer program – wonder what that cost – to deal with these erroneous charges which apparently affect most of the patients in their practice. Even this new system wouldn’t straighten up the problem completely, of course.
Things in the American system of healthcare never seem to be that simple.
For the time being, when I get another bogus bill, I have to call a very nice young woman named Lisa at my doctor’s office. She told me that a large part of her job now deals with these complaints – wonder what that costs – and she will call the special contact she’s found in the hierarchy of the outsourced billing company to work on straightening out my incorrect charges. When that doesn’t work, I’m to call her back and she emails her mysterious powerful contact. Hey, maybe a new superhero – insurance man – or woman – or android – I don’t care.
So, thank heaven we don’t have Canadian style healthcare in America. I mean what red blooded American would want that? When they have a problem with their health care there they go to their doctor and – well that’s it. Problem solved.
Oh gee – I kid you not – just as I was typing this, the phone rang. It was my insurance company’s computerized customer satisfaction survey. I don’t think they really want to hear from me, do you?