Here's what happened. Time rolled around when Shira needed to refill a
perscription for her migraine meds, which went smooth enough. I went to
pick them up at our favorite CVS pharamacy, and was told that insurance
rejected the claim. Argh.
The solution was simple, I had to have the doctor call the insurance
agency, which would fax them a form, which the doctor would fill out and
fax back, which would allow Shira to get the meds at a reasonable
price. Otherwise, we were welcome to pay approximately $30.00 per pill
to fill the prescription. We thought we'd call the doctor instead.
Shira called and left her life story on the voice mail of the doctors
office 3 times. Did the office ever call her back? No. Did they just
take care of the issue? No.
The result is that Shira had to buy 3 pills to hold her over, which cost
a small fortune (OK, $90.00, but still, we're talking three lousy
pills).
I can see plenty wrong with this situation. Why can't the doctor have
better customer service? And why is the insurance agency operating like
it's 1980 with fax based forms? And do the pills really need to be
$30.00 a piece?
I guess I am most dissappointed in Shira's doctors office. We should
really fire them, and move on to a doctor who will recognize that
helping their patients goes beyond writing the right prescription; it
also includes helping them navigate the horrific nightmare that is
insurance. I know that it's annoying that they need to fax around forms
on our behalf, but that's medicine in the year 2007.
As for the insurance companies - ever heard of a thing called E-mail or
SMS? Or even this new fangled thing called the internet. You can do so
much better. I even know of a company that would gladly do the
programming.
And it could be worse, we could be uninsured. Man, what a mess that
would be. I can't even imagine it. So if you work for my insurance
company, and you are annoyed by this post, please, please, please don't
yank our insurance. My wife would so kill me.
--Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment