2.07.2011

More Insurance Insanity

Because if we can't laugh about it we will cry, right?  I feel like I am on another planet talking to insurance. 

Mine currently is Ci.gna.  Here is how a conversation over the weekend went.  I get a call.  Hi, this is Cigna and we are calling to let you know about a wellness benefit you qualify for.  Great.  What?  Its for patients with chronic lower back pain.  That's nice but, um, I don't have lower back pain.  Oh.  Did you recently receive physical therapy?  Learily (because I don't know if this is some trap by the evil organization), I reluctantly reply that I did receive PT, while I was pregnant. There is no chronic issue.  Okay, they accept this but then here is the kicker, please stay on hold while I transfer you to unenroll from our wellness program.  Excuse me?  The one I never enrolled in?  And now I have to wait?  Yes, evidently there is no way around it.  Had I been any busier I would have hung up.  I mean really, what are they gonna do?  Keep me enrolled in a free benefit?  Good grief!  But I hold.  Like a good girl.  Until they come back and say due to high call volume they can't unenroll me at this time and can I call back?  Are.you.serious?  I was sure to point out the insanity in all of this and that the high call volume was due to others being mistakingly enrolled, lest it escaped her.

Fast forward to today.  When I get a call from my delivering hospital to see if I am going to pay the bill for Anthony's delivery.  I say, no, not yet because I was billed $1600 and it is clear that insurance hasn't processed it.  She looks into it and tells me insurance denied it because I haven't called to notifiy them I don't have a second insurance.  Seriously?  I have to call to tell them I don't have a second insurance?  There isn't a secondary on anyone else in the family.  Can't we just take the giant leap and make an assumption on this one?  Seriously.  Then the gal proceeds to tell me they always do this or something else, like say they weren't added in time or anything they can as a stall tactic to pay.  We have to pay immediately of course, but evidently those rules don't apply to them.  Its like a separate reality when it comes to insurance.

Update-I just called Cign.a to let them know we don't have a secondary but...their systems are down and I was told I would need to call back another time. 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, I hate insurance, we have had such huge problems with ours, it makes me sick .. Good luck.

Thankful said...

We have same carrier - I was flagged as diabetic from glucophage.

WheelbarrowRider said...

Thankful, you must have been one of those folks flooding the lines to unenroll. :) They need to seriously work on their identification system. What a mess!

Karen said...

Sheesh! I hate insurance! I have a great Uni.Ted Hea.luggage store I'll post about some day. It's so ridiculous you acne help but laugh.

Simone said...

errrrrgghhhh Insurance. I agree you have to be very careful with what you say. That is crazy that they asked you to pay right now. Umm it is not like you had him yesterday. The insurance is def stalling to pay.
I would tell them that you cannot afford the full amount and will have to make a payment plan. Then send them a tiny amount to keep yourself of of trouble.

Chasing said...

Insurance tried to deny our hospital bills when Baby Chasing was born because we didn't call them to let them know we were going to hospital.

Second Chances said...

Unreal. Actually, not so much. Sounds like a typical health insurance company these days!

WheelbarrowRider said...

Simone, sorry I wasn't clear. The hospital wasn't making me pay immediately once they saw it wasn't processed correctly. They were actually very nice, telling me that they always stall this way. Making me more frustrated with the insurance, but she was a bright light in the whole situation.
Chasing, I can't freaking believe this. Let me see, so you are supposed to call them between contractions. When? After the doctor but before your mother. Unreal!

Katie @ Persevere in Prayer said...

That's ridiculous!!! My worst insurance experience ever was when we had been TTC for about 16 months, and they called to tell me that my doc's office called them and congratulations on my pregnancy!!!! I'm like, I'm not pregnant. They tell me that I am. I tell them that I'm not. They apologize, I hang up, and start balling my head off. It was awful :( I call my doc the next day, and they promise me that they didn't mix up my chart with another girl with my same name at their office. I didn't know who to believe.