Why would I take medical advice from my insurance company?

[Ron Obvious]

I've been getting a lot of calls lately from my Health Insurance company wanting to impart vital medical information to me. They leave messages imploring me to call them back to hear this vital information (though they don't say what it's about on voicemail, of course).

When I answered in person this morning, I told them I only take medical advice from my doctors, not from people who work for an insurance company that only wants to keep my costs down (and the premiums rolling in, presumably). This is self-evident to me, but they seemed rather offended.

I won't mention the name of my insurance company here, of course, but it's Regence Blue Shield if you're curious.

I don't get the whole US medical set up in the first place, but this was a new one to me. Is this commonplace nowadays?

[Fresh_Start]

1. It might be harmless

mine called to inquire if I was having difficulty refilling a prescription.
My doctor had changed to a different medication which was why the other prescription had not been refilled
I viewed their call as an attempt to be helpful

[k8conant]

2. My federal employee program BXBS

kept calling my daughter under the guise of "case management". I think their advice was as bad as the doctors'.

[Holly_Hobby]

10. Same here...

I kept getting mailings about case management of my diabetes. I told them I manage it myself just fine.

I went into a tirade about how my blood sugars are now normal, and if I had followed my doctor's advice, I would either be on insulin now or dead of a heart attack, and did they have any openings in their case management dept. because I could save them a fortune with their diabetic patients by advising them to not eat what they can no longer digest -carbs!

I got a, "Thank you for your time, ma'am." and a click. No more mailings since.

[tkmorris]

3. It's EXTREMELY common, the norm really

But this: "I won't mention the name of my insurance company here, of course, but it's Regence Blue Shield if you're curious."...

[Skittles]

15. I love that

[onehandle]

4. My insurance company sends me generalized health advice via email.

Which I could opt out of, but they don't send me too many. They never call me.

The best thing they do for me is provide me with an inexpensive gym membership that I can use at thousands of gyms across the country, instead of just one like most gym memberships.

[iscooterliberally]

5. They want to give the appearance of bringing 'value' to your health care.

I get a bunch of emails from my health insurance company with health tips, etc. I think they really don't want people to wake up and realize that health insurance companies actually provide no value to our health care at all. All they do is push paper around and cost money. I'm still covered by my job, but my wife was laid-off and lost her health insurance. I work for a very small company and they won't cover her insurance too. We tried the exchanges and the best deal we could get was going to cost about $500 a month. We only lasted about 6 months paying that last year before we simply couldn't afford it anymore. I realize that the affordable care act has helped a lot of people, but it hurt us. I think we would be much better off with single payer.

[Ron Obvious]

13. Oh yeah, don't get me started on those newsletters

Every company I do business with lately seems to think I want to read their corporate newsletters every week. Does anybody actually read these things?

They don't bother me individually, but in the aggregate they're clogging up my inbox and letterbox.

[Hoppy]

6. I have back pain, caused by x-ray diagnosed arthritis on my spine... so I get a call from an office.

I don't know the identity of the office, if its an insurance company or a physician wanting to mild Medicare. Anyways, they tell me I am entitled to a free back brace.

"What is a back brace going to do for arthritis?"

-- voice at end of phone says she doesn't know. What is my weight and height?

They were supposed to call back yesterday. Haven't heard from them.

[Runningdawg]

7. BCBSOK called yesterday

wanting to sign us up for free "lifestyle" classes. Free classes? Well now, isn't that nice. Much more sensible than paying for a test my husbands Dr ordered. I understand completely, fasting blood sugar tests are just so far outside the boundary of what is considered necessary, they needed to charge us $256.00 for it.
Take your free class and........

[Hoyt]

8. Actually, some of those programs are good and premiums would be less if we listened.

Even under single payer, the cost will be impacted by whether people cooperate with efforts to manage chronic diseases.

[brer cat]

12. I agree, Hoyt.

They are not all evil all the time. The last call I got was simply to see if I had gotten a flu shot, which I had. I was not bothered by that at all.

[djean111]

9. My insurance company sends me food coupons, only good at Walmart. So they won't be used.

Last month or so they sent me a card to swipe any time I buy food anywhere, or something like that. Um, nope.
And they want me to put my full medical history online, and want to send someone to my house to see if there is anything I might trip over. No, I have not tripped over anything.

I think, honestly, that some insurance companies are trying to save money, some are looking for reasons to drop people or raise rates, and - I think that, at some point, all of us on Medicare are just lab rats and guinea pigs.

[csziggy]

11. I talked to my BCBS "health coach" today

One of the things he was concerned about was if one of my medications cost more than I could afford. From the way he asked about it, it sounded as if he would help me get assistance in paying for it if the cost was too high. We also reviewed my medications, why I was (or was not) taking them and if they were effective for the condition they were prescribed to treat.

I think it is a good idea - sometimes people get prescriptions and never review them for effectiveness or if they are still needed. While I tend to stay on top of this, some (like my mother) do not.

I am pretty satisfied with the BCBS coverage I have this year. Last year, my medications weren't covered until I had paid my deductible. With a medication that cost $280 and another that was about $230 I hit that limit pretty fast even though I used GoodRx.com to help find a lower cost for the first one and the manufacturer offered a subsidy for six months for the second one.

With BCBS all my meds but one are Tier 1 so my copay is $16 per month each. The other one is Tier 2 and costs me $23 a month. So I went from over $500 a month to less than $60 for both my meds and my husband's.

I'm sort of disappointed that BCBS does not offer a nurse line like my previous coverage. The nurses would call me before and after major operations to prepare me for what to expect and to make sure I was doing OK. The last time around I knew more about what to expect than the nurse since I'd been threw so many operations in the preceding twelve years, LOL. They were nice, offered suggestions if I needed help, and were prepared to be my patient advocate if I was not able or didn't have someone to do it for me.

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. They aren't doing this to be nice

It saves them money to be proactive. One of the few win-wins in the system.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. UnitedHealthcare just sent me an email right now, asking if it was "Time for a shot?"

Why the hell not? Make mine a Lemon Drop.