PEOPLE, please freaking actually READ my insurance card. Reading counts.

[MrsBrady]

***preface before rant:
Listen, I have great sympathy for folks without health care. I've been there.
I do not take my good benefits for granted. I wish for everyone what we have.
(And still things could be better, even if what we have is "good") ok? so let me rant***

For us this is a BIG pet peeve, time waster, and all around pain in the butt.

We live in Texas.
We have CareFirst BCBS, National Account...
which is NOT BCBS of Texas....

Also...
Listen - it's not my fault that our insurance number has the letter 'i" that looks like a "one". But clearly the "ones" look like "ones". READING counts, folks!

So if the person in the back office would actually READ THE CARD. That would save them and us a lot of headaches.

After clearing up that "one" is supposed to be an "i" crap...
To the medical billing person at the Dr's office: No, ma'am, I have no idea why there's no address on the back of the card. Perhaps it's because it's a NATIONAL ACCOUNT, and they want you to call the PHONE NUMBER LISTED on the back of the card to find out where to send claims.
Her: That's not in our system
Me: (Being polite, but wanting to tear her head off) It's probably not....listen, again, if you file it to BCBS of TEXAS...it will kick it back. Please submit it to CareFirst BCBS, National Account.
Her: What's the address.
Me: Um...they want you to call the number on the back of the card. it's a national account. It depends on where we are, I think...when my husband had an accident in Phoenix, they tried to claim it to BCBS of Arizona.
Please, please please call the provider number on the back of the card. If it's not in your system, you will have to call them to get the address. I know the card says to file it to the local plan, but I'm telling you now that if you file it to BCBS of Texas, even with the corrected number, it will kick it back.

So she just called me again...."I called and they told me to file it locally"......
I said ok, just do what they tell you to do. perhaps with the corrected number it will go through.

I'm sure I'll be getting another letter from BCBS of Texas saying "we don't know who in the hell you are" duh...you are not our insurance compay.....:banghead::banghead: :rant:

[HopeHoops]

1. I used to have BCBS of Oregon (live in PA) - I got a freakin' rejection from a FL BCBS once!

I can understand billing the local BCBS (which actually will process the Oregon claims for them), but how the HELL did the Florida BCBS get involved? Same deal - "Who the hell are you?"

[MrsBrady]

2. they have a hard time understanding that they have to put the CareFirst

name on it even thought it's filed to the same address as the local BCBS of Texas...

:think: :crazy:

[HopeHoops]

3. OUCH! Same address? That must be a nightmare for them!

E-GADS! No wonder it got screwed up. Can't they afford another P.O. box?

[MrsBrady]

4. CareFirst BCBS is out of Maryland

I don't see how hard it is for the Dr's staff to send claims to the local BCBS address? with the correct number?

perhaps I'm asking to much :sarcasm:

:rofl:


It's a national account. Everything gets filed locally, though.

[hippywife]

5. Maybe it's just living in Oklahoma, I don't know

but I have yet to use a doctor who doesn't seem to have a bunch of nitwits who couldn't follow instructions without dots and crayons working in his/her office since I've been here. Is it like that everywhere else, too?

:banghead:

[MrsBrady]

6. Oklahoma...I don't know...

I think there are people every where who either don't care

or like what I've found in so many offices...just don't take time to actually READ what's given to them.

I mean...call the freaking number on the back, find out where CareFirst wants you to send the claim.
It will be a Texas address, probably..as all claims have to be filed locally. But that still doesn't mean it's the BCBS of Texas office..
I DON't freaking know....just call the freaking provider number and find out where they want the claim sent...NOT THAT HARD.
I'm sure thats why there is no address on the back of the card....it's a national account.

Just because I live in Texas, doesn't mean I'm insured by BCBS of Texas. It's CareFirst BCBS. :banghead:

I don't know why CareFirst just doesn't have one place for claims, even if I see a doctor in Texas, NY, AZ..or wherever...all claims get filed to whatever local BCBS office is correspondent with the local doctor network.
Just call the freaking number, get the local address.....jeeez.

I don't understand how that is sooooooooo hard????? But I do seem to have to spell it out.......wow....just wow.

[hippywife]

9. Our insurer has so many different plans

and they are set up as different companies it seems, that it is terribly confusing for even me to know what it's called.

But the staff in my doctor's offices have lost test results and once even a letter from my doctor that he sat down and hand wrote explaining something in great detail and meant to have them mail to me and, not only did I not get it, it wasn't even found in my file.

I can't understand how someone could work in a medical office and not pay attention to every little detail they are given when someone's life could possibly be at stake. I just don't get it...not at all.

I had a claim denied from a specialist's visit because first they told me they accidentally filed the claim under the wrong patient and then they tried to tell me I hadn't shown my card, when I had showed it twice because they tried to charge me the wrong co-pay. I fought that one with the billing office, sending them all my documentation of phone calls, and copies of letters. The girls in the doctor's office got very rude with me. The billing office made them eat it.

[MrsBrady]

10. wow...

that sounds bad.

I wonder if the Doctor knows. Is good help that hard to find? Not sarcasm.

[hippywife]

12. I told him.

He was the best doctor ever. He even gave me his direct pager number once when I was having a problem with the staff and told me to page him if that particular problem ever happened again. I never used it. We became friends and really enjoyed our visits, but I think he cared so much about his patients he burned himself out. He moved to another city and took a position at a clinic where he wouldn't have to be on call or have to see patients that weren't his in the hospital. He went over and above for his own patients, and seeing others in their practice I think pushed him over the edge. His nurse at the time even told me that if she was out sick, she would come in the next day and see that he had returned all of her phone calls. Someone else I know said he cried when he had to tell her sister that she had cancer. I think he just placed to much pressure on himself because he wanted to be a good doctor. I've never met anyone like him, and doubt I'll ever meet another. :cry:

And, yes, apparently good help is THAT hard to find.

[MrsBrady]

7. this does remind me of a time, though...unrelated

I was looking for a decorative postage card stamp.
It wasn't until I went to the second post office, that there was only one kind of stamp available at the time.
This was 4 or 5 years ago.

When I went inside the second post office I asked for post card stamps. When she handed me the same ones as the last post office,
I asked if there were different styles.

"No, just these with some man on them."

"Uhhm, That's not some man" I said. "That's George Washington".


and I left. *facepalm*

[TZ]

8. I used to have BCBS of CALIFORNIA

and I live in Maryland...(my employer was based in CA). That was kinda a PITA too. Insurance companies taught the government about beauracracy I think....

[MrsBrady]

11. well, they sure don't make it easy. n/t