Why Health Insurance is So Expensive

I have a chronic medical condition which requires that I take medication.  Today, I got a letter from my insurance carrier informing me that after July 1, one of my meds will no longer be “preferred”.  That means that in order for me to use that medicine, the insurance company has to precertify it annually as appropriate for me.  And to get precertification, my doctor has to send all sorts of records to the carrier.

 

This process is a pain to say the least, but that is not the point.  I began to write an email to my doctor only to discover that the insurance company said that the doctor must call them but gave no phone number.  So I did the logical thing.  I called the carrier to ask for the number.  The first call went through and I told the computer my name, date of birth and that it was really me.  I got transferred to a customer rep who just kept saying hello and finally said she could not hear me and that I should call back.  That took 4 minutes and 40 seconds.

 

I called again.  This time, I gave the computer my name, date of birth and confirmed that it was really me.  I got a customer service representative and, Hallelujah, she could hear me.  It was a miracle!  I told her that I needed the phone number in order for my doctor to call to get a precertification for a medicine.  She began by asking me my name, date of birth and to confirm that it was really me she was speaking to.  I asked her why we had to go through all that again.  She said that she did not want to give out my confidential info to a stranger.  I said, “All I want is a phone number.  Is that confidential?”  She said no but insisted that she had to get all my info again under their procedures.  I complied.

 

So now we get to the good part.  After all that, she told me that she could not find any number for the doctor to call.  She asked me to hold while she researched it.  Five minutes later she got on to tell me that she still did not have the number.  I asked her if it was “unlisted”.  She did not get the joke.  She asked me to hold again.  After another 8 minutes of holding, I just hung up.

 

My guess is that my doctor probably already knows the number to call.  At least, I sure hope so.   And, for those of you who were wondering, the insurance carrier is Oxford, which is part of United Healthcare.