And they wonder why people hate insurance companies
I started writing this in May and never finished it.
We have paid over $2000 in health insurance premiums this year. It is through United Health Care in case you want to be sure to steer clear of them in the future. We are pretty healthy people and had our first and only doctor visit in the middle of May. I paid a $40 co-pay at the doctors and in my mail today was surprised to find a bill for the remaining balance. The entire bill was cheaper than one of my premiums but we were informed by United Health Care that they don’t care they won’t be paying it. Seems the place I go to get health care was forced to change its designation from urgent care facility to emergency room by United Health Care. They were incredibly nice to talk to but said that at the end of last year they had to choose between not being able to take United Health Care or sign the contract changing their designation. Now, I have to wonder why in the world I have a tiered co-pay system that includes regular doctor visit, urgent care facility, and emergency room when the only urgent care facility here in San Antonio is now designated as an emergency room.
Now, comes the reason I picked this back up today after letting it lie for over a month. On Tuesday my oldest daughter and husband went off to the dermatologist that was the one that United Health Care told us to go to and while filling our prescriptions were unhappily surprised to find out that they just plain don’t cover some of them. We understand that we are supposed to have a tiered prescription co-pay just like we have a “tiered” doctor co-pay but this is a fun new loophole they found. After paying too much to even think about to fill the prescriptions we called United Health Care last night to be told that nope, they won’t cover it, no chance they will and basically we should just shut up and stop bothering them. They couldn’t come up with a substitute we could have the doctor write that would be covered because they just don’t do that. We decided to check to see if at least the doctor visits would be covered since it was a the doctor they sent us to and we were a little weary of the coverage at this point. Of course, they won’t be covering it. Seems that we must fulfill a deductible which wasn’t in existence any other year. Seriously folks we have had United Health Care every year for the last 8 and this year we are paying much, much more than any other year and they just plain don’t cover anything. Where last year, at a much cheaper premium there was only a deductible for out of network doctors this year there is one just for everything. The saddest thing was when talking to them we asked if where our plan stacked up against the others they offer and he told us ours one of the best. If this is one of the best I can’t imagine what the people with the worst do.
Of course, I have no answer for how to fix it just wanted to vent a little. I can say that I am very seriously thinking that I should go to the doctor every day for the rest of the year once the deductible is met so that I can get something out of the thousands we are paying.
On a personal note, I am ripping up my kitchen floor so if I don’t post a lot it just means I am busy.Technorati Tags: health insurance, United Health Care,
Filed under: United Health Care, health insurance
