{"id":4571,"date":"2014-05-02T06:42:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T13:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2021-08-26T18:39:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T01:39:16","slug":"back-on-the-phone-with-anthem-bluecross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/2014\/05\/02\/back-on-the-phone-with-anthem-bluecross\/","title":{"rendered":"Back on the phone with Anthem BlueCross"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is what, the 12th time I\u2019ve had to call these people in 4 months?<\/p>\n

Today it\u2019s about receiving a couple of bills that make absolutely not fucking sense. I\u2019m sooooo Tired of dealing with this bullshit!<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the little annoyances that tend to get you (alright ME!) amped up before you\u2019ve even gotten into a hold queue wating for an agent that will probably fuck your shit up worse than it already is.<\/p>\n

I swear every time I speak to one of these people they claim that everything is happy and good to go and then a month later I get something generated from a computer that makes it obvious something is still horrifically fucked up.<\/p>\n

So in order to blow off steam before I actually talk to a human, here are the irritations in the order of encountering them.<\/p>\n

Item One<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bills (one each) for portions of a policy. Contained within these 3 page bills is one page with explainations of how I can have an interpreter and a phone number for the Department of Insurance.<\/p>\n

This page is printed in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Armenian, Punjabi, Khmer, Hmong, and Persian.<\/p>\n

The main bill is all printed in English and I\u2019ve identified as being an English speaker, so I\u2019m somewhat annoyed by the waste of 3 pieces of paper every month.<\/p>\n

Actually it\u2019s 9 pieces of paper every month because they are supposed to be billing this directly from my checking account.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019ve been doing is billing my account then sending me 9 pieces of paper telling me that they\u2019ve billed my account.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Item Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course nowhere on this bill do they have a phone number to call if you have questions about billing. Instead they say you\u2019re supposed to call the Member Number on the back of your insurance card. Only problem is:<\/p>\n

THERE IS NO MEMBER PHONE NUMBER!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is however a customer service number that puts you into the insanity of a voice prompted computer system that doesn\u2019t understand standard spoken English.<\/p>\n

Eventually I just start hammering around on random numbers until I get into a hold queue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Item Three<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reminder that all representatives are still busy played every 30 seconds. Yeah I kinda figured out that you guys are busy BECAUSE I was on hold listening to shitty hold music! How about extending that notice to once every 90 seconds?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then I hear someone answer the phone. Wow! I was only on hold for 45 minutes this time.<\/p>\n

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I get to a very nice man in the Philippines. Yeah, the Philippines who is able to answer my questions. Really?<\/p>\n

The folks in the Philippines are a very nice and gracious people but why aren\u2019t we talking to Americans?<\/p>\n

You know out of work Americans who are struggling to feed themselves and THEIR families?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Item Four<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, the nice man explains that the two bills I have saying that payment is immediately due are because Anthem failed to debit my checking account again.<\/p>\n

Apparently these bills are trying to catch up for 2 months of payments that are in arrears. He offers to bring the accounts up to date but wants to do it via a credit card.<\/p>\n

I decline. I\u2019m growing more suspicious of Anthem.<\/p>\n

I mean really, if they can\u2019t keep it straight that I\u2019ve given them permission to take their payments right out of my checking account; this is the 4th time they\u2019ve screwed this up since November, can I really trust them to pay for services to my Doctor?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Item Five<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The nice man tells me that one of the bills is for Dental insurance.<\/p>\n

Uhhh, I cancelled that back in Feb. Then he explains\u2026 It\u2019s for pediatric dentistry.<\/p>\n

SAY WHAT? I thought that\u2019s why my damn medical insurance when up after the fucked up implementation of Obamacare!<\/p>\n

(I swear, if ever there was something that needed to be aborted, Obamacare fits the bill).<\/p>\n

But since they\u2019re sending me a bill for it separately, It occurs to me that I can refuse to pay the bill.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Item Six<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I\u2019m thinking over this insanity It occurs to me the cost of my meds is 300 a month without insurance. If I go to Tijuana or use a Canadian pharmacy I could perhaps get my generic drugs cheaper. Even if I stayed in the American pharmacies I\u2019d still save money.<\/p>\n

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I wonder if I were to simply cancel the whole damn shebang and let our fucked up government BILL me for not having insurance if I\u2019d be better off paying out of pocket.<\/p>\n

I wonder if I can get a catastrophic policy just in case I end up in the hospital?<\/p>\n

I find myself thinking of tropical beaches out of the US once a year taking a \u201cMedical Vacation\u201d to Indonesia, or Curacao.<\/p>\n

The thought of a once a year checkup combined with warm sand and excellent diving is a cloying one.<\/p>\n

I wonder if the math would work out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I\u2019ve got till the 10th to decide what I want to do. I suppose I\u2019ll think it over and run some math. Perhaps I\u2019ll shop around for another private insurer who actually can keep the payment and billing straight on a month to month basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is what, the 12th time I\u2019ve had to call these people in 4 months? Today it\u2019s about receiving a couple of bills that make absolutely not fucking sense. I\u2019m sooooo Tired of dealing with this bullshit! Then there\u2019s the little annoyances that tend to get you (alright ME!) amped up before you\u2019ve even gotten … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Back on the phone with Anthem BlueCross”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,84,78,11,16,153,19],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-4571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aca","category-bullshit","category-cultural-obscenities","category-gop-dem","category-mens-health","category-obamacare","category-things-that-make-you-say-hum","tag-male"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4641,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions\/4641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}