Monday, June 11, 2012

The insurance company makes my life miserable.

I am so frustrated with my surgeon's office and my insurance company.  My insurance company doesn't traditionally do pre authorizations.  They give the criteria and you either meet it or not.  Somehow my surgeon's office is having issues determining the wording of the criteria and if I do indeed meet it.  So... in this case the insurance company will do a review and pre authorize.  However... it takes 6-8 weeks (or so they say). 

First issues, the girl handling my insurance claim at the surgeon's office is not very helpful.  She keeps telling me it will take 6-8 weeks and that there is nothing she can do.  However, when I call the insurance company the customer service folks tell me she should be able to plead with provider services to expedite the situation.  She says this isn't true.  I am not able to contact provider services before it is only for providers.  This is all a pile of BS.  It has been 3 weeks since my Upper GI... and this is when my insurance information was sent in (why did it take her so long)?! 

Mind you, I am pretty much on full liquids and nothing else.  I puke a lot.. and have heartburn.  All of this the surgeon's office is aware of.  I called my insurance company today to see if they received the paperwork and they didn't have it on file yet... however she told me it is 30 days not 6-8 weeks.

Blah.

3 comments:

LDswims said...

Ugh. I hate these things where you are doing nothing wrong and yet you are the one paying the entire price. I know with my surgeon's office it turned out there was a secondary person who did the same job for the other half of the alphabet (last names) and she was quite helpful and managed to get answers for me where my own insurance lady (through surgeon's office) was less than informed. I know asking questions has as much potential to frustrate as to help but the answer may be surprising. It also turned out if I called the ins co every day, they hated that, and that helped them expedite things. My mom used to tell all her patients and their families "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" and it's too true. Tiring as it is, squeak away!

Theresa said...

Wow, that sucks. I hope things get better!

Lap Band Gal said...

Hope they get this sorted out for you. Be pro-active and super annoying patient....they'll all of a sudden get tired of you and get their jobs done :) LOL