Insurance Frustration

I need to take a break from family posts to complain a little bit.  Dealing with insurance companies is no fun.

About 2 months ago when Nate and I had to enroll, we learned that our insurance company had put us in a new network for 2014.  Many of you that read this already know that it by putting us in the new network it meant that the only hospital at which my doctor delivers was no longer considered "In Network".  Well, after talking to a few helpful people at customer service, we found out that there is something called "Continuity of Care".  Being in your 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy qualifies you to fill out the form and ask them to cover your delivery at the hospital as if it was "In Network".  I asked a few people how to fill out the form (wanted to make sure I did it right the first time), filled it out and mailed it off to the address on the form on November 8.

The form says to allow 10 business days for review and then someone will contact you.  So I gave them a little extra time to allow for the holiday break and still didn't hear from them.  I started calling yesterday and I didn't get any answers until today.  Yesterday, the woman was willing to help, but it felt like her hands were tied.  You see, the department I send the form to is not able to be contacted.  They don't talk to the customer.  When the lady got as far as she could, she passed it on to her supervisor who was going to do research and call me back.  Fast forward to this morning, still no phone call back.  So I called again and got someone new.  Also a helpful lady who brought in another department on a conference call.  Both of these women told me that my form was not in the system and the only option I had was to fax it in.  At this moment, I started to cry (I am 27 weeks pregnant after all!) and I could tell the ladies felt bad for me but they couldn't do anything else for me.

After I calmed down, I was still confused and very frustrated so I called back and got yet another person. Once again she told me that my form was not in the system and brought in a supervisor who said the same thing.  Then they tell me that I sent the form to the wrong address (the address from the from on their website).  Still trying to hold it together she transfers me to member services so I complain about the address being wrong.  The nice young man that I spoke to this time, looked at my account and told me that my form had in fact been received.  Again confused, I listen as he rattles off info that was on the form.  He tells me that it is just sitting in their mail section online and hadn't been sent on to the correct department.  He was kind of enough to send it on and verify it was received for me.  Now, even though they have had it for almost a month, they still get to take their 10 days to review it and then get in touch with me.

So had I not been persistent enough, I would have never found my form.  So frustrating that I did my part and then got lost in the system.  It's also frustrating that it took me talking to 5 different people over the course of 2 days and at least 2-3 hours to find a form that was sitting there all along.

Everyone I spoke with said that I should be approved, but the other hiccup is that they may not be able to tell me until Jan. 1 because our new plan doesn't go into effect then.  Under our current plan, our hospital is covered.  It's only under our new plan that it won't be.  What a headache!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure it will all work out, but it is so frustrating that I'm even having to go through this.  Because starting Jan. 1 we can no longer visit our local, closest hospital that we really like for anything.  In this large metropolitan area, we have a choice between 2 hospitals that are close to us.  Ridiculous.