Monday, April 7, 2008

Insurance and Office Managers

I am so completely frustrated!!! I, through much prayer and searching, have found a great doctor for Abigail. Why am I frustrated, you ask? I have been on the phone for an hour and a half trying to get Abigail's PCP switched over to this new doctor, and have still been unsuccessful. I finally called the office manager in the pediatric clinic where this doctor practices to see if she would mind adding Abigail to their medicaid system; this was no problem of coarse, until she told me that we would be responsible for our primary insurance co-payment. Abigail has been on TEFRA Medicaid since December, and not one time have we had to pay the co-pay. That is why we have TEFRA! If we had to pay $30 every time we went to the doctor, we would be out hundreds of dollars just in co-payments. We are already paying over $500 per month for Blue Cross Blue Shield, our primary insurance provider, and an additional $30 per month for TEFRA, but they don't see that. All they see is the word medicaid; it should not matter what race you are or what social class you are in, every living breathing person should be given equal, quality medical care. There is legitimacy behind my remark; I called an Insurance Analyst for Medicaid and she informed me that I was given inaccurate information and medicaid would in fact pick up anything, including co-payments that the primary provider did not cover. When I called the office manager back, she was not very pleased and said that insurance didn't even cover the full amount of the doctor's visit, and they would have to write-off the remaining balance. Isn't it nice to know that the "medical world" is more worried about the money than the person them self? I am sorry to go on a tangent like this, but it is frustrating enough having to take care of a sick child; the last thing I should have to worry about is insurance and office managers.