Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Military Insurance in a Civilian World

The last two weeks I have been on an insurance crusade.

We have military insurance and it is a joke! In the civilian world doctors don't take our insurance because the insurance company is notorious for not paying. This makes the list of doctors who participate rather short.

In January when I was pregnant I found out that there is only one OB in Evansville that is in our network. I made an appt with them. From the start I had nothing but trouble with his office. I called a few weeks before my appt because I was spotting and they blew me off. It took 2 more phone calls that day before they agreed to do an ultrasound. It took me 2 days and 5 phone calls to get my u/s results. They didn't want to do bloodwork. They insisted I was fine.

I was sitting in Dr. Asshole's office while he was telling me that I could be miscarrying or it could be an ectopic pregnancy and he said, "it is not my job to save babies. I know a lot of people think it is, but that's not my job. I don't save babies for a living."

Really?! It's not his job to save babies? Then what is his job?

Now, I am rational person and I know that in many/most cases an early miscarriage like mine can't be "fixed". Many times there isn't anything a doctor can do, but to tell me his job isn't to save babies? Out of line if you ask me! What if I hadn't miscarried and something happened when I was further along in my pregnancy?

So, this week I have been trying to get a new OB approved from my insurance. I had my primary doc put in a referral and I submitted all the appropriate paperwork.

Yesterday I got a letter from my insurance company saying that they are denying my request and they are "redirecting" me to Dr. Asshole. Needless to say...I was pissed!

I called them up and I was informed that part of my insurance agreement is that I will drive up to an hour to see a specialist and there 2 other doc's within an hour of me. They think it is ok to have to drive an hour to deliver a baby (when the time comes of course). Not to mention, these docs are in a completely different state!

I explained to the man on the phone what happened with the last OB and he said that requesting an out of network provider will not be approved simply because I thought the network doc had bad bedside manner.

What I don't understand is how another girl that lives 6 blocks from me and has the same insurance as me got a non-network doc approved. She never even had to endure Dr. Asshole, she requested a different doc based on my experience.

After 2 phone calls and 2 supervisors they resubmitted my request to a "tier 2" manager.

Maybe I am out of line, but I do NOT want to drive an hour to see a doctor and I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT GO BACK TO DR. ASSHOLE!!!!!

I will call everyday, like I have been for 2 weeks until I get what I want! It should not be this difficult to get decent health care.

1 comment:

  1. Stopping over from the MilSpouse FFI :) Bad OBs suck. I hope you get your referral soon!

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