neuroticgirl's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- insurance woes My New Years resolution list so far is this - come up with New Years resolutions for 2002 before 2003. So since I can't just post some shitty list of things that I will fail to accomplish I'll bore you guys with my long insurance story. My old health insurance company is going out of business. Which seemed fine to me since Mayo Health Plan sucked so bad to begin with. WRONG! Billys employer decided that since the old insurance expired at the end of November then maybe they should start obtaining new insurance around the second week of November. Because we all know how speedy health insurance providers are. And surely 3 weeks is long enough to research and find a new company. Not to mention to pay the new company and have the policy written up and underwritten and added to numerous computer databases. 3 weeks is plenty of time. right. So the week before my new insurance is supposed to be effective my obstetrician stops taking Blue Cross Blue Shield. Which is about to be my new insurance. And I'm not far enough along for them to make an exception. So I had to find a new doctor. No problem right. Wrong. Seems that many doctors don't want to take a new pregnant patient that's in her 5th or 6th month. But that's ok. I found one that I love. The same doctor that delivered Ian. So I was thrilled. Tried to make an appointment with them before my insurance was actually effective, just so that there wouldn't be a lapse in my prenatal care. No can do. I must first have a referral from my primary care physician. OK. No problem. Except that I can't get a referral or make an appointment until my insurance is actually effective. No problem. I'll just take a little longer to get in and there will be an ever-so-slight lapse in the prenatal care. Except that December 1st rolled around and the old insurance was gone. The new insurance hadn't even been underwritten yet. My next prenatal appointment was supposed to be the first week of December. I'm determined not to stress out but I do anyway. Two weeks ago I finally got put into the computer so I tried to make an appointment with my PCP. Seems that he had quit taking Blue Cross Blue Shield in the 3 weeks since I chose him. So I called up a different doctor on the list and asked them if they took Blue Cross. Yes, they did. Were they accepting new patients? Yes they were. Great. I called up Blue Cross and changed my PCP to the new doctor. Called the new doctor back to make an appointment and the receptionist, the same one that I had just spoken to, informed me that the doctor was retiring in 3 days so I would be unable to make an appointment. I just hung up. What the hell do you say to someone that ineffectual? So I finally found a new PCP. Called to get a referral so that I could make an appointment with the obstetrician. They won't give me a referral. I tried to tell her that I was 6 months pregnant. 26 weeks. I'm pregnant. It's a boy, I've seen the sonogram, etc. She tells me that I need to come in for a pregnancy test because "some women miss a period and think they're pregnant, and you might not actually be pregnant. We'll need to see you." Fine. I make the appointment. When I get to the office I am lectured about how I really should ahve been getting prenatal care before then and it is pretty unresponsible of me to wait this long. ahem. Give me my fucking referral and let me be on my way. So after 7 business days the referral finally went through, I made the appointment with my new obstetrician and next weds. I finally get to go to the fucking obstetrician. That doesn't really seem like that big of a deal all typed out like that does it? It was though, it was very stressful. Oh wait. Did I tell you that my new health insurance is 500 dollars a month? Is that a lot? Because it seems atrocious to me compared to my old 200 a month. I think that's about all I have for now. Hope every one is having a great new year. 2:45 p.m. - 01.02.02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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