|
In response to
"shocker: insurance companies f you over with confusing paperwork and then drop you if you get sick -- (link)"
by
dug
|
"But I don't want some faceless person in the government to make decisions about my healthcare!"
Posted by
Trish (aka Trisha)
Jun 24 '09, 19:32
|
That statement would crack me up if so many people didn't believe it.
I've worked with Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare, Champus, VA, and Black Lung for years and never had a problem. Patient comes in, we bill a claim electronically, we get paid 10-12 days later. Yes, there is the ocassional glitch like Social Security accidentally reporting somebody as dead--which is easily fixed. The government plans pay for surgeries without the patient having to jump through hoops and they're very fast to adapt AMA guidelines, like no longer calling bonemarrow ransplants "experimental".
Try getting your commercial carrier to do that.
Just to see a specialist under most private plans you have to get a letter from your doctor to the insurance company detailing why you need the specialist. If the doctor hasn't done a trial of drugs, or ordered unnecessary xrays (which have to have prior approval from this same insurance company), or performed some bit of required treatment, the referral gets denied and you and your doctor have to appeal it. Under Medicare, et al, if your primary doctor wants you to see a specialist, they (or their nurse) calls the specialist's office, makes you an appointment and you go.
When insurance became deregulated (thank YOU Mr. Reagan) it became a commodity designed to make money for shareholders rather than a service to help people prepay inevitible medical expenses. To me, that's more obscene than a 50 year old crack whore with meth mouth and running sores running a daycare center.
|