My husband and I are among the many Americans that are trying to find affordable health insurance. About a week and a half ago, he filled out the application form online. Today, the insurance company called us. Few things are more stressful than an unexpected call from a potential insurer.
My husband spent around two hours filling out the online application form for health insurance. It was tedious. It asked what seemed like a million questions about his health, and then asked the same ones about my health. Then it asked me a bunch of questions that relate to women’s health. It took forever!
When he finished filling out the form, we were told that it would take three to five business days before we would get an answer. Since he filled it out really late on Thursday, September 8, 2011, we figured that perhaps we would get something in the mail by Wednesday, September 14, 2011 (at the earliest), or by Friday, September 16, 2011, (at the latest).
Instead, we got a phone call, on Monday, September 19, 2011, from the insurance company. They called while my husband was working, so they ended up leaving us a message. This message was from an actual person, and not an automated recording, or anything like that. The person said that the insurer had “questions” about the application.
He left a phone number for us to call back, which makes sense. Oddly enough, the phone number was to their “medical department”. We were given a chart number to use as a reference, too. From this, we assumed that the insurance company had not decided to deny our application…. yet.
Once my husband was off of work, he called the insurer back. Of course, he was put on hold. Shortly after being put on hold, an automated message came up describing how to leave the insurer we were trying to call back a message to call us back. I believe this is called “phone tag”.
The first attempt my husband made to leave them a message, about their message, was unsuccessful, and he ended up getting disconnected. So, he called back, and tried again.
Two hours later, the insurance company called back. The woman on the phone asked my husband to verify his information, so she could be certain that she really was talking with who she was supposed to be speaking to. She then advised him that he was not required to give information about his genetic medical history. He was only to mention things that he, himself, had been diagnosed with.
She then asked my husband about his high blood pressure. She wanted to know if he was taking prescription medication for it. If so, what was the name of the drugs, and what dosage was he taking? She read off the name of his doctor from the application, and asked him to verify it.
From here, things got strange. She wanted to know when was the last time was seen by his doctor, and asked if he was being “regularly treated” for high blood pressure. He explained that since he doesn’t have health insurance, he cannot afford to go to the doctor anytime he wants to. Instead, his doctor authorizes the pharmacy to refill his prescriptions as needed.
Next, she asked him if he had a blood pressure meter at home. He did, so she made him take a reading of his blood pressure, and tell her what it was. All of this is going to be sent to the insurer’s underwriting department. They are supposed to contact us “within a week to ten days”.
Image by Enrique Dans on Flickr