How Insurance Companies Get You By The Balls…

Perhaps this doesn't seem related to HeadCount, but for me, it is. You see, I joined HeadCount for a couple of reasons, a) because I needed to feel that I was making a contribution, and b) because I felt like registering voters in the youth population would lead to better decision making in the polls...afterall, it is essentially our country; although you would never know it by the way things look today.

 In my day-life, I work as an office manager at a therapy center. We have been taking insurance here for as long as the practice has been alive. We have also had insurance problems since we've been billing insurance companies. The scariest times here are when things are going well--because you know they are about to take a downturn!

From this side of the fence, I can tell you that my personal company has not been paid for over 6 months from Medicare....so now, faced with this situation, what is a business to do? First, there is an issue of patient care, in that we now have to turn around and hand people bills; which is the last thing I want to do. Secondly, there is an issue of where these people are going to go--some of them have been patients here for upwards of 8 years. Then there is the future--ahh the future.... If any of you help take care of your grandparents, you probably already know that with Medicare there comes lots of downfalls--and I mean LOTS. One of them is that you often get a secondary insurance carrier; that is, Medicare will only pay half your bill, and so you need another insurance carrier to supplement you so you aren't stuck holding your ass when its time to pay your medical bills. What most people don't know is that if the primary insurance doesn't pay the claim (or bill) the secondary insurance refuses to pay as well.

 So when the business think-tank-team of me and my boss sat down and were forced to make a decision regarding the future of Medicare with our company, we decided that we could no longer face the unanswered questions (along with hundreds of unreturned messages that I have left in desperation trying to be paid) and just stop excepting Medicare. What does this all mean???  

Well here's the Kicker:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield thinks that they should completely cut us out of our contract because we can no longer accept Medicare...since you know, they have a total of 3 patients here who are the primary/secondary deal with Medicare...(let's just not mention the other 100 patients that we have where things go smoothly with Blue Cross!)

They have us by the balls....and this is how it happens...

All of these programs are outdated, underfunded, and do not work properly! The time for something new has come, and we have got to find a way to fix this broken, beaten system. The whole thing is a  sharade! There is a crisis in the health care industry that is suffering patients and providers alike, but the saddest part of it is that the one's who will be hit hardest in the future are us! This is why it is so very critical that we begin using our voices to unite this country and find a better way! Registering voters is the only way I can find an answer for myself, but even so, I grow increasingly weary of the country that professes itself "the best" in the world, yet cannot even take care of its people......