Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Blood From a Turnip
A gripping tale of high suspense and bureaucracy
The story so far...
Episode 1: I call Blue Cross to get an international out-of-network claim form for my trip to the doctor in New Zealand. The forms that arrive are clearly not for an international claim, so I call customer service. "That's OK," she says, "Just fill out the top part and attach the receipt."
Episode 2: A month later, the claim is returned, with a form letter asking for the name/address of the provider. The clinic's name and address is on the attached receipt, so I call customer service again. A different person asks me to mail the returned claim directly to her, and she'll sort it out.
Episodes 3-6: They never received the form I returned. They have no record of ever receiving such a claim from me, no wait they did, but they destroyed the original receipt, so I need to call the clinic in New Zealand and get a new one, then send it to a different address using the real international claim form, it's in the mail we swear to god.
Episode 7: I finally receive the real international claim form, get a new receipt from the Greymouth Clinic (probably spending more money on the call than I'll get from Blue Cross), and mail them off to the real international claim address.
Episode 8: Remember the claim form I sent back to customer service in Episode 2? The one they never received? It arrives in my mailbox with a form letter identical to the first one, asking for the name and address of the provider.
To be continued . . . unfortunately...
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A gripping tale of high suspense and bureaucracy
The story so far...
Episode 1: I call Blue Cross to get an international out-of-network claim form for my trip to the doctor in New Zealand. The forms that arrive are clearly not for an international claim, so I call customer service. "That's OK," she says, "Just fill out the top part and attach the receipt."
Episode 2: A month later, the claim is returned, with a form letter asking for the name/address of the provider. The clinic's name and address is on the attached receipt, so I call customer service again. A different person asks me to mail the returned claim directly to her, and she'll sort it out.
Episodes 3-6: They never received the form I returned. They have no record of ever receiving such a claim from me, no wait they did, but they destroyed the original receipt, so I need to call the clinic in New Zealand and get a new one, then send it to a different address using the real international claim form, it's in the mail we swear to god.
Episode 7: I finally receive the real international claim form, get a new receipt from the Greymouth Clinic (probably spending more money on the call than I'll get from Blue Cross), and mail them off to the real international claim address.
Episode 8: Remember the claim form I sent back to customer service in Episode 2? The one they never received? It arrives in my mailbox with a form letter identical to the first one, asking for the name and address of the provider.
To be continued . . . unfortunately...
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