WSJ Discovers EECB, It Works On Insurance
The venerable Wall Street Journal recently discovered the classic "EECB" technique we've been telling you about for years. This time, it's health insurance companies, an industry so predicated on denial-of-care-for-profit that a few years ago a class action lawsuit based on RICO statute, invented to prosecute Mafia families for racketeering, was able to make significant headway. Lucky for you, email is much faster than the wheels of justice...
Billy Rogers of Dallas says he struggled for months last year to get Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield to process bills of around $1,350 from doctor visits. The holdup came because the company was investigating whether Mr. Rogers fully disclosed his medical condition when he bought his policy, he says. The 47-year-old political consultant says he was healthy, though one check after he was insured showed somewhat elevated blood sugar that he says quickly dropped in later tests.
Fed up, Mr. Rogers fired off an email with the subject line "Horrible Anthem Coverage." It went to Chief Executive Angela Braly and a public-relations official at Anthem parent WellPoint Inc. He also sent it to several reporters and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Within hours, Mr. Rogers says, he got an email from the WellPoint spokesman, and days later the claim went through. The tactic "sends a signal that you're not going to give up on this," says Mr. Rogers. "I was really, really angry."
Want to send an EECB to a health insurance company? First, have a valid claim. Then, document the heck out of your issue and come up with really good reasons to support your argument. Then exhaust normal customer service options. Once those fail, it's time to send an EECB using these tips.
Taking Gripes Over Insurance to the Top Brass [WSJ](Thanks to Alexa!)
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Comments:
Ah, good 'ole EECB, what would we do without you?
"The 47-year-old political consultant says he was healthy, though one check after he was insured showed somewhat elevated blood sugar that he says quickly dropped in later tests"
OMG... Maybe he had just had a soda. Or birthday cake. Or a sundae. I mean come on.
@Coelacanth: Oh heaven forbid that not having a disease disqualifies you from health insurance. I'm totally done with the medical field. My boyfriend spent 2 nights in the hospital and is now on the hook for $15,000 (basically a brand new car right there). Oh and guess what, they took $2000 off as a courtesy because he doesn't have insurance. How nice.
EECB... is there nothing you can't do?
@Coelacanth: Or they forgot to tell me not to eat before the doctor's appt. This happened to me. I was running late and had not had time for lunch. I stopped by the local coffee fix for a large espresso drink with all the junk in it. The excess sugar usually keeps me from feeling awful until I can eat. They drew blood but didn't mention all the testing they were doing so I thought nothing about it. I get a panicked call a few days later to come pick up a blood meter and send in glucose levels every day.
After a week of this they figured out I didn't have diabetes. So a botched test could lose your insurance. That is totally farked.
I keep reading horror stories like this about Anthem BC doing this to people who have to buy their own insurance. Most employer Blue Cross is pretty good. Why is Anthem such a horrid company when other arms of BC are pretty decent?
I have much love for the EECB as it works almost every time.
One check, no indication of when it was chronologically, after he was insured...that is merit to shuffle your feet on denying a claim?
@bohemian:
Maybe because they can't drop people from group insurance, but they can drop individual policy holders?
NP: 2001: Music From The Films of Stanley Kubrick - Dr. Strangelove - The Bomb Run: City of Prague Philharmonic.
GET OUT OF MY PLAYLIST, BEN!
Ole Slim Pickens would agree.
Huh, and where I was watching the last act of Kubricks's 2001 mixed in with Echos by Pink Floyd.
Trippin', dude.
@bohemian: caffiene and adrenaline also raise blood sugar, so it could be a combination of all three!
@Oranges w/ Cheese in rainy Central FL: My sister was denied insurance because she was already on medication. Her medication? Birth control pills.
"Fertility" = "pre-existing condition"
I've begun to wonder about the pre-qualification blood testing that some insurance companies require for life and health insurance. Long ago, when I was naive, I trusted the process completely, but no longer. A representative of the insurance company comes to your home and draws your blood, then they base coverage eligibility on the results from a lab of their choosing. I don't think I've ever gotten a copy of the results before, but what if there are resulsts just slightly out of range, they agree to cover you, then when you develop a problem they declare it pre-existing because of that initial blood test. I'm not sure how you would be able to protect yourself in this situation. Can you insist on getting independent lab testing on the same day as the insurance draws blood? How can you ensure lack of bias in the process?
It's not just the patients that have a problem. Health care providers sit and wait for reimbursement only to be told that the claim was never filed. We were convinced that at least a third of our claims went into the wastebasket without being looked at. When we went electronic and documented every claim submitted, the percentage paid in a reasonable period of time increased greatly. BTW, this was not only Anthem. Many others adopted the same philosophy of having to pry dollars out of their cold dead hands.
@bohemian: Oh, I don't know about that. I've got Blue Cross through COBRA (they assure me it's the exact same coverage I used to have,) and they deny EVERYTHING. If I call and beg them to resubmit sometimes they'll pay after the third phone call/resubmit.
This is SO worth $500+ per month. For just me. And no other insurance company will look at me.
What if they don't answer?
@JennQPublic: That is horrifying. I just started the process to get insurance, and I'm on BC.
Someone tell me this isn't common? Please?
There's always a small claims suit as a last resort. When they have to pay their lawyers to defend a lot of these claims, they may see reason.
I didn't forget my password (:-;) but I did forget what EECB stands for...help, anyone?
@knackeredmom: Get your own blood test on the same day from a lab of your choice for a legal ground to stand on?
And MM-Haters - Michael Moore deserves credit here too - not only his Sicko movie but many of the previous episodes of his cable show he was DIRECTLY responsible for people getting help they needed when he humiliated insurance companies and got them to change their minds, including dumping a whole bunch of coffins blocking the front door of their corporate headquarters.
I will never understand why people hate him so much for just doing the right thing and trying to get corporations to in a very public way - very similar work to this article here.
@savdavid: That's why you copy the media on the email, and copy it so that all these executives see it. The last thing these guys want is a big story about them offering shitty service, especially now with all the talk of getting rid of them entirely.
@nsv: you could always file a complaint with the commissioner of insurance and if that fails document what they didn't cover that they were supposed to and sue them for 3 times (treble damages) the amount. If you can keep it under the amount for small claims it will take less time.
So "somewhat elevated blood sugar" = "medical condition" ?