This Is Why We Hate You

UHC is a righteous pain in the dick:

UHC, like more and more health insurance companies, has their own, mail-order pharmacy service. In the yearly open enrollment, we're issued a warning about coverage of maintenance-medications: "UHC may choose not to cover maintenance-medications that are not procured through their mail-order service". Like a good little boy, at my last yearly checkup, I had my doctor write all my scripts as one-year, mail-order scripts so I could have UHC's mail-order service take care of them. That was January of 2019.

Fast-forward to yesterday. I get an email from the prescription mail-order service telling me that my next order is being cancelled: my script had expired and they couldn't contact the prescriber to get my script extended.

Couple things, here: 1) my current script, written in the second half of January 2019, is actually good through February of 2020; 2) my doctor will write early script, but charges a fee to do so; 3) because my insurer's pharmacy won't pay that fee, the doctor won't extend my prescription; 4) all of this is only a problem because there's a 1-2 month gap between when my on-file script ends and the period that my insurer's pharmacy is filling for.

So, now, I'm probably going to have to pay a non-office prescribing fee because my UHC's in house pharmacy is full of idiots (causing a 12-month set of prescriptions to effectively be a 9-month set of prescriptions) ...meaning I potentially end up with a medication gap for epilepsy medications as well as leaving me on the hook for to cover an early prescribing fee.

UHC: This is why people hate you and the rest of your cabal.

Why I Hate "The Hartford" Insurance Companies

So, on Saturday, May 28th, my SUV was backed into by a driver insured through The Hartford's Small Business auto insurance group. We exchanged information and went about our respective ways. I contacted my insurer to aprise them of the situation. They recommended I contact the other preson's insurer (The Hartford) and file a claim directly with them.

The Hartford, being a customer-service oriented company, doesn't really make themselves available for people to file claims. They only have agents available to open and process claims from 08:00-17:00 Eastern time during the regular business week. So, if you have a day job, you're stuck trying to call them during business hours. If you're like me, this is made difficult by not having predictable access to phones during those hours.

At any rate, the following Tuesday (5/31), I opted to go into work an hour late so that I could call the ass-hats at The Hartford. A little after 08:00, I called in and opened a claim. I was told that an adjuster would contact me within two business days. I informed them that I had limited phone-access, but they assured me that I would be contacted and that, if I wasn't reachable, they'd leave a message. Well, it's now 18 days later and I've yet to hear from an adjuster and there have been no voicemails left at any of my phone numbers. 

I guess I'm a bit spoiled by my insurance company. My insurance company allows one to file and track claims 24/7. Their only real hours limitation is that of individual claims adjusters. While their adjusters' hours are limited by comparison to the overall claims service process, their adjusters are very prompt about returning phone calls or contacting you via alternate means (such as email). Dealing with my insurance company shows how craptacular the service of companies, such as The Hartford's, is.

Interestingly, I opted to call the actual policy holder, Rick's Carpet and Flooring. I spoke with a nice gentleman (Rob, I believe) who told me that The Hartford had told them that they'd already taken care of the issue. I found this rather odd, considering that my vehicle was still not repaired and I had yet to be contacted by a claim's adjuster. Rick's is supposed to call me back, Monday, after they've had a chance to re-engage the Hartford and find out what the heck is up. They're a small, local, family-owned business, so, the solicitousness of their response was about on par with what I expected.

So, it should be interesting to see how this all works out. I may have to delay the start of one of my work days, next week, to try to track down an adjuster from The Hartford. The damage was only slight, but, at this point, it's more one of those "the principal of the thing" exercises.

Health Insurance

Always kind of disillusioning when you realize "I need a $2500 raise just to keep up with increases in medical insurance outlays"