the passionate ailurophile

…with the medical bills/insurance bullshit.

Funny how the Evil Post Office didn’t manage to lose the bill I just got in the mail, to the tune of $640. This was for when I was in the ER, for the cardiac stress test and some other crap that they insisted on doing.

I know what the deal is, and a quick search on the Cigna website confirmed it. The two doctors, the radiation dude and the cardiologist who monitored the stress test, are NOT registered with the Cigna network. Therefore, Cigna will not pay. On the part of the bill where it is supposed to say how much the insurance picked up, there are big fat ZEROES.

You may remember how this sort of thing happened to Mike last year. He had to have a colonoscopy. He did so. The insurance paid for that, but refused to pay the $900 anesthesiologist’s fee. That doctor, he was told by Cigna, is not part of the network.

After a lot of fighting, the bill was settled, with Cigna paying MUCH less than $900. And this wasn’t the only thing they tried to screw him on, either.

For fuck’s sake…I was in the ER because I thought I was dying of a heart attack. It turns out I do not and never have had any heart problems, so it wasn’t like I had my own personal cardiologist or anything. Hell, up until last week, I never even had a primary care physician. So of course, when you’re admitted from the ER, you get whoever is available, no one checks to see if your insurance will pay. They don’t care. But they are sure quick enough to demand the insurance info from you two seconds after being rushed in, for fear that you’ll croak before they can get it.

We’d gotten a letter from Cigna a couple of weeks ago, saying that they were going to pay, but for what, they didn’t say. I assume they are paying for the ER and the hospital stay, as I’ve yet to get any bill from the hospital. And I hope to hell that the other two times I went to the ER are paid for as well…fuck, each time cost me a $75 co-pay, that had better be it!

I fucking hate Cigna with a passion. Mike is gonna be pissed when he hears about this tonight, but not surprised. He hates Cigna, too, and his billing issues are a big part of why he won’t go for most of the medical procedures that Dr. Quackinstein wants him to have. He goes for checkups and takes his meds, but that’s about it. At least the damned insurance is still paying for that.

Now I wonder what is going to happen with that mammogram I had the other day. What if the radiology woman who squoze my boobs into that thing isn’t in the Cigna network? How much do mammograms cost, anyway? Hopefully, I won’t get a bill and find out. But I’m not having a good feeling about this.

Cigna truly sucks big, fat, hairy, smelly syphilitic donkey ‘nads. It is by far the WORST insurance company I have ever dealt with, ever. Unfortunately, right now, this is all that is available to Mike through his job, no way could we afford to buy our own plan right now.

Mike’s company is actually based in Rhode Island, he just works in the Massachusetts office. Employees in Rhode Island actually have a choice of other health plans, since there were so many complaints about Cigna down there. Used to be it was Cigna for the whole company, and that was it. Before that, it used to be just Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which we have NEVER had problems with. Never had a problem until the company switched to Cigna because it’s cheaper. And now we know why.

Anyhoo, I want Mike to take care of this, and I want him to let HR at his work know of this latest development. Maybe if they get enough complaints about Cigna from the Massachusetts office, perhaps they will let us pick some other insurance, too. Mike has already let them know about his issues with them, maybe they need a few more gripes to justify making a change.

He will take care of the billing thing, I’m leaving it to him because he’s had to do it before, and knows what to do. He is also less likely to get on the phone with someone and tell them to get fucked, which is what I feel like doing right now.

Man, this shit pisses me off to no end. What the FUCK are we paying insurance premiums for? We’re paying about the same as we did when we had BC/BS, but getting less. It’s Mike’s damned employer that is enjoying the savings, while we sit here and get screwed.

Cigna sucks. If you ever have a choice, DO NOT sign up with them.