Recent Reviews
The Cagneys
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Something to Sing About (1937)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
A Lion Is In the Streets (1953)
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)
Never Steal Anything Small (1959)
Shake Hands With the Devil (1959)
Saturday January 04, 2025
Benighted Health Care
Last fall, the place I work and all its people were sold to a corporation in California, and with the transition came a change in insurance. We went from Insurance A to Insurance B. Let's call Insurance B “Benighted Health Care.” This insurance began for us on Jan. 1. I'd already chosen which insurance plan I wanted (basically I'm paying more for less), but I also had to sign up on Benighted's website. I did that yesterday.
Afterwards, I noticed an oddity: It knew my prescriptions (levothyroxine, etc.) but not the name of my primary care provider or PCP. In fact, the one designated to me was incorrect—a doctor I'd never heard of. “How did I get Dr. Z?” I wondered. “Where's Dr. A?” I attempted to change my PCP to Dr. A., who was in-network, but the website wouldn't let me do it. Why? Because, I was told, Dr. A. wasn't accepting new patients.
“But I'm not a new patient,” I muttered at the website. (More and more of my days are spent muttering at websites.)
Eventually I had to call Benighted.
Turns out assigning a doctor I'd never heard of isn't a bug at Benighted, it's a feature. Dr. Z was “chosen” for me by proximity and availability. As for changing the PCP back to Dr. A? That took work. The poor schmuck I got at Benighted tried to help, but he seemed to be doing what I'd tried to do, and failed like I failed, and then blamed my doctor for not accepting new patients rather than the insurance company for assuming new Benighted customers didn't have existing PCPs. To be honest, I didn't even know who to blame. Benighted? The new boss? The medical corp. to which Dr. A. belonged? All I know is it took an hour.
Meet the new year, same as the old year.