Insurance Companies and Pharmacies, Banes of the Elderly

 

by Pa Rock

Constant Victim

T.S. Eliot famously described April (breeding lilacs out of the dead ground) as being the cruelest month, but for me, January is far and away the cruelest month of the year.  That is the month in which I have to roll up my sleeves and do battle with both of my insurance providers and the local pharmacy in order to insure that I can get my laundry list of meds throughout the year without co-pays or other bureaucratic interference.  

I'm covered by two insurance plans, pay a helluva lot in premiums, and consequently never have a co-pay, except in January when the insurance companies and the pharmacy always get things screwed up.  (Medicare Part D providers change their plans every year as to what they will and will not cover, and consequently many seniors have to change insurance providers in January to keep the best coverage for whatever meds they take.  I've had to change my Part D provider the past three years.)

The long and short of it is that in January, the cruelest month, things get screwed up and the pharmacy tells me that if I don't believe I should have a co-pay, I have to call the insurance companies, both of them, and get the matter straightened out.  And every January I do that - and then when I finally get it resolved, the insurance company which is at fault tells me to call the pharmacy and tell them how to bill properly.  Neither party, the pharmacy or the insurance company, wants to speak to the other directly, not when they have poor old Pa Rock in the middle to whack like a ping-pong ball.

It's an annual drill, always in January, and yesterday I dedicated an entire afternoon to being shoved around by a bureaucracy whose entire mission in life seems to be keeping old people angry and busy.  This morning the issue is only about half resolved, which is okay because the month is only about half over.  I'm going to rest today, and tomorrow I will roll up my sleeves and go after the sons-of-bitches again!  Spending twenty minutes or so dealing with their answering machines at the start of each call always has be in fine fettle by the time an actual human comes on the line!