by Annie Biller

Created on: April 20, 2008

Blue Cross Blue Shield is an insurance company that recently was implemented by the company I work for. While I have not personally had reason to use hospital coverage I have heard from various fellow employees that the nearest hospital to my home does not accept Blue Cross Blue Shield. As a result, the 80/20 coverage we are supposed to have falls to a 60/40 coverage from our insurance. Many local doctors also do not accept this insurance company and require payment directly from the patient. Many require payment before services are rendered.

The prescription coverage we now have is not as good as we previously had. I have medications that I am required to take on a continuel basis and I found that prescriptions that were costing me $28 a month now cost $51 a month. That in itself did not leave me with a favorable impression of our new carrier.

Those of us saddled with this dilemma find that if we want the coverage we should have, we have to switch away from doctors, medical care facilities, and pharmacies we have dealt with and are comfortable with to seek doctors who will accept this insurance company. Many doctors are not accepting new patients due the number of patients already under their care and this creates a need to travel a much longer distance to reach one that has opennings available to us for regular care.

In reading the information presented to us when we were signed into coverage I find that there are many exclusions to coverage that we did not have with our previous carrier even though the cost to us is higher. Does the insurance carrier have the right or the ability to determine what medical procedures are necessary to a patient's well being?

Discussion with an acquaintance who had occasion at one time to be covered under Blue Cross Blue Shield brought to my attention that in the experience of that person the insurance was very slow to pay claims on top of limiting procedures that were covered.

This company has been around for a very long time. If they are so difficult to work with that doctors and hospitals are reluctant to deal with this company it doesn't seem that they would rank very high as an insurance carrier.

Learn more about this author, Annie Biller.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.