Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Health Insurance "Incentives"

We had a meeting at work today about a fabulous new service offered by our health insurance. All we have to do is fill out a health questionnaire then go to a lab in town and get blood drawn so that they can test us for anything out of the ordinary as a preventative health sort of thing. Then they give us a report and tell us if we are out of normal range. If we are out of range then they will give us counseling and recommend that we see a doctor.

Many people like this idea. Some are sceptical and a few are down right sure it's a conspiracy to weed out the unhealthy ones. I fall in to the skeptical range. If we do everything that they ask then we get an "incentive". This incentive is that our rates will not go up in January. If we don't comply then our rates will go up 5-7%.

I do not like my health insurance at all. It is not a well known company and I have a lot of trouble finding a doctor who accepts it. Their provider list is terribly out of date which makes even finding a current phone number for a doctor impossible. When I call to get help finding a doctor I can tell that they are using the same list that I see online. It is very frustrating.

I wish that my health insurance would just work the way it is supposed to. I want to have a good doctor whom I trust, who accepts my insurance, knows how to bill and get paid, and who offers all of the services that I need at one office. I don't care about my cholesterol level at the moment and I don't need someone to tell me to exercise more and have less stress in my life. I certainly don't appreciate my health insurance telling me that if I don't jump through their hoops they will raise my rates.

Now if I got a day off of work in order to do this I might consider it. I mean, I do have a price and a day off would definitely be worth it.

2 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

They give us an option to get a free wellness checkup, but it is not linked to our rates. It seems like it is a short term eye opener for lots of people, but I can't think of anybody that made any long term change because of it. For a few days people talk about their results for the blood work,blood pressure, etc and then it is back to normal.

We don't get a day off for it either. That would be nice though. Good luck and I hope you get that out of it!

Daizy said...

We have wellness stuff too but I don't use it because its too hard to find a doctor and they always mess up the billing. This new program is someone's bright idea to get everyone in shape or something. I'll stick with CVS Minute Clinics. They are cheap, easy and quick. I wonder if they can do surgery....