Health Insurance and Flexible Spending Accounts, Why Insurance Companies Suddenly Gets the Blowback

 



It was such an unfortunate and tragic inhumane attack on the recent CEO of United Healthcare and my thoughts and prayers of sympathy goes to his family.

Although there are so much frustrations on the Healthcare patients affected by the Insurance Companies bureaucracy it is still not acceptable and humane that we instill hatred for one person.

Yes, in this capitalist world it is a fact that those heading these for profit businesses are always driven towards making money for the business and stakeholders. And it is true that they get to be effective leaders by virtue of the profits these companies make in billions.

It has also been a huge outcry of frustrations online to towards  lives lost, disabled and daily lives stop due to the bureaucracy imposed by Health Insurance companies.  One can basically start with BBB - Better Business Bureau complaints on companies like United Health Care. 

I was reading on United Healthcare's response on a recent complaint:

Business response

11/20/2024

This will acknowledge receipt of your complaint to the BBB, complaint number ********. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. Unfortunately, we are unable to find a policy for you in our system. Please provide us with your member information. After we receive this information, we will investigate your issue.

Sincerely,
Consumer Affairs

Another recent response states"

Business response

11/15/2024

Due to the protections of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), I am unable to respond directly to you regarding these concerns. Since your letter provided a copy of the enrollees correspondence and/or a description of the issue, we will be responding directly to the enrollee. 

Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call me. I can be reached during normal business hours at *****************************.

Sincerely,
*******

On the first response, let me give you a personal experience example.  In June I left an employer, I was immediately mailed Cobra enrollment by law. On the first week of July, I made sure to send my Cobra enrollment with my first month's check for Flexible Spending Account through Optum Bank c/o United Healthcare Cobra Operations. Every month I have been getting the monthly cobra bill and making sure I sent it a check. Last month, I even made an online payment, Why? It has been almost 4 months and I noticed all I got was a bill but no statement to show my contributions. I was sent a debit card in July which I never used. I have an illness but moreover i have a parent in hospice care that any amount to make a claim and or buy any health expenditures will help. For the 4 weeks in November from Optum Bank to United Healthcare's various departments on member services, technical support escalation, no can tell me my FSA account exist as everyone kept saying they see an account terminating in June when I left my employer. Every department you call with United Healthcare pin points on another department that I need to talk to as it is not their department or responsibility. This is the bureaucracy in action. 

So finally in November, like a typical consumer I write a complaint with the Better Business Bureau on United Healthcare. As you can see the response example above, they were fast to immediately reply that they apologize and they have found my account and reactivated it. They had someone in the member services who was supposedly in charge of my employer account leaving me a voicemail that the debit card should now work. 

One week and half ago, I finally tried to use the said debit card on my Vision eyeglass for $25. They tried it both debit and credit and it declined with a message not completed. Then after I tried calling the lady who left me a voicemail but the number was just a voicemail.  After 3 days I decide to do the round of calls to the various departments of United Healthcare and guess what, back to square one, " No active account" can be found indeed. When I finally registered my self to their website, all I can get again is the billing information and the payments I have been making since July nothing else.

I then wrote to the Insurance Commissioner and Dept. of Managed Health Care. As in the past the Dept. of Managed Health Care sends me an encrypted email response which I do not have access. Then the Insurance Commissioner's office writes back saying this not their jurisdiction and recommended I write to the Dept. of Labor.

It could be a huge discussion but maybe just maybe this upcoming administration might have a point of cutting unnecessary bureaucracies and revamp this entire healthcare insurance business monopolies. Mine is just a typical example but what about those who are disabled, seniors,  people like my Veteran father suffering stage 5 kidney disease with a bunch of ailments on hospice care, diabetics, patients with life sustaining medication needs for survival, those with end of life diseases and cancers. 

The policies created to further enrich these such companies needs to end and regulation must be oversaw by real people lives who are affected with these bureaucracies and small business people that runs business for a purpose and not for enrichment,

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