Greatest Healthcare System in the World part #5,432
My current Medicare prescription plan will start charging a monthly premium of $3.50 in 2023--I asked why the f my Medicaid isn't paying that premium too but got told it just isn't--so I have to call five other prescription plan possibilities to see if they have a service without a premium that covers all the meds I take and so far they do not. I have until December 7, but the two calls I've made previously in the last week took about 25 minutes each and killed half of my brain cells and most of my strength for hours, so it was going to be rough.
(Of those two, Anthem didn't cover two of my necessary medications.
(Humana ran me in circles for 25 minutes to the point that when I got a representative who was supposedly in the right department and would supposedly help me--the third, rather dismissive, person I talked to there--I was too angry and distraught to go through all of my many meds with her to see if they had a non-premium plan in 2023 that covered them, especially since she couldn't even tell me some necessary things before that to make sure it was worth the effort. Humana is the organization I currently have a plan with and thus is already a customer of, and you might think that would be some help to me but it definitely wasn't. F#©kin' Humana. I actually called Social Security afterward and the woman there said Humana does not have a no-premium plan for me in 2023. The letter Social Security sent me about the coming premium said Humana did have such a plan... and its name was the plan I already have, so you can see why I had questions.)
Monday afternoon, I called the five other prescription plan organizations, some of them several times, and only got to speak to a live, applicable representative on three of the calls.
Two of the organizations allowed me to leave a message asking them to call me back, which I did after waiting 15-20 minutes on hold. (The one, Aetna, that had a wait time for a representative of three hours hasn't called back yet.) The UnitedHealth person who called me back told me their plan covers all of my medications but none of my pharmacies, which is a problem since my neurologist and pain management doctor have prescribed some newer, not yet usual meds that are only available from a single pharmacy. This plan doesn't have CVS in-network at all! Even if I didn't have the unusual meds to worry about, I'd have to get all new prescriptions from all of my doctors to transfer all my prescriptions to Walgreens, which is a massive problem, especially if any of the doctors demand I make and go to an appointment with them to get them.
The other two--Elixir and CIGNA--didn't have that option and I hung up the phone after they left me on hold for 15 minutes. Since the deadline to make changes is December 7, I didn't feel like I could afford to wait that long while I had other phone calls to make. I called CIGNA again later and someone picked up the phone 26 minutes in. Unfortunately, she was one of the more ignorant people I've ever spoken to, who knew nothing about anything she was supposed to (she demanded I call Medicaid for something everyone else had no issue with first, and said that without that my premium would be $39 a month), so I don't know if it'd be worth it to call another day and hopefully get a person who actually knows their job (waiting 26 minutes again?).
WellCare I called several times. The first time, the connection was terrible and while I did get a representative, she had a thick accent and her words kept dropping out on the connection to the point I couldn't provide anything she wanted to know because I couldn't figure out her questions. One time I called and got a guy I could understand and I was thrilled, but he wasn't in the right department for it and sent me over to a line where the call picked up but nobody was actually on the other end of the line listening and I got to hear the whole room instead. Loudly calling out "Hello?!" to them several times didn't make anyone answer the phone. The last thing happened on the next three calls I made to them.
Tomorrow I'll call Elixir again, and maybe try WellCare and CIGNA again to see if I get better people on the phone. (CIGNA also has a website that supposedly has live chat during business hours, and I might see if I can find someone useful there. Being able to type out my medication names instead of laboriously spelling each one out would make things easier.) If Aetna doesn't get a representative to call me, I may try them again.
But if things keep going like this, I may be forced to stay with Humana and pay the $3.50-a-month premium because at least I know they cover things.
It doesn't help that I've come down with something that's really kicking my butt (coughing, sneezing, sore throat, face ache) in addition to having worse headaches and fatigue than usual.
(Of those two, Anthem didn't cover two of my necessary medications.
(Humana ran me in circles for 25 minutes to the point that when I got a representative who was supposedly in the right department and would supposedly help me--the third, rather dismissive, person I talked to there--I was too angry and distraught to go through all of my many meds with her to see if they had a non-premium plan in 2023 that covered them, especially since she couldn't even tell me some necessary things before that to make sure it was worth the effort. Humana is the organization I currently have a plan with and thus is already a customer of, and you might think that would be some help to me but it definitely wasn't. F#©kin' Humana. I actually called Social Security afterward and the woman there said Humana does not have a no-premium plan for me in 2023. The letter Social Security sent me about the coming premium said Humana did have such a plan... and its name was the plan I already have, so you can see why I had questions.)
Monday afternoon, I called the five other prescription plan organizations, some of them several times, and only got to speak to a live, applicable representative on three of the calls.
Two of the organizations allowed me to leave a message asking them to call me back, which I did after waiting 15-20 minutes on hold. (The one, Aetna, that had a wait time for a representative of three hours hasn't called back yet.) The UnitedHealth person who called me back told me their plan covers all of my medications but none of my pharmacies, which is a problem since my neurologist and pain management doctor have prescribed some newer, not yet usual meds that are only available from a single pharmacy. This plan doesn't have CVS in-network at all! Even if I didn't have the unusual meds to worry about, I'd have to get all new prescriptions from all of my doctors to transfer all my prescriptions to Walgreens, which is a massive problem, especially if any of the doctors demand I make and go to an appointment with them to get them.
The other two--Elixir and CIGNA--didn't have that option and I hung up the phone after they left me on hold for 15 minutes. Since the deadline to make changes is December 7, I didn't feel like I could afford to wait that long while I had other phone calls to make. I called CIGNA again later and someone picked up the phone 26 minutes in. Unfortunately, she was one of the more ignorant people I've ever spoken to, who knew nothing about anything she was supposed to (she demanded I call Medicaid for something everyone else had no issue with first, and said that without that my premium would be $39 a month), so I don't know if it'd be worth it to call another day and hopefully get a person who actually knows their job (waiting 26 minutes again?).
WellCare I called several times. The first time, the connection was terrible and while I did get a representative, she had a thick accent and her words kept dropping out on the connection to the point I couldn't provide anything she wanted to know because I couldn't figure out her questions. One time I called and got a guy I could understand and I was thrilled, but he wasn't in the right department for it and sent me over to a line where the call picked up but nobody was actually on the other end of the line listening and I got to hear the whole room instead. Loudly calling out "Hello?!" to them several times didn't make anyone answer the phone. The last thing happened on the next three calls I made to them.
Tomorrow I'll call Elixir again, and maybe try WellCare and CIGNA again to see if I get better people on the phone. (CIGNA also has a website that supposedly has live chat during business hours, and I might see if I can find someone useful there. Being able to type out my medication names instead of laboriously spelling each one out would make things easier.) If Aetna doesn't get a representative to call me, I may try them again.
But if things keep going like this, I may be forced to stay with Humana and pay the $3.50-a-month premium because at least I know they cover things.
It doesn't help that I've come down with something that's really kicking my butt (coughing, sneezing, sore throat, face ache) in addition to having worse headaches and fatigue than usual.