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After some procrastinating, this afternoon I tried to make an appointment with the hand doctor (for my wrist). The first step was to check whether I needed a more formal referral than "Carmen said I should see Dr. Green," which is a question about health insurance rules.
After giving up on the Tufts Health Direct (our health insurance company)'s website, I called the company. The first thing I found out was that the insurance company's computer system had changed my primary care physician in January, to someone I've never heard of, for stupid bureaucratic reasons. The person I was talking to said that the company would send me a letter any time there was any sort of change to my coverage--so I checked on that, and they still had me listed at my previous address.
It was straightforward to officially change my PCP back to the person I've been seeing all along, and the man assured me that I wouldn't be getting billed for the (four) times I'd seen either Carmen or Andrea since January, because it's the doctor's responsibility to check insurance coverage. (They did check, they asked if there was any change, and I said no, because I hadn't changed plans and didn't know about this other change.)
I then called the hand doctor's office, and after a friendly message in four languages offering COVID information, the outgoing message pointed me at their website.
So, I told them that I want to see Dr. Green, what it's about, and that I'm not a new patient but this is a new problem. In theory, someone will be calling me back, hopefully this afternoon; if there's been nothing in a couple of days, I will call back.
I have made a bit of progress, but mostly solved a problem (or pair of problems) I hadn't known about until I called about the thing I knew I needed.
After giving up on the Tufts Health Direct (our health insurance company)'s website, I called the company. The first thing I found out was that the insurance company's computer system had changed my primary care physician in January, to someone I've never heard of, for stupid bureaucratic reasons. The person I was talking to said that the company would send me a letter any time there was any sort of change to my coverage--so I checked on that, and they still had me listed at my previous address.
It was straightforward to officially change my PCP back to the person I've been seeing all along, and the man assured me that I wouldn't be getting billed for the (four) times I'd seen either Carmen or Andrea since January, because it's the doctor's responsibility to check insurance coverage. (They did check, they asked if there was any change, and I said no, because I hadn't changed plans and didn't know about this other change.)
I then called the hand doctor's office, and after a friendly message in four languages offering COVID information, the outgoing message pointed me at their website.
So, I told them that I want to see Dr. Green, what it's about, and that I'm not a new patient but this is a new problem. In theory, someone will be calling me back, hopefully this afternoon; if there's been nothing in a couple of days, I will call back.
I have made a bit of progress, but mostly solved a problem (or pair of problems) I hadn't known about until I called about the thing I knew I needed.
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