If you’ve followed my saga, I signed up directly with North Carolina Blue Cross\/Shield on December 5th, 2013 agreeing to a $511\/month ACA compliant policy with a $5,500 deductible and out of pocket maximum. Had I not moved from Illinois, my HIPAA continuation plan would have been in excess of $900 – but an ACA compliant policy would have been similarly priced to the NC policy.<\/p>\n
The signup process immediately took my $511 and confirmed I was covered. My ID card and welcome kit would arrive within 2 weeks. On the 23rd with no card, I called customer support and after 3 hours was told that the cards were delayed, but I should get it within a week.<\/p>\n
Now the update – BCBS of NC sent me an email encouraging me to login to my account and experience all the wonders of being covered. Right away there was a system wide message announcing that people with coverage starting 1\/1\/14 (aka me) have not been sent their cards yet – and if they don’t arrive by 1\/10\/2014, I should call customer support right away!<\/p>\n
The main thing I wanted was to read the plan description document to see what I actually bought. I think it is HSA compliant, but not positive. I clicked the link to view the document and received an error that the computer that has that document is offline, and urged me to call Customer Service to report the problem. This was around midnight and Customer Service operates from 8 AM to 9 PM Monday through Friday.<\/p>\n
I then noticed BCBS has physical offices you can go to if you want to see a human in person. When I selected South Charlotte, I was informed the office near me was “coming soon”.<\/p>\n
It appears I have an ID and printed a temporary card, and do have access to the doctor and hospital directory. There is a neat feature which estimates the “right” price for common procedures. Since the first $5,500 are coming right from me, knowing how much something costs (like an overdue colonoscopy) would be useful information. No matter what procedure or facility I chose, I was told that information is not available.<\/p>\n
The end of private health insurance for individuals is imminent. No matter what Blue Cross does, they’re dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you’ve followed my saga, I signed up directly with North Carolina Blue Cross\/Shield on December 5th, 2013 agreeing to a $511\/month ACA compliant policy with a $5,500 deductible and out of pocket maximum. Had I not moved from Illinois, … Continue reading