A Problem We Are Seeing by Steven Mussey MD

This week’s cartoon hits on a problem which appeared with the start of the new year.  Specifically, people are finding themselves in different health plans.  The reasons for the swaps are numerous: Employer decisions, Termination related to the ACA (the terminations we’ve heard so much about), Exchange plans (which are horrendous in Virginia), or simply because the person was crippled by the terrible price of their health plan of 2013.

The scenes playing out on a daily basis are frustrating and sad.  Each patient requires our staff to literally spend hours on hold while we try to find alternative medications which might be covered.  When doctor swaps are needed, the choices for the patients are not always clear.  Many of the “exchange plan” patients do not even have an insurance card yet.

The ACA “exchange plans” are the most frustrating.  It feels like these plans have literally hired no more than three people to handle phone calls for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.