Cigna Making Your Life Easier
This was emailed to me:
I don’t know if you saw the email Cigna distributed this week.
They started strong:
“We’re committed to making it easier for you to do business with us.”
And then immediately disappointed:
“Our new Precertification web page is one of the many ways…”
It’s almost like a giant insurance company has no idea what a physician’s office does all day.
Thought you might be interested in this bit of hypocrisy.
Editor’s Note: Just another day in the life of a doctor.
Get one our t-shirts and feel happy!
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Even worse is often after the nurse is grilled, the doctor has to follow for the peer-to-peer inquisition with a doctor who probably hasn’t ordered such a test in ten years, if ever.
When I was an Air Force doctor, a new General came through and promised to eliminate a lot of the military medicine paperwork.
His solution: A new form!
No… none of the old forms were going away…..
This is totally true.
I feel your pain.
Blue Cross Blue Shield has a lengthy process to get ‘prior authorization’ for MRI/CT scans. I completed one this past Friday with the usual back and forth.
‘So why does patient need this CT scan of abdomen?’
‘Ummm…you can see it on your screen, I’m sure. He had a scan a few weeks ago. LIVER ABCESS. The man has a huge LIVER ABCESS!’
‘Is it to see if he’s responding to treatment, see if problem has worsened, or…’ and she proceeds to give me 10 different scenarios on why a CT of abdomen might be ordered.
We get through after 20 minutes and she’s about to give the damned approval code, but goes back to beginning of questions again and I have to re-direct her, ‘Ummm…we already did the questions…it was approved. Just give me the number and let me go!’.
I’m a nurse and feel bad my doc just paid me however much to complete a pointless ‘prior auth’…again! I could be counseling my patient on all kinds of things related to his abcess, but instead get to do this… THANKS BCBS!