Fight on.
“Yes, hi, is this Miss A-Lex-Us Poe-Lack?”
“Uhm, yeah, it is, who is this?”
“Can you please verify your address for me?”
“Uh. Who are you? Why are you calling?”
“I will answer that in a second. Please verify your address.”
“I simply won’t give an unidentified stranger my address. You need to tell me why you are calling.”
“I can’t tell you until you verify that you are indeed A-Lex-Us Poe-Lack.”
“Well I won’t give you my address.”
“How about the last four digits of your social?”
“Ok. 8443. And you are…?”
“I’m a Collections Agent calling on behalf of CareCentrix in regards to an unpaid invoice of $493.00. How would you like to take care of this invoice today m’am?”
“Um. Excuse me? CareCentrix? You guys handle my pump supplies. My company’s insurance covers 100% of my pump supplies. I have that in writing.”
“Well I dunno about that m’am, I just know that you owe $493.00 to CareCentrix, so how would you like to pay?”
“I’m sorry, I still don’t understand. My insrance coveres pump supplies. They have covered them for over a year. Why is there an invoice now for any of those supplies?”
“Well miss I don’t know. How would you like to pay for this outstanding invoice?”
“I won’t. I will call my company and my insurance and verify my covereage and sort it out. This is ridiculous. I’ve had pump coverage for a year, and today, randomly, I’m being sent to collections? I’ll have to call my company and get back to you.”
“Ok. We’ll go from there.” Click. Dial tone.
If you have diabetes, or care for someone who does, then you have spent literally hours on the phone battling insurance. You’ve given the equivalent of days, maybe weeks of your life fighting for life-saving supplies. You’ve spent hours in line at the pharmacy because they can’t authorize a refill for your insulin outside of your doctor’s work hours (even though you need it today AND for the rest of your life). You’ve argued with the insurance company about the fact that you need to test more than three times a day and therefore need more than one box of strips a month. You’ve kindly explained 1,000 times that there is no such thing as generic brands for insulin and no you can’t save money by switching. You’ve gone over the Prior Authorization paperwork with your doctor a million times hoping that this time, THIS time, they approve the CGM. And you’ve battled with a billing error, just like I did yesterday, more times than you can count.
To have diabetes is to go to war with your health insurance. Chronic disease, pre-existing condition, these are the names for diabetes and other illnesses that mean you will never have it easy when it comes to obtaining coverage. It’s not your fault, but it sure is your burden.
We fight for our healthcare because we have to. Because we are warriors of our healthcare. Because we alone are accountable at the end of the day to make sure we have what we need to keep ourselves healthy. It is what it is.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a few phone calls to make to straighten out some issues before I get in to this well-deserved weekend. And for anyone else out there having insurance issues, hang in there. Don’t give up. They will cover it, someday.
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Comments
Lexie - Sorry to hear you’re dealing with this, I had the same issue last year. Carecentrix is AWFUL! Despite numerous calls to them, and the fact that the bill had been paid, they still sent me to collections. I now work through Edgepark, and find they are much better. I am happy to share their info if you want it.
Hope you get this worked out soon. Word to the wise when dealing with Carecentrix - make them confirm back to you in writing. 
Thanks for the feedback Michele - I think I am going to switch to Edgepark, every single bill for a while now has been a pain with Care Centrix! So annoying - good call on getting that in writing!
Not been a big fan of Carecentrix lately. Dragging their heels getting supplies authorisation to Animas every 3 months even though….Miranda’s endo has written an annual prescription.
Gerry