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The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach

Health Insurance Form Letter Deserves "Filing"

Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 4:28 PM

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  • So, are you also one of those people who do not read your explanation of benefits, and then when the doctor sends you a bill you freak out, because you don't understand how your insurance works? HIPPA policy states that reminders of the privacy policy must be sent to members periodically, reminding you of your privacy rights. HIPPA is not limited to just the continuation of your policy when you leave employment, it also addresses who is allowed to access your Protected Health Information, how they are allowed to access it, etc. Please be more responsible in the future when you post on a public forum such as this, when you advise people to discard important documents just becasue they don't understand what it is.

    -- Posted by amielyn on Thu, Feb 12, 2009, at 2:04 PM
  • Health insurance companies should rot in hell for their greed. I have been screwed every which way by my insurance company. And yes, I read the explanation of benefits. It would help if they do so also.

    -- Posted by gehagge1 on Thu, Feb 12, 2009, at 3:08 PM
  • Yes, I read my Explanation Of Benefits, but this was not an EOB. This was what I perceived as frivolous form letter that was unnecessarily telling me about nearly 2-year old information that I was not needing and did not request.

    If you believe anyone is reading this blog for insurance advice, I think you are sadly mistaken. There are much better resources such as http://www.hipaa.org for information on HIPAA.

    I like to think that 95% of the citizens out there have the common sense to check a website like that if they are in need of that information rather than consulting with a general topic commentary blog on the internet.

    And as far as the other 5%, they are likely to be numbskulls and will always be numbskulls no matter how many form letters they are sent.

    If Anthem or HIPAA – I’m not sure who really initiated the sending of this form letter, but I'm guessing it was a mandate from the latter to the former – wanted to send out truly useful information regarding HIPAA they could perhaps direct people to either the aforementioned website or something comparable.

    In this age of information overload, people need specific information just prior to when they really need it and not before.

    Interestingly, there is no website at all referenced on the 4 page form letter we got in the mail. That seems rather asinine in this day and age. I just double-checked it. Contrary to my blog I have not “filed it.”

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Thu, Feb 12, 2009, at 3:09 PM
  • I got a letter like that too...unfortunately I'm not allowed to share my private information....

    Keep the blogs coming Brad, I like 'em!

    -- Posted by ZeRo1 on Thu, Feb 12, 2009, at 4:01 PM
  • That was funny how your blog is called the irony of it all and that one person tried to get all, "it's required by law" on you. People really like to think the system works so well.

    -broomstick

    -- Posted by Chief Broom1 on Fri, Feb 13, 2009, at 12:17 AM