- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Health Insurance Form Letter Deserves "Filing"
The form letter from Anthem -- my wife's health insurance provider -- arrived the last week in January.
She said I'd gotten one from them as well the week before, but she had already "filed it." That's our secret code for chucking it in the trash.
Usually, I would have done the same with this one without more than a cursory glance, but the date stamp caught my eye.
Whenever you get a form letter -- especially one regarding insurance or finance -- there is usually a date code somewhere on it. Sometimes it might be as subtle as "0209" at the bottom of the page.
But the date stamp on this paperwork was pretty obvious:
"HIPAA Notice 2007" it said on the front page.
The other 3 pages noted that the document was "Effective July 1, 2007."
I immediately wondered why our health insurance company was sending us almost 2-year-old information, just so we could "file it." I read on.
While this form letter came from Anthem, its actual purpose was to tell us all about the HIPAA Privacy Practices. You know, the ones from 2007.
HIPAA is short for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. One of this 1996 law's mandates was to enforce "administrative simplification" in regard to health insurance. I'm not sure how sending out 4 page form letters detailing two-year-old Privacy Practices is considered "simplification," but then I'm not a bureaucrat.
Perhaps before the law was enacted, this privacy form letter used one of those fancy script fonts that looked really pretty, but made the document 5 pages long. But now -- thanks to HIPAA -- they use a nice, no-nonsense serif typeface and use only 4 pages.
Besides being obviously so successful at providing "administrative simplification," the primary purpose of HIPAA is to "enhance health insurance accessibility for people changing employers or leaving the workforce."
As far as my wife and I are concerned, we're neither planning on changing employers or quitting our jobs. I've been with the newspaper for 16 years and my wife is a tenured associate professor at the University.
Do the HIPAA bureaucrats know something we don't?
I guess you never know with the sorry state of the economy. Maybe I wrote one too many smart-aleck blogs about the University, and the SEMO higher-ups have decided to teach me a lesson via my wife. I did mention she was tenured, didn't I?
Being tenured doesn't make you "bullet-proof" from downsizing, just really, really "bullet-resistant."
Perhaps, the government bureaucracy that administers HIPAA is instructing all of the health insurance companies to send out this paperwork based on some federal study that indicates we are ALL likely going to lose our jobs and this way we will be prepared to be portable with our insurance.
I'm not sure where we will all work if that does happen, but thanks to HIPAA our privacy will be protected.
So don't be surprised if you, your spouse, your kids and your pets each get one of these 4 page form letters.
As for me, I'm not counting on my job sticking around so I've started sending out resumes. Topping my list is a position with the city Public Works department.
I've got a hunch they will be needing more trash men.
After all, someone has to take care of this increase in "filing."
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