Some Victories In The Insurance Wars

Late Friday I was informed by the JDA benefits administrator that my medical insurance coverage had been completely restored. Of course I was somewhat suspicious of this assertion, since it was the third time I had heard this recently, and the previous two times it had been proven to be mistaken. So I reserved judgement until I could verify this independently. Saturday afternoon I received some positive evidence when I tried, and succeeded, to invoke the medication coverage to refill a couple of my prescriptions. So far, so good.

But the real test could not be carried out until this morning, when the insurance company customer service reps (CSRs) returned from the weekend. The CSRs have been the major stumbling block all along; it took quite a few phone calls and e-mails to convince the benefits admin to investigate my suspicion -- which turned out to be correct -- that the database that the CSRs consult is different from the one that she was accessing, and that their database had not been updated. Every time I was assured that I was "in", I had merely to talk to a CSR, and be told once again that the last thing their system was showing was that my coverage had been terminated on September 30, and that I was not currently covered. But finally, this morning, I heard a CSR utter the words I was longing to hear: "You're covered". Say amen, somebody.

Also late Friday I received a call from my LTD insurance case manager, informing me that my application had been approved. Sometime this week they will cut a check for me for this month. Another big relief.

So the home team isn't doing too badly in the insurance theater right now. But I don't want to say that too loudly, lest I thereby arouse the jealous wrath of whatever gods have been charged with running this show. Again.