Whatever happened to customer service?
I've been fighting with my insurance company for over a year about a mistake they made regarding my coordination of benefits. This one little mistake cost me thousands of dollars in medical bills (which I refuse to pay). I have called them about it numerous times and they have "fixed" the mistake a few times, yet the claims keep getting denied and I keep getting billed.
I even went so far as to submit an official request for review... twice (over two separate instances, both related to their mistake over a year ago). In both cases the formal review said basically, "nope, sorry, we did nothing wrong".
Today, after getting off the phone with the Maryland Attorney General's office regarding the first claim dispute, I called them about the second dispute (which I have not submitted to the AG yet, but will if this doesn't work). This time I got a "rapid review" right over the phone and it seems the problem may have been fixed so that the claim can finally be paid. We'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up, I simply do not trust United Healthcare any more.
But that made me wonder about customer service. Why did I need to call and have a 5 minute conversation with an escalation person when I had already sent over 5 pages of evidence to support my claim to the official escalation and review office? Do the people in the official review office even read the paperwork that gets sent to them?
I question this for many reasons, including the fact that both letters I got in response to my requests for review included horrible grammar and barely made any sense, almost like there were instructions on the screen that said 'insert reason for appeal request here' and the rest of it was a form letter. One said: "We reviewed your concern about service should be eligible for reimbursement because service was incorrectly denied." And the other made even less sense, like the person forgot to fill in the blank: "We reviewed your concern about no corrective steps needed because we have determined the claim is processed correctly per the provider's UnitedHealthcare contract..." I mean really, who writes these things?
The good news is the woman I spoke with on the phone today not only spoke English well, she also seemed to understand my concern and sounded like she might be able to make sure it gets fixed (finally!). The interesting thing is this is the second time I have called UnitedHealthcare in the past week about two different issues. Both times I had excellent customer service (much better than I usually get). The difference? They know they are being evaluated! That's right. In addition to the fact I probably have some sort of flag on my file (look out - this lady will get the Attorney General involved), but UHC is also currently conducting a phone survey about each customer's experience when they call in. So each person seems to be on their best behavior and actually trying to solve problems instead of just passing the buck and ignoring the customer like they typically do.
Of course, I won't know if this issue is really resolved or not, I need to wait 10 business days for the verdict.
What would happen if every customer service representative was kept on their toes by knowing the customer would be asked to evaluate them after each experience? How would that change the interactions people have in stores and when working with folks in the service industry?
Is this what our society has come to? Do we rely so much on testing and assessment in school that we have transferred that to our adult lives too? Do we really expect instant feedback after every interaction so we know how to change our behavior? Have we lost the ability to self-monitor to know if we are being polite and effective at our jobs?
What is this world coming to?
Praying for a society where human beings are able to interact with one another in a civil manner to resolve disputes without getting more and more people involved. As Christians, isn't that what we're called to do? Isn't getting crowds to fight for you supposed to be a last resort? (Ok, granted, the advice in Matthew 18 is in regards to disputes among members of the Christian community, not disputes with large companies or society at large... but same idea). Why does making a big deal out of things seem to be the only way to get anything settled in the world today?
I've been fighting with my insurance company for over a year about a mistake they made regarding my coordination of benefits. This one little mistake cost me thousands of dollars in medical bills (which I refuse to pay). I have called them about it numerous times and they have "fixed" the mistake a few times, yet the claims keep getting denied and I keep getting billed.
I even went so far as to submit an official request for review... twice (over two separate instances, both related to their mistake over a year ago). In both cases the formal review said basically, "nope, sorry, we did nothing wrong".
Today, after getting off the phone with the Maryland Attorney General's office regarding the first claim dispute, I called them about the second dispute (which I have not submitted to the AG yet, but will if this doesn't work). This time I got a "rapid review" right over the phone and it seems the problem may have been fixed so that the claim can finally be paid. We'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up, I simply do not trust United Healthcare any more.
But that made me wonder about customer service. Why did I need to call and have a 5 minute conversation with an escalation person when I had already sent over 5 pages of evidence to support my claim to the official escalation and review office? Do the people in the official review office even read the paperwork that gets sent to them?
I question this for many reasons, including the fact that both letters I got in response to my requests for review included horrible grammar and barely made any sense, almost like there were instructions on the screen that said 'insert reason for appeal request here' and the rest of it was a form letter. One said: "We reviewed your concern about service should be eligible for reimbursement because service was incorrectly denied." And the other made even less sense, like the person forgot to fill in the blank: "We reviewed your concern about no corrective steps needed because we have determined the claim is processed correctly per the provider's UnitedHealthcare contract..." I mean really, who writes these things?
The good news is the woman I spoke with on the phone today not only spoke English well, she also seemed to understand my concern and sounded like she might be able to make sure it gets fixed (finally!). The interesting thing is this is the second time I have called UnitedHealthcare in the past week about two different issues. Both times I had excellent customer service (much better than I usually get). The difference? They know they are being evaluated! That's right. In addition to the fact I probably have some sort of flag on my file (look out - this lady will get the Attorney General involved), but UHC is also currently conducting a phone survey about each customer's experience when they call in. So each person seems to be on their best behavior and actually trying to solve problems instead of just passing the buck and ignoring the customer like they typically do.
Of course, I won't know if this issue is really resolved or not, I need to wait 10 business days for the verdict.
What would happen if every customer service representative was kept on their toes by knowing the customer would be asked to evaluate them after each experience? How would that change the interactions people have in stores and when working with folks in the service industry?
Is this what our society has come to? Do we rely so much on testing and assessment in school that we have transferred that to our adult lives too? Do we really expect instant feedback after every interaction so we know how to change our behavior? Have we lost the ability to self-monitor to know if we are being polite and effective at our jobs?
What is this world coming to?
Praying for a society where human beings are able to interact with one another in a civil manner to resolve disputes without getting more and more people involved. As Christians, isn't that what we're called to do? Isn't getting crowds to fight for you supposed to be a last resort? (Ok, granted, the advice in Matthew 18 is in regards to disputes among members of the Christian community, not disputes with large companies or society at large... but same idea). Why does making a big deal out of things seem to be the only way to get anything settled in the world today?
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