A Battle of Wills

It's a dreary day here on the ranch. I was drawn into battle yesterday with the insurance company. It has been more than a week since I and the insurance staff at my doctor's office were given the preauthorization and verbal precertification for the surgery. Unfortunately, they still don't have a letter for me to submit to my doctor so that my pre-op appointment and lab work can occur. This might end up being a long fight in which I really have no control. I'm starting to get worried that they (doctor's office) will cancel my surgery or postpone it.

Let me share the positions of the two teams that I am in between:

Surgery Scheduler for my Dr.'s office: "I'm sorry that we can't schedule you for any other appointments until we receive the letter in our hands that has the doctor's name, surgical code, authorization for surgery and precertification for surgery and the number of days you are authorized for the hospital stay. I know someone from our office spoke to the insurance company and we have verbal approval , but our doctors will NOT let us proceed without the letter in our hands. Can you please call the insurance company and see if you can get it? Please ask them to fax it to me."

Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO of Alabama: "Here in the Health Management Division we precertify you for your hospitalization and surgery. Our computers generate our letters to our customers and their providers. We have no control over when those letters leave our building. It is all up to the computer and the mail clerks. No, we cannot make a copy of the letter that you are waiting for in the mail and fax it to you. There are literally thousands of letters we produce each day..."

Now, here's my position: "I'm tired of jumping through these hoops for both of y'all! To the doctor's office: You know I've been approved and have it documented in my chart from multiple people in the office. And you, insurance company, Do you mean to tell me that you couldn't put your finger on a piece of correspondence between your company, a provider and your customer? Now, let's take a step back and look to see who we're working for...is it the patient? I'm not sure..."

Hopefully this will all be over with very soon! I know it's just a pothole in the road.