I received a letter from Coventry Health Assurance today.
Coventry Health Assurance has decided, in spite of my diligent checking three months ago*, that the Midwife Center is an out-of-network provider and that I will be responsible for a $2,000.00 out-of-network deductible plus any overages above what Coventry Health Assurance feels like paying as reasonable cost to the Midwife Center.**
Oh, and I have a right to appeal, but it will not be considered an urgent appeal, so Coventry Health Assurance could, in theory, tie up the appeal past the point where I would be able and permitted to switch to an in-network OB.
The next person who tells me that nationalized health care will send the United States down the road to rationed care is getting punched in the nose.
* A phone call to the Midwife Center to confirm they were in-network and several hours digging through a provider search interface designed to create the maximum amount of aggravation with a minimum number of results. The search options are Find a Doctor, Find a Hospital, Find an Ancillary Service Provider, Find an Urgent Care Center or Find an Allied Health Professional. You can not search by clinic or practice name. You can not search by individual name if the provider is anything other than an MD, unless you try Ancillary Service Provider or Allied Health Professional and your guess about which category a CNM falls into is as good as mine. You can search by specialty, but the only names that come up are, once again, MD's.
** My interpretation.
if you'd like me to, remind me to ask my friend amanda for her advice on this. from what i understand, she is a midwife. or at least has day to day contact with that whole scene. she's currently dealing with a lot of grief due to the recent passing of her mom, so i don't want to ask her right now, but i will as soon as i think prudent.
ReplyDeleteif nothing else she might at least be another resource for you, in general, if not specifically for this insurance madness.