|
|
|
|
|
A few days ago, I received a letter from my health-insurance provider, Empire/Bluecross Blueshield. I've been insured only a few months and have no real complaints about Empire--my copayments are fair and they have covered a few expensive tests ordered by my doctors (more on that later).
So, back to the letter. It contained a new member ID card and cheerfully informed me "Your Empire card has a new look!" Funny, I thought. What was wrong with the old look? The letter continued: "Your new member ID card...has a fresh look and cleaner layout, but works like your old card." Hmm... I pondered. Fresh look? OK, I'll bite. I pulled my old card out of my wallet to compare.
What I found threw me into a state of puzzlement that immediately gave way to frustration and a measure of anger: My "new" member ID card looks exactly like my old one, with the exception of one line having been removed. See for yourself (excuse the poor scan quality):
Now, I'm sure it didn't cost Empire more than a couple of bucks to print me an entirely unnecessary new ID card and slap a stamp on it. But to print completely needless new IDs for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of members? Huge, gigantic, epic waste of money! No wonder healthcare in this country is such a disgrace--look where their money is going! When will someone do something to curtail all this shameless, gratuitous and downright wasteful corporate spending?
Posted by ayelet at July 12, 2009 11:38 AMMaybe the cards are disposable. Once you use them, you get a new one because you don't want to have more than one doctor handle them. Those offices are full of unhealthy people.
Posted by: Marney Andersen at July 18, 2009 07:49 PMto play devil's advocate - if you've only had the insurance for a few months maybe the card used to look different and you already got the new version of the card?
Posted by: aviva at July 13, 2009 08:34 PM