This is interesting and we wonder how much this contributes to the high cost of health insurance in the D.C. area.

We recently recieved an explanation of benefits form from our health insurer, CareFirst (aka Blue Cross).. it said that they had paid a doctor for a visit I had two days before Christmas. Problem was I didn’t see any doctor two days before Christmas and had never seen the doctor indicated on the form.

Spent 30 minutes on hold to tell them they paid a wrong claim. Not sure whether its fraudulent or just a mistake.

The CareFirst response: “Call the doctor yourself and tell him he submitted a false claim.”

Yeah…like we have nothing else to do.

I know, it was only a relatively small amount…but let multiply it by a whole lot. I’m wondering if anyone at CareFirst knows what their front line telephone employees are doing with their money. Hey, we all make mistakes but it would be great if they at least ACTED like it mattered that they were spending money they didn’t need to be spending.