Health Monitoring Services - Long Post, Sorry - Page 2

shoesnbags · ‎03-10-2010

@Icegoddess My feelings about that service would have been the same as yours. No way I'd sign up for something like that. As another posted said, there must be some kind of financial incentive for the doctor to refer his/her patients to that group - particularly since you're in good health. SMH at the greed in healthcare.

ETA Did you really mean to say that you have regular Medicare with no supplemental policy? That's financially risky, so I was hoping that I just misread.

"Breathe in, breathe out, move on." Jimmy Buffett

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@Trinity11 wrote:
@Icegoddess wrote:
Recently, I received a text message from my Doctor that his practice was partnering with the health monitoring service NSight and he had referred me to it. I could call to sign up or they would be calling me. soon. Since I'm quite healthy, I'm sure all patients are being referred.

Well, they started calling last week. The first call, I had no idea who it was, so I didn't answer the phone. The man who left a message spoke so quickly I couldn't understand a thing he said except the phone number. That sorta screamed scam to me. Get the person to call back to find out what the call was and then reel them in. So, I didn't call back. Also, the number to call back was different than the number that called me.

The next time they called, it was a lady who was calling "on behalf of Dr. XXX". My husband thought it was my Doctor's office calling, but I immediately knew that was not his secretary calling, but I did realize the phone number was my Dr.'s office number. I don't call it often enough to remember it. So, I looked at my text message and discovered the other number was for this service.

I ignored the next call, but today I finally answered it. They send you a blood pressure cuff that you would use daily and the results sent directly to your Dr.'s office. And, they wanted to call me once a month to discuss things like any concerns, nutrition, etc and doing prescription refills. Yeah, that's a hard no for me. I don't need someone nagging me about my lifestyle choices. It won't work anyways, just probably cause that BP to rise and then the Dr. would want to put me on BP meds. BTW, they were rather pushy when I declined. I'm sure they have an argument for every reason.

I don't agree with current beliefs on some things, and I'm not changing just because they nag me, so it's really not a good fit for me. I won't get into specifics although you might run into them occasionally in other posts.

She claimed it was covered by Medicare, but later she mentioned something about due to my secondary insurance it should be no cost to me. I don't have secondary insurance unless they consider Medicare secondary. And then there's that pesky deductible that I usually don't fulfill. And if I did, I would consider it a waste of Medicare's money which, really IS my money, and yours.

It may be a great service for some, just not for me.
Surely, I am not comprehending. Are you saying you have no supplemental insurance? Are you aware one even minor illness can bankrupt you? If you get cancer, the costs can run over a million dollars with no cap @Icegoddess

@Trinity11 No, I have a supplement. I just thought of that as part of Medicare and didn't think of that as secondary to Medicare.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@Mom2Dogs wrote:
@Icegoddess Is this 'service' so that you do not have to bother the doctor with the things that service will do?

@Mom2Dogs Seems like, at least for me, that it would give him more work if he's actually reviewing those BP's from all his patients every day. But, otherwise, the only service I can think of that it might save him on my account would be renewing my prescriptions.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@hopi wrote:
Just ignore... it is a business, They want to make money. They do it to everyone on Medicare. Can't imagine someone coming and going helping especially if you are okay.. In an emergency you can call the Doctor for help. Any Doctor I have see the company ownership does the exact same thing. Specialists that have only seen me one but know my history have given me terrible and health damaging advice. They really push at the end of the year because Medicare always changes is approval status and eventually with the way things are going Medicare will approve and cover less.

@hopi I'm aware of the Medicare Advantage service that wants to come into peoples' homes, but this is not that. As far as I know, regular Medicare doesn't do that. This is a service that has teamed up with my Doctor's practice, so they're not affiliated with Medicare. He does not limit his practice to Medicare patients.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

To everyone who was concerned about me having a Medicare Supplement, no worries. I have aSupplement. I just wasn't thinking about the Supplement as being a secondary. I just thought of it as being part of Medicare. So, I misspoke. My husband mentioned the Supplement to me at lunch when I was relaying the story to him.

Jk9 · ‎07-18-2013

My husband still works full time so we have insurance through his employer and the insurance company contacted us via mail about their service to help manage our care needs. They followed up with a call and I answered the phone since it was our ins calling. Person went on about saving us money and no cost to us for their monitoring services blah blah...I politely declined the service. Got another call a few days later about their same service and I didn't answer the call. Got a third call and this time I explained that I would talk directly to my MD about any of my concerns and I didn't want or need their services. Well, they started that "doesn't cost you anything" nonsense and I explained that I was well aware that their services weren't free and that my husband's employer would be paying for them to talk me about saving the insurance company money. So, how is that saving me money? Except that I use less services and have an intermediary for my care (that I don't want). I told them not to call me again. I don't want an insurance company controlling my care options and healthcare any more than they already do with all their authorization rules.

If my dog doesn't like you, neither do I.

CelticCrafter · ‎03-09-2010

@FLtricia wrote:
@Icegoddess Just as information, there are supplemental insurance policies that have a zero monthly premium that fully cover many items. I was paying over $200 a month for supplemental and then found out last year that I could have basically the same coverage for $0.

I don't know about your state, but you may want to investigate this option. If anything happens it will save you money. I recently spent the night in the hospital and had to pay nothing. The bill would have been several thousand dollars.

@FLtricia supplements are not zero premium plans. You are talking about an Advantage Plan, two different things.