Let's see what happened. Here's Part 3.
Early December: With the deadline for enrollment looming, I decided to call Blue Cross Blue Shield directly to see if I could determine what the plans actually covered. I googled Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas. There it was! "Compare Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans! Call Now..." I called. I noticed that it wasn't BCBS that answered the phone. It was a place called GoHealth.com. Who knows if the information they provided was correct or not? It sounded good to me, and they offered to transfer me to an agent who could get me signed up. His name was Zedrick something or another. I believe he went through the healthcare.gov site and created a new application for me. He certainly asked all the questions that I was familiar with from doing it myself - except for the job questions. I selected a Cigna policy, which represented the lowest-priced option, and which fortunately was now only about $100 more than I'd been paying even though it had higher deductibles and copays. It was my belief that I did not qualify for a subsidy. But Zedrick asked if I wanted to see if I qualified. "Sure, why not?" He asked me questions about my spouse and whether we filed a joint return. He told me that my application would be processed and that I would be hearing from Cigna about payment. Okay! Success!
But then, two days later, Zedrick called me again. Apparently something on the application wasn't quite right. We went over the whole thing again. Zedrick didn't impress me as being the sharpest pencil in the box. But he said that I was getting a subsidy and that my premium would be nearly $300 less than I bargained for. He assured me that it was all okay now and that I should hear from Cigna within a week. Then, the next day I got a call from GoHealth.com indicating that there were a few more details that needed to be handled on my application. Okay, we're coming up on the December 13th enrollment deadline. Let's get it sorted. When I was transferred to the people who supposedly had the questions, they couldn't see that anything was missing and asked me to excuse the call. The next day I got another call from them, again saying that there were items missing from my application. Again I was told that I'd received that call in error. When they called again the next day, I came to the conclusion that they had no clue what they were doing. I told them so and they assured me that it was all fine and that I should get a call from Cigna within the week.
Mid December: I finally got a call from Cigna! It was one of those automated calls - Press 1 to make a payment, Press 2 to inquire about your application, Press 3 for something else. I pressed 1 to make a payment. Good! A payment seals the deal. "Please say or enter your case number." What??? I don't have a case number. Where do I get a case number? I returned to the main menu and pressed the number to speak to a representative. After a 40 minute wait, I got through and was given a case number. I was also told that the payment system was down and that I wouldn't be able to pay that day. They did not expect their system to be fixed until the following day. They must have outsourced their system to the same folks who worked on healthcare.gov.
I called back the next day. The automated telephone system did not "recognize" my case number. It expressed this by informing me that it didn't understand what I said. Some systems will ask you three times and then automatically transfer you to an agent. This one insists that you repeat it for all time and eternity. Now I'm upset. My speech is not difficult to understand. I am forced to hang up and try to call back for customer service. To make a long story even longer, after being on hold for over 40 minutes, I gave up. I hung up. My attention span just isn't long enough to listen to that annoying music for that long. This happened at least twice a day for the next three days. When I did get through (and by the way, the human agent did not seem to have a problem understanding anything I said) I was told that I couldn't pay it because their system had accidentally cancelled the policy and they were in the process of re-instating it. I was told that this process could take up to three days, but not to worry because I had until the 10th of January to lock in coverage that started January 1st.
After the three days, I tried to pay again. This time the phone system eventually understood my case number. (We did have some issues with 8s and Hs.) But it STILL couldn't accept my payment. Once again, I had to call customer service. (Just assume that there's a minimum of a 30 minute hold time any time you call Cigna.) I was a bit concerned. If they couldn't process my payment, God forbid I should have a claim. This time I got a different story. Now it seems that the agent who processed the application (that would be Zedrick) had sent it through as canceled. (I knew he wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box!) They were waiting for GoHealth.com and Healthcare.gov to fix it. She thought it shouldn't take very long but assured me that I need not worry because I had until the 10th of January to get it in the system and paid for.
I was waiting, but I was nervous. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing and January 1st was just around the corner.
Tune in tomorrow for Part 4 - Will the situation spoil the New Year's celebration? Can Gene Genie save the day?
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