Alan's CIGNA saga

[Guest guest]

Yo, hippy kids,

There's new/old/new news on the CIGNA Soap Opera. Recall the last

stop had a Sweet Young Thing (SWT)at CIGNA telling me my case had

been marked " priority " , and I should have an answer in ten days

(after waiting two months). Wellll....We're not only

redefining " service " industry. We're also redefining " priority " .

Having waited 12 days, I called CIGNA about 11:00 in the morning The

SWT knew I was waiting for word on a procedure using a Conserve +;

but said I should call back later in the day.

I did. Waited on hold for 20 minutes. The new SWT who came on

couldn't find the file, then, when she did find it...said it couldn't

be approved, or even considered, because it lacked the procedure code

and the diagnosis code (this after the earlier SWT even knew the name

of device for which approval is requested). So, I called Nikki at

JRI. She read me the first line of the front page of the 23 page

request from JRI. Indeed, it had been sent. (CIGNA also had 23

pages). Now it really gets good/bad/ugly.

I called CIGNA back the same afternoon. New SWT. I tell her JRI

will fax the page they claim is missing. She says she can't confirm

receipt for 48 hours. Okay, I say...can we then re-mark the

case " priority " ? She assures me she can. So, I ask, what's the new

time frame? She says...30 days. I say " that's the same time for a

non-priority designation. " She says " yes " . So, I ask, what's the

point of marking a case " priority " . Well, she says, there's only one

person on the " review committee " , and if she doesn't have a lot of

cases pending, she can could get to yours sooner than 30 days. "

In sum: they lie, then they lie about the lying...then they make

up " priority " designations to stroke unhappy customers into making us

believe they're actually doing something. Which is another way of

lying.

It's too late for me...but if you ever find yourself in a position in

which somebody is offering you insurance coverage by CIGNA...run

away...as far and as fast as you can. It's beginning to feel like

I'd be better off un-insured. At the very least I wouldn't be feel

like such a sucker for sending all that money to Connecticut every

month for this kind of service.

Hobble on, Hippies...

Alan