Complex Care

Blue Cross called the other day. Now, generally, the insurance company doesn't call unless they are trying to get out of covering a bill, and since I still have quite a few bills in the insurance pipeline, this is what I expected to hear.


The reason they called was actually far less ominous, and far more unexpected. They were calling to ask me if I'd like to enroll (at no additional charge) in their Complex Care Program. This program, for people with varied and complicated medical issues, provides additional support and information to help patients make care choices and get background on different therapies, drug side effects, etc. On the surface, this sounds like a great program, and after talking with the administrator and then the RN assigned to work with me, I think it is a very helpful service, but the whole idea that I popped up in Blue Cross' database as someone with complicated medical issues is just a bit disheartening.

I've never considered myself a sick person before! I considered what happened to me to be an aberration, Randomness! It also hadn't occurred to me that my insurance carrier would tag me with all those sick people who have diabetes and heart disease and, oh yeah, cancer.

So, in the interest of information gathering and seeking out answers wherever I can, I signed up. I now have a case nurse (R.N.), Debra, who will call me every 6 weeks or so and if I need, I can call her anytime I have a question. She can also call in a pharmacist to help with any drug interaction or side effect questions. Debra is scheduled to call me just before my 3-month follow-up next month to go over what I should expect the oncologist to do and to answer my pre-scan freak out questions before I see him.

So, despite not being thrilled with the label of "sick person", I'm going to give this a chance. There are SO many things to hate the insurance company for, maybe this can be something they can do to help in real, tangible ways. I'll let you know after I talk with Debra next month!