To resolve an issue with health coverage, contacting your insurance company through Twitter may be more useful than contacting their customer service department, according to a testimonial published Oct. 5 in the oncology publication, Cure magazine.
Marissa Holzer is a metastatic breast cancer patient and was previously covered by a plan from Blue Shield of California, which she purchased through the state's insurance exchange, Covered California.
Her coverage changed to Medicare on Sept. 1, which is when she attempted to cancel the old policy to allow for continued coverage of her cancer medication, Lynparza (olaparib).
Blue Shield said the coverage could only be canceled through the state marketplace. Covered California said it needed a two week notice to cancel and couldn't terminate the policy until Sept. 30.
Shortly after, Blue Shield billed Ms. Holzer for her September premium.
"This is what I was trying to avoid, she wrote. "I had hoped one plan would end and the other would begin with no lapses, no overlapping, no income tax issues regarding subsidies, but it just was not to be. The termination date could not be changed because I called too late. Apparently, I was supposed to know this, but my common sense got in the way."
Covered California, Blue Shield, the state insurance commissioner and Ms. Holzer's insurance agent were unable to resolve the billing issue. She also filed a complaint with the California Department of Managed Healthcare, which sent her back an unreadable, encrypted message.
She then messaged Covered California through Twitter and re-explained the situation. The exchange asked for her personal information and said it was directing the issue to its resolution team. Within five hours, Covered California called Ms. Holzer and changed her policy termination date to Aug. 31.
Ms. Holzer's resolution through Twitter is reminiscent of a story from Sandy Honig, a comedian who posted a video in August of her vomiting in the parking lot of an Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield office in Los Angeles after the payer denied her coverage of treatment for a stomach condition. Since then, the video has received over 900,000 views.
Despite appearing at the Anthem office in-person with her appeal letter, the payer responded to the video on Twitter and asked for Ms. Honig's email so the company could "look into this."
Shortly after, Ms. Honig tweeted that an individual from Anthem called her and said they "feel awful" and are "looking into it." She concluded by saying, "vomit at ur insurance companies folks!"
Ms. Honig said Anthem eventually called a second time to explain why the Botox injection was not a medically necessary procedure.