A Useless 'Perk' from My Health Insurance

I have found them most useless perk from any health insurance plan ever. When I was diagnosed with RA, my health insurance informed me that I was eligible for this perk called the Accordant Care in.

What this plan includes is a quarterly conversation with a nurse on current medications and any recent heath issues I might have had as well as a monthly newsletter with health tips. The nurse is also available at other times if I have questions on any health issues.

That all sounds good, right? Wrong.

Every conversation with the nurse consisted of them reading me scripted questions that I had to answer: have I fallen in the last ninety days, do I have additional issues, have I had an RA flare, etc. Also, a review of each and every medication I am on and asking if I am still taking the same dose and if I have changed any medications. This could take as long as 20 minutes. I never have benefitted from any of these phone calls. I often felt like was interrogated during each call as I had to wait for them to review each medication and then go through the rest of their script.

Their newsletters are also useless. First, I used to get them electronically. The email would come with a long url in it where took you to a secure page where you had to sign in. If its a newsletter why does it require a secure log in? So they can tell if you actually read the damn thing.

I couldn't deal with those newsletters so they switched me to the printed ones. Often they are only one 8.5"x11" sheet printed double sided, in large type, with half a page of mailing space and fine print. So on those, you would often get one topic article that was about 200 words long.

I just got the latest newsletter and its just as annoying and just as useless. The four articles include: staying healthy and out of the hospital - you should have that as a goal; tracking changes in your health by keeping a journal; when you should call your doctor; a checklist for when you see your regular doctors; and finally a continuation on setting goals for 2018. 

It did not tell me anything I didn't already know. Its written in language an 8 year old could understand. And since its put out by doctors who probably had a lawyer vet it so it doesn't provide anything specific, other than you need to see your dentist every six months.

I have been ducking their calls for the last two years. If I could figure out how to get out of the program I would. If it was offered to you, I would not recommend it.

The lesson I have learned here is just because you are eligible for a 'perk' do not accept it before knowing what you are getting into. Accordant Care is just awful for the patient.