Another Reason Healthcare is so Expensive!

I just had to share this. It strikes me as indicative of just how litigious our society (the United States, that is) has become and how, coupled with many contributing factors, it makes our healthcare (or sickness care) system incredibly wasteful and, therefore, expensive.

I received a “SECOND REQUEST” letter from NexClaim Recoveries, LLC the other day, reminding me I was a slacker in not filling out their previously sent treatment questionnaire. It carried the following “threat”:

Your response is required within the next 21 days to avoid further contact.

Now here’s what this is in regard to. Last August my then 6 year old daughter was bleeding off some excess energy by spinning madly in the very large elevator vestibule in the San Francisco Hilton. She lost her balance, fell, and hit her mouth on the edge of a small table sitting between two chairs at the far end of the area.

She was bleeding rather profusely from her mouth and I immediately sought medical attention from the hotel. We were very quickly transported to the emergency room at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in a hotel limousine, where my daughter’s mouth was closely inspected (after quite an effort on behalf of the staff to earn her trust). Thankfully, the blood was from a cut lip and nothing more; no broken or damaged teeth. The hotel was good enough to retrieve us when we were finished and the lip healed within days.

At no time did I ever contemplate looking to the hotel or anyone else for liability. In fact, if there’s any “blame” to be assigned I’m afraid I would be the first candidate. She is, after all, my daughter and I’m the one who “allowed” her to spin around. I was, in fact, sitting in one of those chairs and “should” have been there to catch her, eh?

Well, thankfully NexClaim is far enough evolved in the Technium to have also built a web presence designed to provide people like me an easier way to respond, as well as save themselves nearly a half buck in postage each time it’s used.

I have to say I’m still a bit miffed I had to actually take an action – to keep from being dunned – in order to assure these people (and United Technologies-Anthem, my healthcare extor . . . er, provider) I’m not going to do something; like sue them.

When I finished filling in as little as possible of the form as I could and still ensure they will never contact me again, I was taken to a page containing the following.

Thank You for responding via our online questionnaire response form. Your response has been processed and received and you may discard your paper questionnaire.  Occasionally, responses may not be processed before another questionnaire is generated.  Therefore if you receive a questionnaire in the mail regarding the same treatment, please disregard. Your assigned specialist may contact you if additional information is needed.

Should you have any questions or need to change your response, please feel free to contact our Customer Call Center at 1-888-468-4742

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Somehow, this is almost like adding insult to injury, as it seems further proof they’re wasteful and disorganized, which I believe is actually the entire reason for their existence. I also find it ironic they suggest I’m a Customer!