I don't think so...

[cellio]

Dear $health_insurance_provider,

I am in receipt of your letter, sent on your behalf by my employer, urging me to fill out a "health risk assessment" so that you can provide me with an "action plan for [my] health". It appears that you are proposing to make recommendations for my medications, lifestyle, diet, and, for all I know, hypothetical affinity for skydiving, all on the basis of a questionnaire.

You are, of course, aware that as a condition for acquiring your insurance services, I designated a primary-care physician who is responsible for overseeing my care and who is, you know, an actual doctor. If you care to open up your file on me, you will see that I do in fact avail myself of his services on the conventional, recommended schedule. In other words, I already have a source of sound health advice, and I do not need to augment it with a source of less-sound advice offerred absent any actual examination of me. I understand that some of your customers might not be availing themselves of their doctors' services, but perhaps your effort would be better spent encouraging them to change that instead of offering medical opinions via email.

While you do, of course, influence my doctor (through your decisions about what you will and will not cover), I think my doctor is more likely than you are to prioritize my health over your costs. So if it's all the same to you, I plan to stick with my current plan for continued good health.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I went through the same thing, recently.

The first thing I asked them is "if my providers say one thing, and you say another, I'm listening to them. Is that OK?"

Got some decent advice, actually.

[sethg]

It could be worse. They could have already diagnosed you with something your doctor didn't think you had, and worded the letter accordingly...

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

I received one of those type letters from BCBS a year or two ago. I considered filling it out, then thought better of it. When I received another a week or so ago, I tossed it. In some ways it sounds helpful, but I am suspicious of their motives.

[psu-jedi.livejournal.com]

I got a letter about a year ago from my insurance company that said something along the lines of "We see that you have (insert medical condition here) because you take (insert medication name here). Can you please fill out this survey and let us know if you're managing your health to the best of our requirements?" Of course I tossed it. I got it a second time, and tossed it then too.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Uh... *blink* ... sure, I'll send a bunch of potentially sensitive medical information to a non-practitioner who is interested in keeping me healthy only inasmuch as that is compatible with their bottom line.

[kmanista.livejournal.com]

It's nice that they're being so pro-active about interfering in your well-managed medical business, and are fighting us about covering a test that I need regularly to keep on top of an already diagnosed condition!! Do they want people to get preventative medical care or not?

If they complain about the hearing test I had last week, I may have a temper tantrum.

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

Well, see, now, you are depriving that poor, put-upon health care provider from earning some money (and you know they have such a hard time doing that, these days) when they can sell your not-protected-by-privilege information to mailing lists that want to sell you the latest drug/cure/whack-job treatment that your insurance provider would refuse to cover, anyway.
Shame on you, picking on the poor, oppressed insurance companies.