United Health Care Issues

[john john]

If you are having difficulties in finding a physician that accepts UHC or getting your current physician to accept UHC, I encourage you to contact David Marcus, Director of Health and Welfare - david_marcus@usairways.com 1 480-693-8865 - Explain your circumstance verbally or by e-mail and ask for assistance. The company has stated that they are committed to getting more providers into the plan. If all of the employees that are having the same difficulties contact the company perhaps the company will recognize that we need a fix right now, not months from now.

 

[ussnark]

John-John suggest you e-mail, follow up via phone and then e-mail a narrative of the conversations to the person. Be sure to gain a commitment times for the call back. The better the paper trail is the more weight it will carry later if you need it.

Why should employees have to jump through such hoops? Many of us work over 20 days per month, over 8 hour days with no overtime.

This should be basic service. To document basic services to be entitle one to basic compensation is way out of bounds.

I would sooner see a corporation go under before torturing employees over basic services. Kill the real problem, just bad management, rather than allow them to leech off the employees.

 

[ALCARLOS]

Many of us work over 20 days per month, over 8 hour days with no overtime.

You may not be aware, that most employees in many industries work this length or more.

 

[tadjr]

Just curious if there are no doctors in your area that take UHC or just not the dr you have been using? I was lucky in that mine took both the old and new plans. So far I havent had any problems with UHC.

 

[SpinDoc]

Why should employees have to jump through such hoops? Many of us work over 20 days per month, over 8 hour days with no overtime.

This should be basic service. To document basic services to be entitle one to basic compensation is way out of bounds.

I would sooner see a corporation go under before torturing employees over basic services. Kill the real problem, just bad management, rather than allow them to leech off the employees.

SpinDoc replies:

US Management can only be held responsible for their selection of UHC as the administrator of their self-funded healthcare plan. The blame for poor service lies squarely on UHC, which is a Yugo when compared to Blue Cross which is a Cadillac. UHC does everything on the cheap as far as servicing managed employee health plans, and US never should have changed their administrative services from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

 

[Swaayze]

You may not be aware, that most employees in many industries work this length or more.

Yes and most of them are home nightly, have a lunch hour to eat and take care of personal things, and can almost always receive a callback from a hard to connect-with doctor's office. As an airline employee that's not true all that often. Just an observation/counterpoint.

BTW, I'm furloughed U but currently in the UHC Options PPO at American Eagle. We're very happy with it but perhaps LCC has different parameters? Do y'all have the FSA Mastercard with automatic reimbursement and online access to the preferred providers?

 

[LCC_#1]

UHC does everything on the cheap as far as servicing managed employee health plans, and US never should have changed their administrative services from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Whats wrong with this statement? 😱

 

[hp_fa]

Whats wrong with this statement? 😱

What's wrong with the statement, IMO, is that it is far too general. Spouse and I are currently with UHC, but with a completely different plan. The plan we are on is actually quite good. We don't need referrals and can see any healthcare providers we choose, although some may carry higher co-pays. The weakest link for us is Medco mailorder pharmacy, which seems to be operated by a bunch of idiots. But, even there we can choose to go to a local pharmacy, but again pay more for doing so.

Anyway, I would not simply bash UHC but would rather look to see what plan provisions and options were chosen by the company.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Several years back, pretty much all of USAirways was obligated to use UnitedHealth as it was the only option offered. I had no problem finding good docs that took UnitedHealth. When we were forced to BC/BS, virtually none of my docs accepted it, and when I asked if they would consider joining, they flat-out said that BC/BS was so bad they would never join.

Now, I get all my favorite docs back! I am really happy that we returned to UnitedHealth. I find the choices much wider and better. Is UnitedHealth the best? Probably not, but it certainly beats hearing "Sorry...we don't take BC/BS" over and over again.

 

[Breath_of_Fresh_USAirways]

SpinDoc replies:

US Management can only be held responsible for their selection of UHC as the administrator of their self-funded healthcare plan. The blame for poor service lies squarely on UHC, which is a Yugo when compared to Blue Cross which is a Cadillac. UHC does everything on the cheap as far as servicing managed employee health plans, and US never should have changed their administrative services from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

And America West should've never given up Mayo insurance...

Would've, should've, could've...

That said, I have had both BCBS and UHC and MUCH prefer UHC! It is not a YUGO and BCBS is NOT a Cadallac! NO insurance is perfect, anymore! With UHC I can pick my Doctor, I can change Doctors, I don't need a referral to see a specialist...

Wake up. It's the 21st century. EVERYTHING is changing for everyone! My Doctor's office/clinic takes UHC and has UHC for it's employees as well. I've become pretty good friends with one of the Np's and we are all very happy with UHC -- however, their premiums, at the Dr's office, are at least twice the lowest that USA employees pay! Sometimes, I don't think USA employees know how good we have it...