Worst insurance experience of my life with Anthem BCBS / Accolade

I missed my desperately needed first chemotherapy session today because Anthem BCBS outsourced my authorization to Accolade, who outsourced it to American Health Holdings, who entered it incorrectly somehow and first denied under lack of medical necessity and then left it in “clinical review”. My provider (one of the top three cancer centers in the US) called repeatedly and these guys could not get their shit together. They kept claiming the provider hadn’t sent the right information, and had my provider fax it to three (!!!) different numbers.

The prior claims specialist at my provider finally got an Accolade rep this morning who dug into the issue and figured out that they’d processed it incorrectly. They had to close the case and open a new one, but they pinky promised they’d copy the clinical notes over. I’m not holding my breath. Since my case is now marked as “urgent,” they’ll respond within 72 hours, meaning my rapidly growing tumor will get to keep spreading into my chest wall until Monday if I wait for them.

Oh, and I can only talk to the Accolade patient reps, who don’t actually interface with American Health Holdings, and have no real power to see what’s going on or to advance my case.