Reply To: Insurance asking for "Medical Necessity" for IVIg treatments
Bryan, I had Anthem… I dumped them. They were OK when they were just Blue Cross, but after the merger, they went downhill and became less compassionate and more money hungry.
My experience with Anthem is that each different claims adjuster (and they have thousands) has his/her own feelings about how they should approach claims approval. Perhaps they have internal quotas for saving the company money and it’s that time of the month when their bonuses are on the line? Maybe it’s the new employee syndrome where newbie’s want to show their bosses that they play the game in the company’s favor?
Whatever the reason, Anthem is probably the most inconsistent insurer I’ve dealt with when it comes to processing claims. Seemingly randomly, and out of the blue, claims that had been approved in the past are denied for some undisclosed reason hidden behind the words “medical necessity”. What you must do is to call their 800 number and go thru their red-tape phone system (designed to annoy us and discourage future calls). Get hold of a live person and get all the details behind what happened that caused the denial. Find out if those same criteria will be applied on subsequent treatments.
Armed with the technical details, ask the person you are talking with to process a grievance on your behalf. Your options are described here: https://www.anthem.com/shop/appealsandgrievances
They will tell you if they need your doctor to process a grievance or if you can do it. Tell them that if the grievance is rejected you will file a complaint with your state department of insurance. I had to do that with Anthem twice. I won both complaints.
Since the forums search function hasn’t worked for several months, here are some links to other threads that discuss insurance company denials and offer some suggestions for dealing with them:
I wish you the best of luck with treatment and hope you prevail against Anthem.