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Do Not Forgive Harmful Things Done to Society
By Shirin (Sharon
Bynum),
our contact for
Colorado, USA
Sal-Om all,
One of the Mission
teachings is to not forgive harmful things done to
society. Personal affronts are a different matter
and should be handled in other ways.
A number of instances have come up
for us over the past few months which required stepping
up and speaking up. For example:
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When a hospital makes mistakes
and treats you personally wrong, you have a
responsibility to call these things to the attention
of the proper channels. Large corporations
have complaint boards, and when a problem goes
beyond just you, you have a duty to speak up and
call attention to the problem to help implement a
solution for all patients. Presbyterian
Admitting in New Mexico will now be more correct in
their information and communicate more effectively
with better personal skills in dealing with their
patients in the future.
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A car insurance company states
that it provides certain benefits such as roadside
assistance, and then the occasion occurs to use it
and you are denied and left stranded. Even my
own agent said I was not covered. By keeping
good records we were able to challenge the company
on its own policies and show the breakdown in
communication between agents, clients, and parent
companies. Indeed I was covered! This
went to a regional level meeting of agents to shed
light on a disconnect between higher management and
clients' benefits.
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Labs and doctors generally do
not do their own billing. These tasks are
handled by a billing company. Again, when
errors occur, the billing company only knows the
bill in front of it. Its job is simply to
collect the money. Sometimes it takes diligent
phone calls to get to the bottom of a problem, and
it may seem easier to just 'pay the bill' and forget
it. The billing companies generally are not
nice either. However, the feeling of injustice
and 'it's just not right' comes up and says to keep
digging.
After exposing the true deeper problem between the
lab certification and my health insurance company,
the issue was resolved. It actually had
nothing to do with me personally. It was a
paperwork problem. A supervisor said he had 35
other claims from just that day involving the same
issue which would now not be a problem for those
patients. He expressed thanks for my
persistence, and the billing company personally
apologized, which is quite unheard of.
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Health insurance is a
nightmare for anyone who is not trained as a Medical
Billing & Claims expert. After examining the
codes used for processing, I was amazed at the ways
the company gets out of paying legitimate claims.
All those claim reports come with an appeal process.
If you feel a claim has been improperly classified,
file an appeal along with all your evidence.
Send a copy of the appeal to your doctors and also
involve them in the process of righting a wrong.
We cannot become compliant or
docile and go along with the program when it comes to
big corporations. Others are being hurt or taken
advantage of by greedy corporations and the lack of
personal customer service by the agents who are supposed
to be representing us. We do not have to take it
anymore and allow this injustice to be done to society.
If we stand up for our rights and
the truth of situations on a personal, local, and
grassroots level, we can make a difference for ourselves
and society. Perhaps out of these efforts and
upholding Mission standards,
Communities of Light will eventually emerge.
Sal-Om,
Shirin
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