Comments on: COBRA – Do Better, Jack!

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:54:10 +0000

I am in the middle of a very similar situation with ADP. I was assured by not one but two of their CSPs that I would receive a refund of the overpayments I made while waiting to be accepted into the government subsidy program (another snafu by ADP). CSP#1 told me to write a letter requesting the reimbursement. I called about 10 days later and was told by CSP#2 that he had no record of the letter, but would expedite the refund. I received a phone call today saying that if I was canceling my Cobra, to write a letter (which is never what I was requesting, of course). I was told that ADP never provides refunds of overpayments.
I asked to speak with a “supervisor” today, (from India) who promptly disconnected me. When I called the number on my phone, I was told it was no longer in service.

Does anyone know who one might appeal to re this level of sheer incompetence? Does the Federal Government approve who might handle COBRA, or is it my former employer? And, am I just looking for more frustration and let them have the money? (I am still in the COBRA, and my premiums will be paid from the existing balance.)

Thanks.

By: Lisa Brown

Lisa Brown — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:42:56 +0000

ADP is notoriously incompetent for their COBRA services (a lot of the call center folks are outsourced in India or somewhere as you can see by their “heartily” comment to you – really, who speaks like that here?). I work in HR and deal with them everyday and they’re horrible. We’ve had former employees with your exact scenario. You really should contact your former HR department and tell them of your problems. The $ will probably need to be reimbursed from them anyways, since ADP forwards the premiums rec’d to them (less the 2% admin fee). Although the 30 day time period is ADP’s policy for refunds, trust me it can be done. We do it every day.

By: Adam Ruddermann

Adam Ruddermann — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Already being in the federal govt’s mini healthcare system (Tricare) and having read about Medicare, I’m not anywhere near as concerned about situations like John encountered.

The government benefits from having incredibly explicit rules set. Remember, the law for citizens limits what we can do, the law for the govt must explicitly authorize it to perform an action.

Not that corporations don’t set their own internal rules… but many of them must remain nebulous, unwritten. Their goal is to make a profit. Enabling such simple things as cancelations at a low level introduces a lack of revenue flow control. It must be complicated. How many ppl can actually cancel their free 30 day trials of anything with ease? There’s a reason for the process being painful. It may not be written down so plainly stated in a Powerpoint, but that certainly was the intent when they designed the system.

In my experience anyway, as a whole there is good accountability at the lower levels of the federal government. Even some states get a bad rap (the DE DMV, for example, is pretty easy to get through). And assuming the chain breaks down, you’d be surprised how much House Reps love going after unresponsive govt agencies. It makes them look great. As cliche as it may sound, calling your House Rep works. Being in the military may give me a more positive view of this than others (what House Rep doesn’t want to be seen having their Airman/Sailor/Soldier/Marine/Coastie’s back?), but at the very least there is accountability and the rules are plain to see. It may take some work, but at least the rules are there for you to read.

In fact, I had a small issue with the VA recently over the phone where they had to wait 72 hours to do something for me for no explicable reason. It was quite frustrating and very last minute. So I asked “Where’s the policy?” The response? She emailed it to me.

That’s another thing about the government – so long as you’re not dealing with a national security issue, at the lower level I believe there is a general desire to have transparency. In many companies, transparency is the kiss of death and a business model killer.

By: chris bellavita

chris bellavita — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:34:34 +0000

John — I can only imagine the frustration. And I agree there are some basic machine-level fixes needed. But I also found myself wondering if your work in complexity theory/complex adaptive systems provides any additional insights into your experience. Obviously the medical care system is complex. If the US is going to get some version of national health insurance, it will get even more complex. I can just see your experience exponentially ranted as we move from the existing patchwork to whatever emerges from efforts to design a national system. I wonder if there are ways to build learning and safe-failing into whatever comes next.

By: Mark Gould

Mark Gould — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:14:39 +0000

As it happens, none of this could happen with my healthcare provider. That’s because I am in the land of socialised medicine, where we suffer from excessive healthcare administration, but absolutely no insurance providers and their obstructive call-centres.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:00:25 +0000

I see what you’re saying. And it is in fact a customer service issue. I’m just saying that the gov’t is full of them. And I honestly think its a result of contractor low-balling bids and not getting the best people and infrastructure in place. But I’m just recently on the other side of a contract re-bid, so my point of view is colored.

By: John

John — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:46:11 +0000

I would agree that the companies had no time to adapt their processes to ARRA, fair hit. But I would argue the aggravation above is not a health care or government issue, rather a customer service nightmare. ADP lacks internal communication, effective decision making, or any focus on the consumer in their workflow. The result is an otherwise benign firm behaving as a predatory influence.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:40:44 +0000

At the risk of being labeled a flaming conservative (which I’m not, I’m just a small government kind of gal) – this is what happens when the gov’t tries to help. I’m sure they mean well, but this is what you get. What an aggravating day for you! And…I would mention the socialist insurance I’m on (TriCare), works much the same way. So I don’t think Universal Government Healthcare to avoid such issues is the answer either.