The continuation of my Market Place saga...
I waited through the weekend and steeled myself for an evening of holding.
It was now past the deadline and I had such a roundabout of operators.
I was disconnected, transferred, placed on hold, re–directed and lost.
Through a variety of operators, who determined I was nowhere in the system no matter how they looked me up I was told to start again, but I wouldn’t get any credits unless I could prove I had called in the middle of March.
One operator, trying to do that for me asked which number I had called originally,
“This one,” I said.
“From which number Ma’am?”
“This one.”
“There is no record of you having called this number, I do show you called today on your landline phone…”
“No, I am calling today on my mobile.”
Their call records aren’t accurate.
Yet another woman asked,
“Did you go through an agent?”
“No, I went through one of your operators and he must have done something right because BCBS got my information and has me all signed up and paid.”
Then she called BCBS to talk to customer service, while I was on the line, after 15 minutes of button pushing we were told the offices were closed. Yes it was midnight!
She came up with the brainwave that I try back during business hours and ask how they had received my request for coverage.
This I did knowing that I could get through in a twinkling of an eye.
Another 3 hours of wasted time.
BCBS was full of good tidings.
I was told my application had come through The Exchange with an e-ID number and a case number.
She gave me the date and time the request had been sent.
I wrote the information down.
She also confirmed the amount of my tax credit and my policy price.
It was refreshing to talk to someone who knew what she was doing and sounded confident.
Now that I had proof I had signed up before the deadline but did I have the energy to call the government offices again?
I don’t think I need to write the next part down, these words will suffice.
No Joy…
No one ever called me back although they have both my numbers.
Then I heard hubs speaking to an answering machine, recognizing the hold music I called to him,
“Good luck, been there done that!”
Then I heard him talking to a representative it had only been a couple of minutes!
I dashed downstairs and wrote him a note,
“Stay on the line with her, I want to talk!”
Can I say too much about this representative? She was a breath of fresh air!
She told me that because of the end of open enrollment the government computers were down and until they could sync again with The Market Place, they were unable to pull up accurate information.
“Call back in a couple of weeks and we’ll be able to find you,” she said cheerfully, “by then the system should be back up and running.”
“How long has it been down?”
“Since the beginning of April,” she said.
Oh me…why hadn’t I heard that before.
“Rest assured you’re in here somewhere, just call back later and don’t worry, if BCBS has you in the system then we will too.”
Famous last words.
I’ll tell you more later…
For now I’m flaunting my health instance cards and loving it!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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