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Thought experiment: What if a health insurance company was hated by its customers even more? It sounds impossible. But what if that health insurance company was powered by AI? Dream no more: Providence Health Plan outsourced its claims processing to a Silicon Valley company promising that its proprietary artificial intelligence would streamline service for 125,000 customers (“Technical Hiccups,” WW, March 11). Cue the hatred. We don’t have room on this page for all the horror stories our readers have submitted. Here’s what they had to say:
Adventurous-Cat5263, via Reddit: “This has been a nightmare for me and my family, they have coded in network providers as out of network over and over again. Countless hours on the phone and sending emails, etc., plus insane bills. At the very least the Public Employees’ Benefit Board needs to extend their offer to change plans to June or something. I had optimism they would fix things, plus changing insurers requires a complete change of providers for my family that have been established for like a decade and shifting to a whole new hospital system that I don’t trust. Didn’t want to jump into that if it was unnecessary so missed the March deadline. Seems very necessary now as it’s clear things will not improve. Thanks, PEBB and Providence.
“Only other questions I have is who is starting the class action and where can I sign up?”
Henry Rearden, via wweek.com: “What I am hearing from PEBB and OEBB recipients that were on the Providence plan for the state employees is that the rollout has been a Complete SNAFU, contained in a very large Dumpster Fire, Surrounded by a Cluster Fuck. Normally I reserve these barrages for state programs run awry, but this is all on Providence. They ‘bet’ the entire well-being of 125K Oregon subscribers on an AI firm from out of state with little more than a 10-year track record. Bollocks!
“What could go wrong? I mean beside everything. The CEO and her inner circle should all either resign in shame or be terminated. Effective immediately.”
deadhedge, via wweek.com: “This is just a piss-poor implementation, and given Providence screwed it up with their top account, PEBB, the only way they keep account is by lowering their admin rates that they charge to the point where they have another year of $100 million in losses. I worked at Providence Health Plan a decade ago, and implementation was strong, you made sure you did things right, and the clinical and medical team were main decision-makers. Customer service was local, strong, and supported.
“It’s a shame. A strong Providence Health Plan is good for the community and how are they going to recover? They are losing money on all lines of business, can’t implement, and can’t get good rates from non-Providence hospital systems.”
Steverino, via wweek.com: “It needs to go this way, sorry. Since the endgame is to control costs, it’s a learning process just like computers were 40 years ago.”
Zayn2123, via Reddit: “I’m surprised and kind of reassured I’m not the only one. I’ve been having trouble with everything since January. Even though I’ve been assured every time I call in that everything looks good on their end.”
Automatic-Fox8890, via in response: “How do you even get through? I’ve called and heard wait times of three to four hours and given up.
“I signed up for the plan requiring a Providence medical home to save a few bucks, and was surprised that my longtime doctor—who has an office at Providence Hospital!—wasn’t on the medical home list. Spent hours and hours to find a new provider that seemed decent and was taking new patients. No luck. I never did find one.
“Being out of luck, before the March 1 deadline, I switched plans, only to find out that it’s just that Collective Health’s online info is all wrong (wtf?). My doc was an eligible provider that whole time. I want 30 hours of my life back. Oh, and make that 34—they never sent out cards in January so I got prescription refills denied and spent another few hours figuring out how to manually file, go back to the drug store for receipt, etc.”
Iris Moore, via wweek.com: “Outrageous. Sounds like the Oregon attorney general and insurance commissioner should be involved in taking corrective action.”
PORTLAND NEEDS MORE THAN A WINK FROM DUNDON
I’m actually a bit neutral on whether Oregon and Portland should be putting up hundreds of millions to update Moda Center; we hear how the Blazers drive needed revenue and reputation for Portland, but it’s also hard to justify this money when Oregon and Portland are in chronic budget crisis. What I wonder is whether Blazer owner Tom Dundon will view these improvements as sufficient to keep the Blazers here. Who can guarantee we don’t spend the money and he still leaves?
Mark Atherton
Northeast Portland
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to:
P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com
