Got a call from "insurance company" for in-home physical from nurse practitioner..

I've received a few calls from this company claiming to work for my insurance company and they say that they are supposed to schedule an "in home examination" - a physical from a nurse practitioner. I've told them that I had a physical recently (blood work & all) less than a month before and have a regular doctor, part of a large practice. The caller can never explain why I can't have this done at my regular doctors office or elsewhere. Other people with my same insurance haven't gotten this call and I've been told that this doesn't sound right - though I haven't talked to my doc or insurance compnay yet.

I was wondering if this is a company that just makes these calls trying to drum up business for expensive in-house calls that aren't necessary or required by insurance. Basically a medical company that has partnered with a call center to try to drum up business.

I can say that the callers have never instilled a sense of trust or professionalism and I wouldn't put it beyond the realm of possibility that the call center was from a corrections center, prison or detention center..

Here is an article that describes basically what I went through.

www.health.harvard.edu...

Another good article explaining the concerns of people getting these calls:

bangordailynews.com...

Insurance company pushing these in-house visits

www.newsobserver.com...

IDK if these calls are to generate business and if these are a result of the changes in the insurance industry since the ACA and I would suspect that if these are profit driven then we would see this kind of abuse explode if we had socialized medicine.

It seems that a lot of commenters on these links also feel a little odd about having a 3rd party calling them wanting to know medical background/history w/ no confirmation and to send someone to their house, have them get naked, poked, prodded, and all on the say-so of someone who just calls out of the blue? I would think the person who says yes would need a visit from someone other than a general practitioner/nurse practitioner and more in line with a shrink.

This is now typical. I'm not sure if this is now mandated, but both my wife and I have received similar solicitations (different insurance companies.) They offer these in-home visits once per year. It's just part of health care management to ensure you have every opportunity to have your health care issues and questions answered. We also get the "Silver Sneakers" solicitations for exercise programs for seniors. We get quarterly "prescription summaries" with lots of paperwork, including non-discrimination notices and blurbs in about a dozen different languages. We always refuse the visits. We see "health care professionals" quite enough all ready.

And frankly, I don't want them in my house. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I have visions of them writing secret reports assessing my lifestyle. I can't get over the idea that they are snooping. Not that I leave loaded forearms lying around on tables or anything, but nobody gets in here unless I invite them.

I had a home visit from a nurse practioner, but it was after a major surgery, when I would not have been able to get to my doctor without hurting myself further?

That's reasonable but these are "well-health" visits when you are not at all sick.

We had that with Blue Cross when we had it up to about a year or so. Now we have some kind of other insurance from the wife's workplace which is pretty decent, but no more nurse coming to the house to get us scared and nobody asking for our poop anymore.

a reply to: schuyler

It's the new fad, they want to make sure Seniors use the doctors more and by that effect the insurance companies get more profits under the new system. Insurance companies get a percentage over what they pay out to profit from and to pay overhead, the more that people use the healthcare, the more money and profit they make. Thank you Obama for pushing this through. The last thing the nurse-practitioner told me is they will send the info to my doctor and I should follow up. I rarely go to a doctor unless I have a problem. So they sent someone to make me scared. Now the wife goes to regular appointments every three months and she never got a call to offer the benefit of a home visit. I guess I just got on a list.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof
o improve their bottom line. They hope in home visits will catch and avoid serious health problems early. In their mind, paying a Nurse Practitioner $50 to find and treat high blood pressure beats paying multiple 10s of thousands of dollars for treatment of a hemorrhagic stroke. Likewise, that visit might catch and prevent diabetes and the resulting payments for lifetime insulin and multiple amputations. Healthy people save money for them.

I’ve had a couple of the “in home” visits for insurance. The last one I was able to get done at the nurse’s house, so that she didn’t need to deal with my dogs.

There was no nakedness or probing, just a blood test and a urine test. Might have been a blood pressure test too. All free, so zero expense.

It was our first in home insurance test that let us know that the husband is diabetic.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Was wondering if it was related to mental health...?

What was the insurance company name?

There are medical insurance fraud scams, where they drive around and look for patients to fill beds when it is covered by medicare/caid in some states...they pay for transportation...

Some insurance companies are owned by Hospitals...

The pharmaceutical industry looks at everyone, as 1 of 2 types of people.

Existing client or potential client.



Now, everyone is mentally ill, with 5 signs that all humans have, medication and Electro Convulsive Therapy can be administer...

Psychiatric care to control behaviorisms.

www.bible.ca...

A. Scientific and medical sounding names for everyday behaviour: DSM-5

1. The DSM-5 creates uses Scientistic and medical sounding labels to create the illusion that your behaviour is a medical problem, disorder and disease.

a. Billing an insurance company for treating little Johnny's "temper tantrum" would be rightly met with scorn.

b. But create a Scientistic and medical sounding label called, "Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder" and the insurance company start writing cheques.

c. There is no difference between a "temper tantrum" and "Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder", but the latter sounds like a mental disorder that needs to be treated by a doctor.

d. Therein lays the fraud and the conn of the modern psychiatry and the DSM-5.

2. The DSM-5 has over 300 categories of everyday human behaviour that are usually one of the 153 sins listed in the Bible.

a. There are hundreds of examples of medical sounding names for everyday behaviour.

b. Generally they will take Greek

c. "Trichotillomania disorder" is Greek for "twisting your hair so it falls out"

d. "Dysthymia disorder" is Greek for "someone who sulks, is negative and self-pitying.

e. "Histrionic disorder" is Greek for "someone who loves to be the center of attention through inappropriate emotional expressions, including seductive behavior if all else fails."

f. "Anankastic disorder" is Greek for "someone who behaves in fixed and set patterns of behaviour that cannot be changed".

3. Before the DSM, psychiatry and psychology were not viewed with the same respect and science as true medicine.

a. DSM-5 continues the goal of psychiatrists and psychologists to be viewed as real medical specialists by selecting scientific sounding "Greek word equivalents" for everyday human behaviour.

b. The DSM-5 is the primary billing tool so insurance companies and governmen

mental illnesses that do not exist..
www.telegraph.co.uk...

After all, he notes, homosexuality was listed as a “sociopathic personality disorder” when the DSM was first published in 1952, and remained so until 1973. “Doctors were paid to treat it, scientists to search for its causes and cures,” he writes in The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry. “Gay people themselves underwent countless therapies including electric shocks, years on the couch, behaviour modification and surrogate sex.”

My dad was telling me something about this years ago. Apparently, he's had it happen to him a couple of times. I thought it sounded rather bizarre but what do I know. My guess is they're trying to assess their potential risks. Remember. These are insurance companies. Their goal is to take in more money than they send out. So if their victims are in failing health, they want to know about it before it happens.

Lots of stuff that goes on in the medical field is about money. For example, when a doctor is recommending a particular treatment or procedure, he/she/it has to convince the insurance company that his recommendation will be more cost effective for them in the long run. They do not care about the patient other than the preventative measures taken will save them money in the long run.

Insurance companies are the very embodiment of the word "parasite".

I wouldn't. Tell them you'll meet them in their office and ask what time they'll be there ....they wont be there.

Do not let anyone in your home or if you do get a call...not from anyone but your insurance company...and tell them to mail you details.They wont.

They are trying to catch you and sell you...or worse..so, have them mail you at home. Safety 1st.

EMT

*I see the responses to the contrary, but an insurance company don't NEED to get inside anyone's private residence. Nurses, home care, aides, visiting physicians? Yes....

Somebody just tryna touch some balls.

a reply to: schuyler

I agree with everything you said and a star was not enough,
these are for you...

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I feel these calls you are getting are a fraud and you should report
them if they continue.I wouldn't answer any questions and you
should hang-up and check your phone ID.My husband and I have
received calls like this that were made from a cellphone! In my
opinion,a legit company wouldn't use cellphones to contact potential
clients.

I get them several times per year from a 3rd party outfit that says they're contracted by my insurance (HUM...)
Sure enough, they are authorized to do this stuff by the insurance company.
I told them last week that I was NOT interested (again!) and that I'd prefer they never contact me again on this matter.
Hope it worked.

ganjoa

a reply to: ganjoa

Saw a documentary on the fraud doctors and pill mills, making false diagnosis to insurance companies to get expensive medication covered...was a lady in the show who insurance company asked her how her cancer was doing and she was like, what cancer...turned out doctors were scamming..

Opioid use in common with any of the posters who are getting calls?

They may be trying to monitor for abuse and over prescribing doctor fraud.

a reply to: dojozen

The wife is a chronic pain patient, but she doesn't ever get calls as we have different insurance providers. Big problem there is these new regs nobody working in pain management seems to have a clue .about. Obvious alternatives can't be discussed in my state, so depending on what new regs on opiods are, a relocation might be required

Mostly, I get targeted calls for oldsters with back problems - allegedly free Medicare provided back braces, knee braces, etc. I'll let my doc prescribe and my orthotics guy build a brace if I need it - I could care less that Medicare has a new benefit that can be exploited - I refuse to participate!

ganjoa

a reply to: ganjoa

Couple of interesting links


www.health.harvard.edu...

A method to the supposed madness

Dr. Michael McWilliams suggested an answer. As an associate professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School, he understands the arcane regulations that cover how Medicare reimburses my Medicare Advantage plan for the care I get. He told me that each of us covered by these plans is assigned a risk score. As we develop more health problems, our risk score increases. “The home visits conducted by Medicare Advantage plans allow for the capture of more diagnoses, which in turn increases the risk score that adjusts plan payments from Medicare. Generally speaking, the more diagnoses recorded, the higher the payment,” Dr. Williams says.

He explains that the risk adjustment system was created to ensure that plans don’t enroll only the healthiest patients, who are less likely to run up charges for expensive procedures and hospital stays. To provide an incentive for insurers to cover sicker patients, the plans are paid commensurately more for their care.

www.medicaleconomics.com...

These home invasions are generally unwarranted, unwelcome, and ultimately useless in the grand scheme of medical care. The insurance companies want to gather data to reduce their exposure to risk, raise rates, and get paid by federal government programs for millions of subscribers. The insurance companies themselves have a ton of conflict of interest, as only they stand to gain by this government and insurance industry-funded procedure, not patients or physicians. Another concern is that these invasions become patients’ yearly wellness visit. Instead of getting a wellness visit with a personal physician, the visit is usurped by an employee of the insurance company. Not only does the insurer collect data, but avoids a claim from an independent physician who might otherwise handle the wellness visit. The insurer can essentially divert the money CMS pays for these visits for their own data mining operation.