Enrollment and Providers

[azhotaz]

My doctors have changed 3 times in 6 months; now I have another issue.  The online data of doctors covered is not nearly ever up to date.  So I have until December 7 to perhaps change my UHC Medicare Advantage plan so that my current doctor's practice (pac man has eaten up my last 2 doctor practices) apparently is no longer OptumCare.  Maybe.  I've spent 8 hours trying to get information and I give up.  Last call to UHC said I'd get a really "current" listing of my providers, not the online one which isn't updated.  But what I got was the online version which isn't updated.  As of January 1 my doctor as far as anyone can tell is not with Optum (but is online) but who he is with changes it seems -- first I was told by his office "Banner", then today Walgreens. 

So, if I need a doctor January 2nd, I won't have one because no one can tell me which provider on that list is really approved for my plan.

I have no problem with Optum prescriptions that can be filled with the 90-day plan. I would never use them for anything else.  I do use GoodRx and after Walgreen's told me that with my insurance, my eye drops would cost $160, I used GoodRx and went to Safeway and paid less than $16.  Since then I've used Safeway instead and every prescription has been much less than Walgreens (Costco also less).  Once they gave me my antibiotics for $0.  They also gave me my 90-day prescriptions (doc sent it to them instead of Optum) for the same co-pay as Optum which was at the time $0.  You cannot ever go to one place for your medicine when it isn't covered under the co-pay.  You have to shop.  I have been happy to use GoodRx and almost every time, Safeway still charged me even less.  Having paid hundreds for prescriptions at Walgreens, I thought I was getting a good price only to find that was not the case.  I recently had a friend go to Safeway and instead of paying over $80 for his medicine he paid something like $18.  He was shocked since he'd been paying for it at Walgreens for years supposedly with insurance.