My Blue Cross is rejected at health facilities!!!

[CNABESS]

So last night my son(21) comes home from work a mess with a sinus infection and conjunctivitis. The MD. office is closed and he is looking worse by the hour. at last he decides at 8pm. to go to the local urgent care 3 miles away. He is told that since his BC/BS is from the next state over it is not accepted. He can go to the ER or pay full price out of pocket. Since when is a national insurance plan that covers you all around the world, not accepted?

So I call the other 6 urgent cares within a 25 mile radius. Yup, no out of state BC/BS accepted. At this point my son doses himself with sinus meds. and eye drops and goes to bed. I am furious about this. My sons MD. is in state, and we have no probs. My husband just went to Tufts in Ma. for a cardiac cath. even though we live in RI. and no probs.

Heres the part that makes me furious. I asked every urgent care center if they accepted the state health plan (medicaid) and they all said yes! So the fact that my husband pays out $9 per hour of his work day(yes, we get a yearly reporting from his company that pays the other half), plus more in union dues every month, to BC/BS for excellent health insurance, means we are not able to receive care at these places, but they happily treat those that are being paid for by the taxpayer. Now, I realize these are private facilities. They can choose to accept whatever they want. Something just does not seem right here. Sorry for the rambling, I am just so bewildered by this.

[leloscrubs]

some thing really needs to be changed for these private facilities. uhh

[azhiker96, BSN, RN]

I don't pretend to understand BCBS but it seems to be run as a state specific insurance program. I found a little information here.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110301075716AArrvQu

You should call the customer service number on your card and ask them what's up. From the last answer in the link, there may be additional out of state coverage available for more $$$.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I've faced this before. I had to pay the bill directly, the submit it to my insurer for reimbursement.