I recently purchased a plan in March and since then, I have experienced many life circumstances (close relative passed away, heavy workload (due in part to catching up with missed work and also several other circumstances beyond my control), breakup, and previous month to month lease gave me a 30 day notice to move) that have prevented me from scheduling a new patient appointment with my primary care doctor.
Fast forward to this week, I had to visit the urgent care on Monday. They said that they couldn't do anything to help me with my symptoms at that time other than to prescribe a medication that may or may not work and also to do blood. They said that the blood work might be covered by Anthem, but that they wouldn't know until they'd submit it. I said no to the blood work. They also said that I would need to visit my primary care doctor in order to get the proper medical assistance that I need.
I tried calling the assigned primary care doctor that I have listed on my insurance card today three times and explained the urgent care situation to them, only to be transferred to a number of other departments. Somewhere along the way, I was informed that the aforementioned primary care doctor (the one that Anthem assigned to me) cannot take in any new patients and is a pediatrician, and that I would have to call Anthem (the member services number that is listed on my insurance card) in order to be assigned a new primary care doctor.
I called the member services number (supposedly Anthem) that was listed on my insurance card twice. They informed me that it was the Marketplace number, not the Anthem number. The customer care specialist gave me the Anthem number, which is located nowhere on my insurance card.
I tried calling that Anthem number, which is a sales number. I will try calling again during their business hours tomorrow and hopefully they can redirect me to the correct number/department to assign me a new primary care doctor and get me in for a sick appointment (instead of a new patient appointment). Either way, I should not have to contact so many people just to be assigned a new primary care doctor and to schedule a sick appointment for symptoms that were serious enough that I originally needed to visit an urgent care. Anthem's current phone number is located nowhere on my insurance card - why is this?
I also want to clarify that yes, I double-checked all of these phone numbers before dialing them, and I dialed them exactly as they are printed on my insurance card. My insurance card simply has inaccurate information for a current primary care doctor and Anthem's phone number.