Cover Your Butt

Hello, everyone! I am Brianna Stephenson, a biology major at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina and I am the new intern at C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition.

When I arrived at C3 in early September, my first assignment was to contact health insurance companies and ask them these simple questions:

• Do you cover colorectal cancer screenings and treatment?
• How much funding, or coverage, does your company provide for colorectal cancer screenings and treatment?

I was thrilled that this first assignment did not involve something too difficult like quantum physics. I thought that it would not be that hard to find information about an insurance company covering colorectal cancer screenings and treatment.

I was wrong.

For the past month, I have called health insurance companies that are a household name and some that I did not know existed.

This is how a typical call has gone:
Minutes 1 – 15: Try to find the right person to talk to.
Minutes 16 – 20: Speak to a representative who was confused by the questions or refused to give any information because I wasn’t a customer.

I really sympathize and empathize with patients who are given the run around from their health insurance providers – all the while either battling cancer or trying to keep from getting it.

Some health insurance companies I called were surprisingly closed to any communication and did not reply to any of my messages (I’m talking about you, Humana, CIGNA, United HealthCare, Kaiser Permanente, PacifiCare, Altius, and Celtic).

Others such as Aetna, Alliance Health, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Unicare, and Asuris Northwest Health gave me partial answers. What I learned for sure from them is that they do offer screenings and treatment, but coverage was conditional based on patients’ situations. And this bothered me: the amount of coverage a patient gets is determined by the type of insurance plan, the individual’s age and the individual’s family medical history. Most patients I know didn’t plan on getting colorectal cancer when they were purchasing their health insurance policies. If the American Cancer Society recommends that colorectal cancer screening begins at the age of 50 (even earlier if they exhibit symptoms of colorectal cancer or are at high-risk for getting it), why should it matter which plan they have? Their butts are covered, or they aren’t.

The companies’ web sites are about as helpful as their customer representatives. If you’re not a member, it’s hard to know exactly what the options are.

I have this question for those of you with private insurance: Are you absolutely certain that your insurance company covers your butt? Before you answer that, it is probably a good idea to look over your plan and your health insurance company one more time.

And remember, even if your butt is covered today, IT IS NOT GUARANTEED. Only Congress can guarantee your covered butt. Please go to the Take Action page and tell Congress to Cover Your Butt.