Frustrated

Tonight I opened my mail and discovered that my stupid insurance company has denied coverage for the lab work that my primary care physician sent me for because I didn't have a referral. Since when do you need a referral for lab work? The order sheet that the doctor signs isn't good enough? Not to mention that it was my primary care physician sending me for the lab work, not my specialist, who by the way has sent me for lab work numerous times and there's never, ever, been a problem. The total is apparently only $45 but that's not the point. The point is that now I have to spend my valuable time on the phone with the morons at the insurance company arguing over why they should pay for the lab work. It was just routine stuff from a physical, but it's been 2+ years since I've had a physical and I've switched primary care physicians; I'm entitled to a physical. OK, maybe entitled is a bad word, but we pay a lot of money every month to have health insurance. I'm a healthy individual and rarely go to the doctor so they are making money off of my premiums. I should be able to get a physical complete with lab work without having to call and fight with the insurance company. This is the problem with our stupid insurance system, they deny stuff like this in hopes that people will think, "$45 or time spent on hold waiting to be transferred all over the place in the hopes of finding someone who will tell you, we screwed up and should have covered in the first place? I'll just pay the $45". Someone once told me that someone they knew who was high up in one of the major insurance companies said that they routinely deny something ridiculous like 20% of claims just because people will get frustrated and not fight it till its covered and thus they make big bucks not covering stuff they should have paid for. Heresay, I know but I have no reason to doubt the person I heard it from. I HATE insurance companies. I wish we could go back to the good old days where physicians charged a reasonable amount and you paid for their services when you received them, like when you pay your accountant to do your taxes or your mechanic to fix your car. Anyway, tomorrow's task will be to call and try to remain pleasant while telling the mental midget on the phone that they denied a claim they should have paid. And I almost hope they tell me they're still not going to pay it because then I get to give them a piece of my mind.