National Jaundiced View of Elderly Health Care May Be Spreading to Warren County — and Elsewhere?

As I read through the continuing news about Luigi Mangione’s arrest in Pennsylvania, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a recent New York City shooting incident, I got to wondering how we in Warren and neighboring counties were faring health-wise in our local systems, mainly for the elderly – dare I say like myself – who rely on Medicare and its add-ons through private-sector companies for health care benefits coverage.

As noted in PBS and other coverage of the Thompson murder: “Police say the words ‘delay,’ ‘deny’ and ‘depose’ were scrawled on the ammunition investigators found at the scene, echoing a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.”

And in a related report from Minnesota-FOX9 affiliate found online it was noted that: “A new poll shows most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share responsibility for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. However, not as much responsibility as the person who shot him.”

And in the wake of these reports, I didn’t have to go far to find a GLARING example of described systemic abuse of a colleague and friend’s Medicare Part B coverage believed to be in place thru Blue Cross/Blue Shield since his 1998 retirement from a federal government job. That long-established Medicare affiliated provider now says that Malcolm Barr Sr. owes them for medical costs apparently spanning 551 days of lapsed coverage. How that coverage “lapsed” is an astonishing story.

But first a little background: Malcolm Barr Sr.is a resident of Rockland on Warren County’s north side. He is a retired Associated Press reporter who was stationed in Honolulu and Washington D.C. before joining the federal government in D.C. as a press secretary to Hawaii representative Senator Hiram L. Fong (R-Hawaii).

Barr, at the end of his Associated Press days with colleague Jim Lagier (left), as he leads a nationwide strike against the AP in 1969. Courtesy Photos the Barr family

For the past several years to keep from boredom in his federal retirement, Malcolm has contributed articles without compensation to the Royal Examiner and other local news organizations. But after his recent experience with Blue Cross/Blue Shield he may have to start asking for compensation for his work. Just kidding, I think. Because, as he puts it in his native British slang, he recently came “an unexpected cropper” at the age of 90 when, without notice, his insurance company canceled his 20-plus-year-old Medicare Part B coverage that he’d signed up for on retirement in 1998.

In fact, my retired reporter colleague, now aged 91, said it took his private-sector carrier more than two years to notify him that his Part B coverage was canceled upon the death of his wife in 2022. And further, that without notice his insurance had been transferred to his wife’s similar coverage, which she signed up for upon her retirement from the federal government four years after her husband stepped down from his federal government position.

Malcolm Sr. with his late wife, Carol, during a visit to the White House. Both were accepted, separately, for Blue Cross/Blue Shield Part B coverage, he in 1998, she in 2002, both upon their federal retirements.

“From Day One, when I received my Medicare Parts A and B coverage, and for 20 years, I was allegedly covered for hospital and medications at Valley Health and elsewhere according to the ID card I was issued in 1998, and mostly my benefits were paid without question for all of that time.

“Then, last fall, I was turned down for a medication claim at Walmart’s pharmacy counter for the first time since 1998. Three days later, I received formal notification by mail  that my coverage had been discontinued upon my wife’s passing more than two years earlier and that I owed possibly thousands of dollars for services rendered under my late wife’s Part B insurance program following her death.

“Never, in all those 20 years, did my insurer tell me that they had terminated my personal insurance and transferred me into my wife’s Part B coverage. So that’s why I’ve found it necessary to obtain legal help to prevent my insurer from milking my personal retirement fund due to a policy cancellation they took two-and-a-half years to advise me of!” Barr told me, his voice and blood pressure appearing to rise simultaneously.

“And that on top of an unrequested policy rearrangment they NEVER informed us of relating to my wife’s 2002 retirement,” Barr added of the 20-year gap Blue Cross/Blue Shield hadn’t bothered to notify he or wife Carol of the switch from his own policy to his wife’s initiated several years after his retirement.

I found myself drifting back to the impetus for my initial inquiry on his healthcare coverage in the wake of the UnitedHealth Care CEO murder, and thinking silently that perhaps fortunately, unlike Mangione, Barr doesn’t own a gun! — But I was probably projecting my own initial negative impulses upon hearing such a story, sorry, Malcolm.

But Barr is acquiring legal assistance to deal with his Blue Cross/Blue Shield Medicare Plan B initiative to charge him for coverage he should have had in place without the involvement of his wife’s coverage.

Reflecting a life-long affection for and commitment to animals in need, Malcolm Barr Sr. poses with one of his dogs, Diva, a female husky.

I imagined myself in a “Perry Mason” TV courtroom style drama as the Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s CEO wasn’t carried out on a stretcher but called to the witness stand to respond to Malcolm Barr Sr.’s story of the two-phased adjustments to his Medicare coverage neither he nor his wife were ever notified of … until 551 days after her death during which time Blue Cross/Blue Shield apparently paid for coverage they now assert no longer existed.

So, Mr. Blue Cross/Blue Shield CEO, over to you: How can such a scenario as Mr. Barr Sr. describes possibly have occurred? And how could it have been allowed to continue for more than two decades without any input or OK from Mr. Barr or his late wife for Blue Cross/Blue Shield-initiated changes made after approving his own Part B coverage in 1998?

Appendix: The writer has been informed that on New Year’s Eve Malcolm Barr Sr. called Blue Cross/Blue Shield in response to a mailed letter from an employee named Donna Brown, described as “a recovery specialist”, seeking more payments from him to defray company Plan B expenditures they claim were uncovered in the wake of his wife’s death. A phone number was included inviting a call back “if you have any questions.”

Needless to say, Mr. Barr Sr. had questions. He told us that after nearly an hour of conversation with the Blue Cross/Blue Shield representative of Ms. Brown who answered the call, that rep passed his questions “down the D.C. road” to the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to which Barr was given a contact number. At this point through the New Year’s holiday transition from 2024 to 2025, Barr has yet to contact an OPM representative on his situation with Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Medicare coverage.

Stay tuned, sports and health insurance coverage fans. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.