Weird phone calls from my health care provider.

So this is my first post, please everyone go easy on me. To start I have been insured under Kaiser Permanente for almost my whole life im 29. 3 days ago I started getting very interesting calls from them. I get an automated message telling me to call a toll free 1-877 number they have some very important questions to ask me. So I call and after verifying that it's me I start getting asked some very odd questions. Feelt more like a mental stability test. Question:1 What weighs most heavely on your mind, personal relationships, finance, my personal well being?
Question:2 What is the first thing on my mind in the morning when I wake up?... I ended the call there. Is it just me or is this info that our doctors really don't need to know? Am I just being paranoid? Has anyone else had this happen? To me it feels like they are trying to catagorize me. For what I have no idea, I do have a few theories...

Wow that is a truly strange phone call! What was your response?

Did you recently switch from your parents' plan to your own? Any changes at all in your coverage?

KP is known to do a lot of "mental wellness" studies, but random phone calls seems odd.



I'd love to know what you responded.

reply to post by LifENcircleS


I answered the first question. Saying that relationships weigh heavy on my mind. After the second question I ended the call. It was all automated multiple choice.

reply to post by captaintyinknots


I had to switch plans when I was droped from my dads when I turned 21. I stayed with KP. I have seen that they do alot of mental wellness stuff but never anything like this. Random calls at 8:30pm it's like a telemarketer.

Originally posted by JAY1980
reply to post by LifENcircleS

 

I answered the first question. Saying that relationships weigh heavy on my mind. After the second question I ended the call. It was all automated multiple choice.

VERY interesting. An automated survey like this seems shady. obviously no one has to paticipate, but this doesnt seem right.

Perhaps it is an attempt to test the level of unrest in the country?

reply to post by JAY1980


Wow. I would have hung up on them too. I had Kaiser call me out of the blue recently as well, but they had medical questions, nothing to do with my state of mind. My call wasn't automated though.

Are you absolutely sure that you dialed into a KP number? It sounds like a scam of some sort. I would contact KP and ask them about the nature of the survey.

reply to post by captaintyinknots


My thoughts exactley. If it was a real person contacting me different story. But being automated sounded sort of shady. I cant find the number they had me call anywhere. Its not on my Kaiser card or listed on there web site. Not really sure it was even Kaiser anymore... They said they were though. But they never asked for sensitive info.

I would definitely call back and ask to speak to a supervisor. Tell them you have concerns about some of the surveys being conducted.

Ask them if they are aware that "someone is wasting company time inquiring about my first waking thoughts." and I would add " surely this must be a joke.

Tell them you consider this harrassment and you would hate to have to involve your attorney! Wait for their response.

Originally posted by paxnatus
I would definitely call back and ask to speak to a supervisor. Tell them you have concerns about some of the surveys being conducted.

Ask them if they are aware that "someone is wasting company time inquiring about my first waking thoughts." and I would add " surely this must be a joke.

Tell them you consider this harrassment and you would hate to have to involve your attorney! Wait for their response.

Thank you for the suggestion. I may call back later to try to get a real person on the phone. It seems to all be automated but maby if I just sit on the line I might get an operator like the cell phone company. Just one bit of info I forgot to mention. They verified me by my phone number not my kaiser number. They also knew my full name, but my phone isn't under my name...

I definitely would have hung up immediately!

You ought to send them a bill for about $65.00 or so, you know, like they would charge for an office visit. Explain it is for your time spent on their survey, even though you didn't finish it.

That outa take you out of their survey lists!

Just out of curiosity, did you do a reverse lookup on that number? Most the time you can just type it into google and confirm who owns it. There were some scams going around a few years ago for credit card customers. A robo call would start it, calling back the number would get an operator who would ask personal information for identity theft.

Not saying thats what it is, just curious if the number actually goes to your insurance providers call center.

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
You ought to send them a bill for about $65.00 or so, you know, like they would charge for an office visit. Explain it is for your time spent on their survey, even though you didn't finish it.

That outa take you out of their survey lists!

Winner!

Seriously though, that was a very weird and suspicious "survey". Quite possibly it was a "phishing" attempt instead. Hanging up was your best option in that case.
Following up with KP and asking them if they were cold-calling their subscribers is a good plan to find out it they were really conducting these "surveys". ( Personally, I doubt it. )