Definition of Ironic: My health plan hired a third-party administrator to collect medical records from a provider for an insurance claim I made. The provider needed a signed release from me to provide MY medical records to the third-party to then provide MY medical records to my health plan. The third-party contacted me to have me sign the release form which I did and sent back to them. I asked the third-party if I can also get a copy of MY medical records that they are obtaining, with MY signed permission, to give to my health plan (always good to have copies of records). Third-party’s response: “You can ask your contact at {Health Plan} about receiving a copy of the records since we are not authorized to release records to anyone but the requestor.”

Score 10 points to inefficient illogical health insurance industry.