Bariatric Patients who are Forced to use Form Health
Feedback for Form Health’s leadership and future consumers who are Bariatric patients already under the care of weight loss specialists and forced to use Form Health by their insurance. My company’s insurance plan design now forces me to get my GLP-1 medication from Form Health in order to be covered by insurance. I had Bariatric surgery and have been under the care of a medical practice that specializes in weight loss and where the providers actually spend time on the hospital floor and in the operating room. I’m sure the providers are fine at form health, but virtual is not as personal as in person, no matter the talking points. During the enrollment process, you receive automated or copy/pasted correspondence about the ‘evidence based approach backed by science’ and how great there providers are, as well as canned pdf resources that are intended for people who have no clue about the approach to weight loss (tips, suggestions, all redundant to people like me). This cookie cutter approach does not work for me, as a Bariatric patient. I already have a plan that is ‘evidence based and backed by science.’ They claim the value proposition is the customized plans they create, but there was no customization or proper dialogue that acknowledged my unique circumstance during the enrollment process. There should be a curated enrollment process for patients like me who have to see the local providers for the rest of their lives and only need one medication from form health, as forced by insurance, and don’t intend to use all of their services, because they will be duplicative of the services received from a local practice. As an example, their enrollment process and user interface only asks and allows for the release of records from a PCP and not a Bariatric specialist. They had to manually launch another release. This tells me that they don’t consider the needs of people like me. For example, there is an assumption that you will meet with the Form Health team monthly, when in fact, many patients like me do not currently meet their current care team monthly, as this is excessive and not needed. This is just a way to bill insurance companies monthly. When I asked whether I have to use their dietitian, because I have one, they said I have to meet with them, so I can discuss the frequency of care with this person, which doesn’t acknowledge my current situation, patient choice or need. **Customization of your unique plan seems to stop when you seek to opt out of the dietitian services, even if they are not wanted, valued and a duplicate service, as they want to bill for their monthly charge. The form health team simply replies to inquiries with talking points, cookie cutter answers and no flexibility and keep reiterating their evidence based and science backed program. The fact that you can’t speak with a human over telephone is also terrible, because there is no other way to convey this feedback in a dialogue versus one way written communication. While it is not Form Healths fault for company decisions that are intended to reduce the number people on expensive GLP-1 medications, they need to do a better job at enrolling people who already receive the same and possibly better care then they offer. I would be happy to speak live to someone to share my experience and offer feedback to possibly help further improve their process, but that will be up to them to decide whether they want to speak from beyond the veil of the app. If they did want to speak, they can reach out to me, but I would only speak with an executive who can actually initiate change. I do also plan to speak with the leader at my company who manages this sizable contract/relationship, who I know, to provide this feedback directly to Form Health as well.
