The critical condition of health insurance customer service

Most health insurance companies have plowed resources into self-service Web sites for their policyholders -- Web site portals that display page after page of details on coverage. A handful even provide systems for maintaining electronic health records.

Yet the general perception, even among many industry insiders, is that health insurance providers are not customer-friendly. That's not because there is too much paperwork or too many maddening regulator-driven processes surrounding just about every interaction between providers and their insured.

Rather, it is due to the fact that health insurance companies, by and large, are notorious for neglecting the most crucial element in their customer service operations: delivering straightforward, legalese-free explanations of their underwriting decisions.

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