Has this ever happened to you?

[dreamshark]

A website that you have been using for years to conduct the routine business of your life announces a Massively! Improved!  New! Interface!

You sigh resignedly and continue logging in, anticipating at least an hour of anguish as you try to unsnarl the mess. 

And the new interface actually IS massively improved! Not only that, they have not forgotten your old login, forcing you to start all over creating a new account! You login and pay your bill, and that is that. You don't even have to locate a piece of paper somewhere to find out how much you owe - it's RIGHT THERE ON THE WEBSITE. There is even a link to a list of all the bills you have already paid this year and what they were for, in case you hadn't been keeping track on another piece of paper. The heavens open up and angels sing!

That just happened to me. I think it is the first time EVER. Considering all the complaining I have done over the years about terrible "improvements" to software and websites, it seemed only fair to give credit where credit is due. The website, incidentally, is Health Partners. 

Comments

[dreamshark]

In my universe, the Health Partners website merged with Park Nicollet about 3 years ago, creating a terrible mess. Suddenly I had two different logins that redirected to overlapping parts of the old websites. One of the pieces was called My Chart, but I could never figure out when I needed that and when I needed something else.

Occasionally I had to figure out what my out of pocket medical expenses had been for tax purposes, and I inevitably had to call them for help. It was usually on the website SOMEWHERE, but it moved around from year to year and was impossible to find. I mostly stopped logging in at all unless I had to pay a bill, which could not be done at all without a paper bill in hand.

I was so pleased to discover that HP was now able to keep track of my billing for me that I didn't try looking for my prescriptions. I suppose it's possible that in finally fixing the billing procedure they broke other things.

[minnehaha]

I have only logged into the Park Nicollet website once, so I don't know if it was improved or not.

K.

[pameladean]

We really are in different universes. I have always gotten an email notification that my premium was due, and then I'd log in and pay it. No paper required.

I'd had about ten or twelve years using MyChart via HCMC or I might not have been able to navigate it either. Also different providers use it differently. HCMC had you do all of your prescription stuff on MyChart, whereas with HealthPartners until this newest change, if you wanted to refill an existing prescription you just used MyChart, but if you needed to get a renewal from your doctor, you had to use the HealthPartners website. It's definitely an improvement to have everything on one website.

P.

[dreamshark]

My premium has always been paid automatically from my checking account; I'm talking about co-pays and such. I guess even the old website was able to handle an amount that was exactly the same month after month. But they just threw up their virtual hands in confusion at the idea of figuring out how much an office co-pay might have cost and insisted that you manually enter the amount you thought you owed.

And that business of "you login to HCMC to refill your prescription but have to login to HP to get the doctor to renew it" is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. What nonsense. Anyway, it seems to be better now.