Blue cross blue shield of tn and baby linux (updated)

(updates are always at the bottom)

As you know, if you've been following along, I switched to linux at home. It's gone swimmingly. Really enjoying it. I decided to start looking at what I need to do to do the same at work.

One issue I have is in my current position, as well as in my last several jobs, I am the insurance administrator. So I'm the guy that you tell when you add a dependant, change coverage, whatever. Then I go online, fill out the appropriate form, and boom, you're covered or not covered. Currently we are using Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee ( http://www.bcbst.com )

Below is what you see if you access the employer's site (the part I use almost exclusively ) using firefox 2.0.0.7 using windows xp:

page ( https://ehealthservices.bcbst.com/common/brownotcompat.asp )

Incompatible Browser Type or Version

Your browser type or version is not currently supported by this application.

If you wish to gain access, please download a free supported browser from the following link.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

While that link up there is javascript and I'm not ganking their broken code, trust me when I tell you it goes to the wrong place. You might as well go to http://www.microsoft.com/givemeanerror to get the same page.

I started this fight a while ago. I asked them why I had to use ie only to access their pages. The tech support guy knew nothing of the details of it. I dropped it and used ie when I had to access the site.

Today I had an insurance related question (how do I terminate coverage and start elective state continuation coverage --which turned out to not be a seamless thing -- I have to terminate the employee's coverage and then completely reenroll them...) so I called them. After I got my most bizarre response I asked again about the ie issue. I told them I am going to switch to linux and he said I wouldn't be able to access the site at all.

Sorry, no dice.

We discussed this for quite some time, even with me bringing up the fact that we have the ability to look elsewhere for coverage. It's a corporation, he didn't care. He said almost as much. All he could tell me was his name was Chris. I'm sure he's the only Chris there. Good thing too because accountability in such a position is pretty important.

I finally asked to speak with his supervisor. I was put on hold.

I did not get to speak with his supervisor, she told him what to say. It didn't please me. It was the same thing he said.

I asked him who I need to talk to for resolution of this issue or at the very least a technical answer. He knew of two people. One was the head of web development is I believe what he said. He rang him. voicemail. He rang the other. Voicemail. He offered to take my information and have one of them call me back. I gave him the info and thanked him for his time. On a side note I did not and do not hope to give him a hard time. I just wanted to find out the answer.

Later, that same day...

I received a call from someone. He didn't properly identify himself when I answered the phone and he never took me off speakerphone. Have I ever mentioned how rude that is?

I answered the phone, "This is John"
He said something like, "This is [beats me, couldn't hear him]."
I knew who it was but I said, "How can I help you?"
He mumbled and finally said "Blue Cross Blue Shield"
I said, "Oh, the IE only people, right." then I explained that I was wanting to switch over to linux and wondered how I'd get my job done.

I'm just going to give the high points.

nope, there were none. Better start with the low points.

According to him they farm all their programming out and it costs them less (and yes, he even said "To keep our heath insurance costs down" I shit you not. ) and he mentioned that if they supported all the browsers it would cost more. he said that if supporting one browser cost X then two would be 2X and three would be 3X.

Now in addition to my duties as insurance administrator I'm a programmer. And I mostly program web pages. And I know that the only way that logic works is if you start with fucked up design.

He wasn't even aware that the web site didn't work with firefox. He thought Safari (mac) was the only major browser not supported (and he stated that it would never ever be supported), but he said that most of his users used ie on windows so they support that one mainly but they do also support netscape. I asked why on the error page it only pointed to Microsoft's ie. He didn't know of the error page in question so I brought it up and read it to him. Clicked the link and lauged. "Your link to ie is broken as well. You might want to look into that."

I think he was aggravated at this point and wanted to end the call and call me back after he "gathered more information." I said that would be fine.

So the problem is I won't be able to access the web page using IE if I switch my work machine to linux.

The solution is I try netscape and if that works, cool.
The problem is I can't get netscape to run on linux at home. To further complicate this subproblem is while trying to figure out how to get it to run it seems (only by heresay) netscape tells web servers it is firefox, not netscape.

So what to do what to do? Well I installed a user-agent spoofer in firefox and as long as I tell it I'm running netscape 4 the site works. This fixes _my_ problem but not _the_ problem.

See, there's more to it.

We also do medical billing. And sometimes that is through blue cross blue shield of tennessee. And guess what? IE only. So what do we do there, just not bill bcbs of tn when they owe us money? Well, no, that's not a workable option. Do I teach everyone how to spoof their user agent? Isn't that a bit rediculous to have to do?

No, just code the site properly and quit with the "pay to play" game of forcing Microsoft down everyone's throats. People think linux users are overzealous. Where do linux programmers force anyone to use anything? I've yet to see it.

In other news, I have cancelled all of my own personal insurance through BCBS of TN and will never go back until they get their heads out of their asses.

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==Update==
Trevor called me today and informed me that they are working on Firefox compatibility and should be done by the end of the month. He noted they would call me back and let me know about the progress.

So I take it back, Blue Cross Blue Shield of TN isn't the devil. They are working to correct the issue but the first lines of support indicated otherwise.

So I say hats off to BCBS of TN, and a great big thanks for going the extra mile to support open source software and its users!