HMO gripes

Since rejoining the ranks of the employeed about 6 months ago, I've rediscovered the joy of health insurance. This also means rediscovering the wonders of insurance company incompetence.
Earlier this morning, I looked online to make sure vision insurance is part of my health coverage. I also looked online to see if there's any way I could find an eye doctor covered in network. No such luck.
This meant I had to make the dreaded call to customer service.
I've worked in customer service. In a way, some of the stuff I do now qualifies as customer service. I suppose there's some element of customer service in lots of jobs. It's not easy.
Yet still, I marvel at the level of roadblocks involved in dealing with health insurance.
My first call to Humana involved lots of hold time and dealing with some poor woman who sounded like she had a cold. Before even talking to someone, I had to navigate through a series of options just to get to a live person. After spending entirely too much time on the phone, I was given the name and phone number for an optometrist in Oak Park, a short jaunt from my home.
Upon calling the phone number, I found out it had been disconnected.
Great. Time for a second call to customer service.
Upon navigating through the phone maze a second time, I again got through to a live person, who provided me a list of four working phone numbers for eye doctors less than half a mile from my home.
Why couldn't I get this during the first call?
My theory? Health insurance companies deliberately frustrate patients. They figure by sending folks in an endless path of paperwork, they can reduce claims. Therefore, less claims equals more profit.
At any rate, I at least have an eye exam scheduled next week. Yay for dealing with health insurance stupidity.