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>A third called the number while I was on hold and assessed it as 'probably fine'

This blows me away. Probably fine? That's the worst possible answer IMO.

yeah it's not great. agent 3 said 'they're not asking for your insurance ID # so it's probably safe'

^this 100% I stopped accepting calls from unknown numbers, stopped reading messages from unknown numbers and every email from unknown contacts marked as spam. I don’t care about their offers and crap. If they need anything important they know how to properly reach me directly and not through agents and random crap.

> teach someone to get phished and they're phished for the rest of their life

This is a keeper.

Part of the problem with this is the horrible business practices and policies in place. In a way, it is urgent that you get back to your health insurance rep or your car insurance rep or whatever private business that's selling you a government mandated service. That phone rep knows that you only have 15 more days to finish your insurance claim, or you've gone past the deadline. Then when you call back, the rep can't do anything. Terrible business policy doesn't allow them to. Something like this happened to me.

I had an issue once with a claim. It was an ongoing ordeal with lots of small meetings and documentation. It was eventually denied. However, I had a rebuttal window. Unfortunately for me, it came during a stressful period of work. I made the initial call to my rep. No call back. I was buried under work, and the 5 day rebuttal window (how absurdly short) blew by without me realizing it. Turns out the rep was on vacation, and after my case was closed, there was no reason for them to return my call.

These issues are never a matter of urgency that should be dealt with in that instance. However, don't let your window of opportunity close due to an adversarial business policy.

I'm not a lawyer, but: if you missed the dispute window because they didn't call you back, I'm not sure you missed the dispute window? In matters of law the statute of limitations often 'tolls', or pauses, once a dispute begins.

out of curiosity which insurer did this + in which state?

> never accept inbound calls

I’ll sometimes accept them, but I will tell callers that I will reach out independently to the institution via a main number to continue the conversation Generally causes the old “the main number won’t be able to forward you to me…”.

I had some healthcare provider just never bill me. 9 months later they called and then asked to verify my identity....by having me give them my social security number. Over the phone. I declined.

he's saying "I am a security expert and I know my bank is insecure, so I don't care if I help someone abuse that insecurity to steal my money."