Medical Insurance Got Cancelled!
I am desperate for some help and am not sure who to call for help. My husbands employer made a paperwork error that caused our insurance to be cancelled on Aug 31st. We were given no warning and found out a week after it had been cancelled when I went to get a prescription filled. We have been told that they (BCN) will not reinstate it. An appeal has been filed by my husband's employers insurance agent to have it reinstated but they do not seem hopeful that it will be. We only have 30 days from the time of cancellation to get into another policy or with my son's pre-existing condition we would have trouble getting coverage for him for 6 months. They are trying to push us into getting insurance through my employer. Problem is the coverage is considerably less than what we had and my son would not be able to see any of his existing doctors here locally and in CIncinnati. They are telling us that in 3 months, if the appeal does not work, they can re-write another contract or policy and get us the same insurance again (Is this true?). Meanwhile they want us to take the insurance through my employer. I don't know if I can believe this and am afraid we will get stuck with my employer's insurance. Who can I call to get some answers? Please, can anyone give me some advice? I have called lawyers but they say that is not their specialty and that medical insurance issues are a very specialized area of law. Can someone give me a name or direct me to someone that can advise? Thanks for any help.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ginny Ward on
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Whew, that is a mess. First call your State's insurance commissioner and file a complaint. Ask them what they can do. Second, call your State representative or Senator and ask if they can help to straighten this out. Third, contact Family Voices at http://www.familyvoices.org/states.php?state=OH, or call Carol Keltner, (937) 208-7547, chkeltner@mvh.org
Just keep opening doors until you fall through one with a solution you can live with. Not sure what the new health bill might be able to do for you. Ask your State Representative or Senator or the Family Voices people.
Contact all three or four first thing tomorrow. Then send them each a thank you note reiterating the issue. Keep track of who you write to, hear from, calls, everything. It matters when you have records.
Let us know how it goes.
Ginny.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Barnett on
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Thank you! I called Family Voices (in Michigan) and they are making phone calls and trying to help us through this. They did also tell us to definately call the State Insurance Commission and that is my next call. Will keep you posted.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Shumsky on
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If worse comes to worse Karen whatever you do make sure you get SOME insurance before the 30 days go by, the last thing you want is for the duchenne to be a pre-exsisting condition on whatever insurance you get. Even if you go on your insurance for a short time. Good Luck and we'll be praying for you!
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Permalink Reply by Cheri Gunvalson on
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I thought legally they had to offer you COBRA ie where you can keep the policy for 18 months but you pay all of the premium. You may want to ask the insurance commissioner about it.
Ginny Ward said:Whew, that is a mess. First call your State's insurance commissioner and file a complaint. Ask them what they can do. Second, call your State representative or Senator and ask if they can help to straighten this out. Third, contact Family Voices at http://www.familyvoices.org/states.php?state=OH, or call Carol Keltner, (937) 208-7547, chkeltner@mvh.org
Just keep opening doors until you fall through one with a solution you can live with. Not sure what the new health bill might be able to do for you. Ask your State Representative or Senator or the Family Voices people.
Contact all three or four first thing tomorrow. Then send them each a thank you note reiterating the issue. Keep track of who you write to, hear from, calls, everything. It matters when you have records.
Let us know how it goes.
Ginny.
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Permalink Reply by cheryl cliff on
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Karen,
Any luck with this yet? Such a worry!!
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I thought you'd like to know. Starting today, a sweeping number of provisions of Congress’ health care reform act, the Affordable Care Act, begin to take effect. They are broad, consumer-friendly provisions that will help extend health care coverage to more Americans and deny efforts to take that coverage away. One provision is insurance companies are not allowed to drop children with preexisitng conditions. That said I understand some insurance companies are now dropping childhood single policies to avoid paying for preexisting conditions. Cheri
Cheri Gunvalson said:I thought legally they had to offer you COBRA ie where you can keep the policy for 18 months but you pay all of the premium. You may want to ask the insurance commissioner about it.
Ginny Ward said:Whew, that is a mess. First call your State's insurance commissioner and file a complaint. Ask them what they can do. Second, call your State representative or Senator and ask if they can help to straighten this out. Third, contact Family Voices at http://www.familyvoices.org/states.php?state=OH, or call Carol Keltner, (937) 208-7547, chkeltner@mvh.org
Just keep opening doors until you fall through one with a solution you can live with. Not sure what the new health bill might be able to do for you. Ask your State Representative or Senator or the Family Voices people.
Contact all three or four first thing tomorrow. Then send them each a thank you note reiterating the issue. Keep track of who you write to, hear from, calls, everything. It matters when you have records.
Let us know how it goes.
Ginny.
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Cheri,
We cannot get Cobra, as my husband did not lose his job. The appeal was denied. We are getting insurance through my employer but the co-pays and deductables are substantially higher (thousands more a year). No out of state coverage. My kids local pediatrician is even considered Out of Network. My husbands employers insurance agency said that they can re-write another policy is 3 months to get back on the same kind of policy. I don't know if they are just telling me this to appease me or what. Seems unlikely that an insurance company that jumped on a mistake to "dump us" will ever give us another policy. I don't know how that works though.
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He doesn't need to lose his job to get COBRA. I am decreasing my teaching load by choice next semester and I will then need to go on COBRA untill next fall when I am back to the FTE % for healthcare coverage so COBRA should also work for you as its a federal policy.
Karen Barnett said:Cheri,
We cannot get Cobra, as my husband did not lose his job. The appeal was denied. We are getting insurance through my employer but the co-pays and deductables are substantially higher (thousands more a year). No out of state coverage. My kids local pediatrician is even considered Out of Network. My husbands employers insurance agency said that they can re-write another policy is 3 months to get back on the same kind of policy. I don't know if they are just telling me this to appease me or what. Seems unlikely that an insurance company that jumped on a mistake to "dump us" will ever give us another policy. I don't know how that works though.
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ps It is illegal not to offer COBRA coverage I believe.
Karen Barnett said:Cheri,
We cannot get Cobra, as my husband did not lose his job. The appeal was denied. We are getting insurance through my employer but the co-pays and deductables are substantially higher (thousands more a year). No out of state coverage. My kids local pediatrician is even considered Out of Network. My husbands employers insurance agency said that they can re-write another policy is 3 months to get back on the same kind of policy. I don't know if they are just telling me this to appease me or what. Seems unlikely that an insurance company that jumped on a mistake to "dump us" will ever give us another policy. I don't know how that works though.
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I know if you fall below full time to part time you can also go on Cobra. The insurance agency told us we were not eligable for Cobra.
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Did they state why Karen? Seems as though that can't legally be the case.
Karen Barnett said:I know if you fall below full time to part time you can also go on Cobra. The insurance agency told us we were not eligable for Cobra.
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They said because he did not lose his job.
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