Insurance Question?

I have BC/BS of Alabama through my emploer. On Feb. 28th 2006 I will be losing my job as it is moving to Atlanta. As part of our severance package we will receive 3 months of company paid COBRA insurance. And I was wondering if anyone has had them cover weight-loss surgery. I know that BC/BS of Ala. will cover it as long as i finish my 6 month supervised diet (which I will have finished on Feb. 10th). I have all of my other paper work in order according to the insurance coordinator at my surgeons office. My surgeon is Dr. Al Spaw with the Metabolic Surgery Center. Just thought I would ask if anyone would have any thoughts on this. Thanks. Larry

Hi Larry! Yes, if your current plan covers the surgery, you will be fine. COBRA is just an extension of your current plan. It is not a separate plan and nothing changes. It will still be BC/BS. The only difference is that normally the entire cost to keep your plan comes out of your pocket. If your company is including three months free, that is great. If you do not have surgery within that time frame, you will have to pay to keep your insurance out of your own pocket. I don't mean pay your medical expenses. I mean the expense to have the insurance (like car insurance). Right now, you probably pay for insurance through your pay check. Your company also pays their share for you to have insurance (you just don't see that amount). When you leave a job it is the law that they have to offer you to keep your insurance (they call it a COBRA option). But, your employer doesn't have to pay their part anymore. If you want to keep your insurance, you have to keep paying your part that you have always paid from your check as well as the cost your company has been paying for you. That is happening to me. My company is being sold and I will be losing my insurance (Cigna) and job next year but my company is not offering to keep paying my insurance for me like yours. I will have to pay the entire amount of the premium monthly to keep my current insurance. I will do that though through COBRA because my current insurance covers the surgery. I don't want to change plans and lose that. It will be a couple hundred dollars a month. You can expect that the total cost for your insurance is about double what you are paying out of your check. Sorry if I confused you. I am trying to explain it right. Let me know if I didn't make sense or if you have any questions. I am fairly familiar with the process. The main thing to get across is that COBRA is not an insurance plan just an option for you to keep your exact same plan but pay for it (or in your case your employer will pay for it for you). Misty

Thanks alot for the information. I was getting worried that I would only have that short time span between me ending my diet and when I lose my job to have surgery. Do you know for how long I can keep paying for the COBRA option? Is there a time limit as to how long I can pay it myself? Or should I contact my HR department? Thanks

You are welcome. Usually you can keep it for up to a year. But, depending on how long you were with you job and your companys limits it could be longer. As far as I know, it is never less than a year. You should get the exact time frame from your company or if you have already gotten any severance papers, it should be listed in there. You might want to find out the cost too from your company so you will be prepared. I am not sure what hospital you are going through but I would almost guaranty that by time you ended your diet, you will have surgery in those next three months. The only thing you will have to worry about is aftercare appointments if you chose not to keep the COBRA option after the three months that your companys pays it for you. I hope this helps. I guess we are going through something similar. I am a little stressed about having surgery because of my job ending. My job will more than likely end before my 6 month diet is up so I will have to pay Cobra for a couple of months for surgery. Unfortunantley, my insurance plan is not cheap. I am not looking forward to that. I wish you luck and success with your upcoming approval and surgery. Misty

Thanks again for the information and the best wishes. I am kinda glad its happening out the way it is if my insurance will cover the surgery. At least I'll have the proper time to recover from surgery without trying to jump back into work as soon as I can. A couple of months off from work to adjust to the new lifestyle will be very welcome. I currently have an call into my HR specialist to find out the exact cost of what my COBRA will be. Hopefully he can tell me but if not I'm sure it will be included in our final packet we get in Feb. Well thanks for all the info. and I wish you best with your up coming approval and surgery. Best wishes. Larry