insurance woes-companies that are self insured

I know that a lot of people are having a lot of insurance problems. Some of the problems are due to companies that are self insured. We have an insurance card that is Blue Cross Blue Shield. But we are not actually covered by them. I have found out that large companies use them or others as a third party but they are actually self insured to save money and DO NOT COVER the things that BCBS would actually cover on their own. They are also not goverened by the United Ststes insurance commission!!! They can do anything they want to save money. They are however governed by the Labor Division of the U.S. Noone will tell you this!!! My husband works for UPS- and we were told we have BCBS as an insurance. So we submitted our claim to them and were told they do cover this if medically nessery. But when we called to ask if our claim had been labeled by the medical board we were told that Central States had not allowed it to be sent to the medical board and had it sent directly to them. We asked who is Central States? and found out it is the UNION where my husband works. After looking thru the site here we found out they always deny the claims --thru the third appeal. These claims I doubt are ever seen by a medical board at all. So I am in the prosses of informing them I have called the Labor Board.. After all appeals are done then I can turn it over to them. I thought others might like to know this. Please feel free to contact me if this helps you or if you have questions, Jackie Bishop [email protected]