The Letter .

I received my insurance letter today . It went to my old address and was held for 9 days .. and when I am done you will see why those 9 days where so important . This letter ask me to get my doctor to fill out his portion noting as to my illness and re-iterating my time off from work .. my surgery etc .. This letter also mentions that my medical , dental , life and eye insurance is now canceled .. WHY .. because of my lenght of service . How can they do that to sick people .. how can they do this .. my meds , my docs apointments , what if this tumor is cancer.. how will I pay for the treatment .. ?? How can they do this .. all I know is they can .. Alan says it has to do with money ... and business .. I say they have no compassion for sick people . Well , the form needed to be filled out in 15 days . The letter was drafted on October 9th, recieved at my old address on the 11th , and I just now received it . Guess what .. I have 3 days to get this back to my doctor , filled out .. then on to my HR department . This will atleast ensure my sick leave pay until January .. I hope .. and It was also mentioned they could terminate me if not back .. again .. having to fight for every thing .. I am so done .. so over it .. but I will not let them beat me .. I need the money from my pay to get Cobra .. O .. they did offer me to purchase this .. how nice of them .. do you know how much Cobra is >>>???? So I lost 9 days of fighting .. Just pray for me .. that I can get this there in time .. Thanks for letting me vent . Natalie

God has brought you this far, He will not leave you. I'm praying with you

You will get this done. Fax it or overnight it to them. I KNOW how you are feeling, as you know the battles I have had to fight lately. Chin up, girly! Alan's right--all they care about is the money. I love you, J

I admit I don't know much about American insurance etc but how can they cancel your insurance if your company is paying for it? Can your company fight it or are they the ones terminating it? How does this affect your hospital stay in Novermber? Sorry but I am hoping that you can get all your treatment in November and that is has already been approved because the alternative is scary! Jackie

Hey Nat, I hope everything works out for you. I am familiar with this scenario because that is my job. I get to send those lovely letters to people. Did you notify your job of your address change? If you did, they had a responsibility to send your letter to that new address. My company does not allow people on disability to travel without prior permission and if we find out, those letters get expedited. Hope that info helped a bit. Christine

They had it . That is what I do not understand . I am taking care of this today .. and hope that it works out . I just do not know why the person that held this .. held it for so long . I would have notified them if they had a letter like that come in .. I am devistated . Thanks Christine ! Nat

Hey YOU! I can only ditto some of the great advice you've already gotten - FAX the bloody thing, keep a confirmation copy of your FAX receipt, complete with the time and date that it was sent over. ALSO, follow through and 2 day (or overnight) the original back to them, make sure it requires a SIGNTATURE at delivery. The Post Office does that with 2 day mail, for a minimal charge. Christine brought up a great point - IF they had your current address on record, the liability lays with THEM to get this information to you in a timely manner. I would NOTATE on this document, somewhere, that it was sent to an OLD address and the delays are their responsibility ...oh, and make sure that's on it when you fax it. Yes, I have seen the OUTRAGEOUS costs of COBRA ...and that was 20 years ago, I can only imagine how ridiculous it is now. I was laid off from a company Id been with for 10 years, actually - RTC swooped in, hand cuffed the owners, locked the doors and made all 150 employees pack up and leave, on the spot. Unfortunately, it was during the time *1980s* when RTC was out on a witch hunt ...their goal was to shut down every small finance/bank in operation, with a high foreclosure ratio. Not taking into consideration that we lived in the biggest OIL BOOM AREA on the US Maps (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas) ...when the oil boom bottomed out, so did all the home owners who could no longer make their mortgage pmts. Uh, anyway, Im getting side tracked her. I was a single parent with a 8 year old child, rec'd a letter offering me COBRA for a tiny lil itty bitty payment of $600 A MONTH to cover me and my son. Sheeeez, might as well have been a million dollars to me - so I rolled the dice, and Keoni and I went with no coverage for a year (pre-existing clause with new employer). YOUR case is OBVIOUSLY a lot different - as expensive as that COBRA may seem to you now, with the upcoming hospital appointments and the tumor, it might be worth a payment or two, to keep COBRA after January? I'll be there tomorrow, between Patty and I, I'm sure we can get your mind off of it, even temporarily - hang in there! Hugs - Lei

Your in my thoughts and prayers, Tink. I've got faith it will work out. Hang in there! Amber

Nat, Doesn't it just irritate the b'geebies out of you that medical care is now a money-making business rather than a venue for ensuring people's wellness?!!! Don't EVEN get me started. LOL! Fortunately, I've some very good docs who appear to be genuinely concerned about my health. The insurance battle feels endless, however. What you pay to COBRA depends on the premium your company pays for medical insurance. I'm currently paying over $300 monthly for medical insurance, as I opted to take advantage of COBRA when my position was eliminated earlier this year. The up side is that I'll have insurance until December 2007 should I continue to pay on time. Because of HIPPA laws, pre-existing conditions don't apply so long as there isn't a lapse in coverage for more than 90 days. How it works? The premuim is paid to COBRA, and they pays the employer whom you last had medical insurance through. That employer pays the premium to their insurance company. Your coverage is exactly the same as it was when you were working for the employer through whom you're taking advantage of COBRA; you use the same insurance card and everything. At $3,600 a year for insurance, I had to evaluate whether I was really saving money and decided the premium was a small fraction of what I'd be paying without it. For instance; I had a total hysterectomy and bladder repair May of this year, see my PCP on the average of six times a year, have post-WLS blood work taken four times a year because I run and they want to make sure my levels don't drop, and take a couple of pricey medications. Any one of us can do the math and know that I'm saving a considerable amount of money, and that doesn't even include annual visits to the surgeon and GYN. I hope it all works out for you and that you're cancer free! Savanah

I didn't see where I could edit my post to add the following regarding your questions about COBRA . . . so . . . you get a second post from me. LOL! A dear friend of mine is an HR manager, and this is what she said about how COBRA works: "It is actually just continuation of health/dental benefits required by law. So it is called COBRA. Most companies have an "Administrator" that collects the money and manages the COBRA requirements for them. Meaning the payment is mailed to the "Administrator" so they can keep track of COBRA and then they forward the money to the employer. The employer is still receiving the bill from the insurance carrier and that's why they forward the money to the employer. The administrators are the ones that keep track it a person on COBRA stops payments...they then let the employer know for their records. An insurance carrier can call the ex-employer and ask when the ex-employee terminated their insurance coverage. If is it more than 90 days then the insurance carrier can deny them coverage on pre-existing conditions for one year." I hope that address at least some of your questions. Savanah