When it rains, it pours!

I need to be doing some things to make money. Instead I seem to be spending much of my time putting out fires! :-(

Today, a letter arrived in the mail from a medical provider. When we left MO, we lost our health insurance because we had no money to continue with COBRA. As a result, the payments on my husband's CPAP machine were no longer made by the insurance company. The first 3 months worth were turned over for collections long ago, but we haven't heard anything on that lately. Now, if we don't do something, the next 3 months (June, July, August of 2001) will be turned over. This only amounts to about $450 and I was hoping to pay it within the next couple of months. I also want them to file the last month with our current insurance. I don't know if they'll pay it or not since it was pre-existing and there was a gap of more than 90 days between coverages, but I figure it doesn't hurt to try. I just wish I could have gotten to them before they sent the letter!

Anybody got any words of wisdom on how to handle this? From the date on the letter, we probably only have this week to contact them to keep it from going to collections. I do want to find out just how all this works. We got letters last summer that the CPAP and the humidifier were being converted from rental to purchase. I remember that being part of the original agreement, but I don't remember the details. Incidentally, I did talk with someone over a year ago about this (probably the first round that went to collections) and she was supposed to find out something, then call me back. I never heard from her. Now, I don't remember even what she was supposed to find out! I may have notes from the conversation (I usually keep notes), but they are probably buried in storage. :-(

While we are on the subject, there is also a bill from the medical clinic regarding DH's sleep study. It had to be done on two separate nights and was billed as two separate studies, although it was really just one. The insurance will only pay for one. I have been round and round with the clinic on this. I last talked to them back in the spring, but we still get bills. According to the insurance company, we don't owe it. I think there is about $40 that we do owe, but it gets confusing after while!

I just looked at the statements that I can find again... talk about confusing! When I had talked to them last April, they had insurance payments applied to the wrong dr. visits, so it was nearly impossible to figure out what was what. Looks like they went back and corrected those items. When they did, they reaged it even though we didn't make a payment. Can they do that??? I think I did tell them that we wanted to pay what we owe... problem is, I have no clue what we owe! Also, the amount has suddenly dropped from the $335 that we were being billed to $40. I have no idea what's going on. None of this is showing on his credit reports.

Any advice on dealing with this is welcome!

 

Actually, the amount per month of the CPAP rental was far less than the COBRA. It will be two years in February that we left MO and we do have coverage now... got it about 6 months after leaving MO. It's just that the law states that the new insurance has to cover pre-existing stuff if the new policy is taken out within 90 days of the old. We even got a letter about it with verification of coverage. Unfortunately, by the time my husband found a job, the 90 days was up. :-( There still wouldn't have been coverage for the period in between, but it would be certain that one month would be covered!

Oh, and it is a little hard to pay for COBRA or anything else when you have no income! We were working odd jobs when we could for about 4 months. Take a look at my other posts ("NEED HELP! Served with Summons" is the main one) if you want to know the whole sordid story!

 

P.S. Hawg, DH isn't exactly "sick". He has sleep apnea and needs the machine to breathe properly when he sleeps. Otherwise, he snores really bad and stops breathing. Helps me sleep, too.

 

Huh???

 

Well, we blew it on that one! :-( Should have given them the current insurance info to file last summer. I actually don't know when I talked to them so I don't know if we even had that info, but a claim has to be filed within 90 days or it will be denied because it wasn't "timely" filing. Oh, well. I doubt they would have paid it, anyway.

They are willing to take payments spread over 6 months. We should be able to set that up and then pay it all by Christmas. I asked if they report to the CRA's and she said only when it goes to collections. According to what she said, the part that already went to collections should have been reported, but it's not on any of his CR's. Whew! Haven't heard from that CA for a year now, either. It's not that I don't want to pay what we owe, but she said we would have to deal directly with the CA on that, so I'm not doing anything unless they contact us!

And for the record, what the CA says we owe is way, way more than what this current bill is for the same amount of time, so even if we do hear from them or another CA again, they will definitely have to validate!!

 

According to the letter we received, we had a 90-day window in which to change jobs and get the new insurance. Unfortunately, if you are unemployed for a longer period than that and don't continue your insurance under COBRA, you lose out... unless there is something in the law that I am unaware of, which is possible.

 

I see. I think.

 

I just did a search on Google and found this website which has the whole text of the COBRA law listed. In a nutshell, COBRA allows a person who would otherwise lose their health benefits and do not have the prospect of new benefits to continue those benefits for up to 18 months, usually. This allows time to become covered under a new employee or other plan. Sometimes COBRA coverage can be converted to an individual policy. But that's still very expensive, usually.

In our case, we had health insurance through the church that we pastored. When we resigned, our benefits terminated. We had the option of continuing our health insurance through the COBRA option, but chose not to because of the expense. For us, the payments on the CPAP were cheaper than paying the premium for COBRA. We just didn't have the money for either!

 

It was set up as rental equipment so they were only responsible for the month to month rental payment. I would have to go back and look at the policy and check other details to see if they would have paid had the company that provided the CPAP done it as a purchase right from the beginning. That's the part that really gets me. I don't understand why they made it a rental until it was paid for and then converted it to purchase. I guess it's a little late to do anything about it now, although perhaps I could call the insurance company and ask them. Maybe I'll do that next week.