http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice Responses to many of the common questions we receive on a daily basis. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:38:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 en i recently resigned from my job and my new job does not offer a group health insurance so for the time-being, i will be signing up for COBRA from my old job. my wife and son have been overseas for the past 3 years and were not living with me so i did not bother to include them to my previous existing group health plan (BCBS MI). my wife and son plans to join me soon, probably within the month. to complicate matters, my wife is pregnant. BCBS have advised that I can only add them on in June or July during open enrollment. on top of that, she still needs to go through the 6-mos waiting period. this would obviously mean she won’t be getting any coverage well past her due date. the question is: is there any other way of going around this? can I add my spouse and son directly to COBRA on their date of arrival without waiting for open enrolloment? http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/without-open-enrollment/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/without-open-enrollment/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:39:51 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5433 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/without-open-enrollment/feed/ If a child coverage is dropped because a parent loses employment. Can the other parent add the child to his/her insurance, is there a waiting period, or a time out period? http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/child-coverage/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/child-coverage/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:56:10 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5431 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/child-coverage/feed/ My company used to pay 50% of my health insur when I participated in group plan with 2 others. I am the oldest in company of 6 total. One person moved away so only 2 of us on health plan. Too expensive for me, even at 50% so I changed to HSA health insurance plan/high deductible plan (1250 deductible) which is lower price than previous plan. Is it okay that company still pays what they used to pay for my expensive plan, even though it’s now more than 50%? What about each year when my plan cost increases? The second employee took out his own HSA/hdhp too, but he is younger and male and company is still paying what they did for his former plan, but it is more than 50%. Should company be expected to increase their contribution each year and if so how to calculate? The two of us took out cheaper plan for us and for company, but we also assumed a high deductible which the previous plan didn’t have. How do we figure this out…what is fair. http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hsa-health-insurance-plan/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hsa-health-insurance-plan/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:03:32 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5428 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hsa-health-insurance-plan/feed/ My husband is having his insurance with Blue Cross under employee sponsored group plan. We live in NJ. His bypass surgery claim has been denied for pre-existing condition. He had been treated for high blood pressure only until the heart attack on Jan 2009. We moved to US during Jul 2007.Between July 2007 to Jan 2008 we were having our insurance plan with United Health Care and since I lost my job in Jan 2008, we had to move to my husband’s insurance plan with blue cross. Please help us as the bill amount is ~157K. http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/health-insurance-claim-denied/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/health-insurance-claim-denied/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:26:33 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5425 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/health-insurance-claim-denied/feed/ My insurance company raised my rates for 2010, but did not notify me until January 7th. They admitted in the letter that they failed to notify me and gave me the first two months of the year at the 2009 rate. If I had known about the increase I would have cancelled and joined the insurance offered by my wife’s employer. However, the enrollment period has passed. Is there a deadline for when the insurance company must notify you of an increase? As I mentioned, I would not have accepted the increase if they had notified me in a timely manner. Their delay caused me to miss the enrollment for my wife’s insurance. Can I legally force them to honor the 2009 rate because they waited so long to tell me about the increase? (I live in Georgia) http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/insurance-company-rates/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/insurance-company-rates/#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:50:41 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5418 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/insurance-company-rates/feed/ I am on Cobra insurance thru my former employer. My former employer has changed carriers from Aetna to United Health Care.I still have 6 months eligable for Cobra. My question is: Does my Cobra carrier change to UHC? Or do I stay with Aetna. No one can give me an answer. Please help. http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/cobra-insurance/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/cobra-insurance/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:57:33 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5308 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/cobra-insurance/feed/ Hello, My wife and I recently moved from DC to California. My wife elected to chose COBRA coverage from her former empolyer. They have now changed insurance to Blue Cross. Will Blue Cross be able to deny her coverage based on a preexisting condition (she has mild crohns)? She has been insured under group coverage for the past 4 years with no gaps in coverage. Secondly, I am beginning a new job which offers health insurance. My wife is due to have an outpatient surgery to remove stiches from a inpatient operation from October 09. Is there any chance my new anthem hmo will cover the procedure, even though im sure the surgeon is out of their network? We are thinking of keeping my wife on cobra until after the procedure? Does this sound like a good plan? http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hmo-anthem/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hmo-anthem/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:14:57 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5243 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/hmo-anthem/feed/ I have a single employee, currently enrolled in our health plan, who is getting married to someone who does not work with us in April. He wants to drop our health insurance group plan in favor of joining his bride’s when he gets married. But he has asked our business owner if we would be willing to pay his new wife’s monthly premiums. He’s arguing that it would be cheaper for the company to do this instead of carrying him and his wife on our health care, and our boss likes the idea. Is this legit? My boss sees it as a money saver. But I am worried that it could be discrimatory (would we be open to having to pay everyone’s spouse’s premiums?), or even possibly illegal. Are we going down a road we don’t want to travel? I’m not an HR expert, just the poor guy assigned to these duties in the office, and I really could use some guidance. Thanks http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/drop-health-insurance-group-plan/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/drop-health-insurance-group-plan/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:11:00 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5207 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/drop-health-insurance-group-plan/feed/ I am a freelancer and have been searching for a way to get group health insurance through an association or any other way possible. I am unable to obtain individual health insurance as I have a pre existing condition (bicusped aortic valve of the heart). I am out right denied by every health insurance company. In the past I have been covered under group insurance plans under whatever employer I was working for. I have tried to get covered by the American Marketing Association and the Association for the self employed etc, but have not been able to find a way to join a group that has a group insurance policy. I feel that there must be others in my position somewhere that have formed a group and started an insurance plan for those in the group. Does anyone know a way for an individual to find a way to join a group health insurance policy? Thank you! http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/get-group-health-insurance/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/get-group-health-insurance/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:29:48 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5203 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/get-group-health-insurance/feed/ in california, will my two employees be required to submit their medical records for a group health plan? Or will the insurance company contact any of the medical databases to check up on each employee to determine premiums? http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/medical-records-for-a-group-health-plan/ http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/medical-records-for-a-group-health-plan/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:38:17 +0000 QA http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/?p=5202 http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com/advice/medical-records-for-a-group-health-plan/feed/