Insurance Terminated for nonpayment

[buntemployee]

What is the name of your state?Pennsylvania
It has come to our attention that our health insurance benefits were canceled last month(December 1, 2004.) Several employees have contacted the insurance company to inquire. They were told by representatives that the group policy had been canceled due to non payment. The company has allegedly not made a payment for several months. The owner of the company told us that it was just a glich, that the company had changed brokers and that it should be resolved by the end of the business day(January 13, 2005). We have, according to our paychecks, have been making our premium payments to the company. There are several employees that have had surgery. My questions are: What can we do to resolve this problem? How long should we wait to see if the problem is resolved? Do we have any legal rights?

[cbg]

Cancellations for non-payment happen considerably more often than many people realize. It's considerably easier than the average Joe or Josie realizes for a glitch to work its way into the system, anything from a shortfall in cash flow at the employer's end to an absent employee in the posting department at the insurance carrier's end. The majority of them are resolved before the employees ever know about it. Sadly, after working with group health insurance benefits for 25 years, I don't see anything even remotely strange about a non-payment cancellation after a change in brokers, assuming that the broker is involved in the payment process (which is not always the case, but does happen).

Since the employer has said it will be resolved by the end of business on the 13th, give it till the 20th or so to allow for mailing and posting. If it is still not resolved, you can complain to your state insurance commission and/or the Federal DOL.