Retroactive Health Insurance Cancellation??

[emily1990]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina - but company is in maryland.

I was recently layed off (4/1/09). My employer provided health insurance for me and my family (since 2007). I recently received a bill from a healthcare provider for a charge that was incurred in 2008 and called the insurance company to find out why they had not processed the payment. They proceeded to inform me that my health insurance was recently (5/1/09) canceled retroactive back to November 2008???? They just processed a claim last week - which is confusing. They (the insurance company) informed me that I needed to talk to my former employer who did not inform me that the insurance was going to lapse and further (according to the insurance company) told them to retroactively cancel the policy? Is this legal? what happens to the claims between the retroactive cancellation date and today? Am I entitled to Cobra and if so, will it cover me during the period of time I was employed but obviously without benefits? And does my employer have to initiate anything?

[cbg]

We need more information, and it's information that you can only get from the employer. Go back to them and find out first, whether what the insurance company said is true; second, what is the reason for the retroactive cancellation if true; third, can they supply you with copies of any notifications that may have been sent out and fourth, was this cancellation only for you or for the whole group. You also need to look at your pay stubs from November through March and see whether there were any premiums deducted for health insurance. Finally, see if you can get a look at the plan document (the employer must, by law, provide you with a copy on request) and see what it says about cancellation.

I know that's a lot, but when you get the answers to those questions, come back and we'll take it to the next step. There are too many different ways this could go with what we have now.