Been Had by Health Insurance

[tippymn]

What is the name of your state? MN
My co-workers and I are alittle upset with our health insurance, and were wondering if 'bait and switch' applied to insurance??
Our co decided for money reasons to drop our PPO plan and go with another company plan called 'LaborCare' and told us our coverage and network would not change, and that our providers would be the same. And they issued new insurance cards with the LaborCare on it and our current doctors. Well, after the May 1st deadline, we were issued new cards with Drs from the Planned Parenthood as our new doctors, since they are the only ones in town who accept Laborcare. We live in a town with one of the Nations largest health clinics and we also have another huge health clinic, neither of which accept LaborCare. Basically we have health coverage that isn't worth the paper it's written on. We are mad here at the office, and to help 'appease' us the National Office is asking us to pay our bills and then send them to them and they will in turn 'force' payment through the insurance co. I think it sounds fishy. And when we asked if we could change and go back to the Managed Endimity plan we were told we have to stay with this one and have no choice...which is not what we were told previous. WE all feel as if we are getting the run around and we would like to know if this was legal.
Thank You

 

[Beth3]

Nothing illegal has happened to the employees. Your employer is free to change their insurance plan, including what providers are covered or in-network.

Now if the insurance carrier misrepresented the specifics of the plan to the employer, then your employer might have a claim against the insurance company. The likelihood though is that all the particulars of the new plan - what's covered and who the providers are - were included in the contract the employer signed with the carrier. It sounds more like the employer (and their broker) didn't read the fine print before making the switch.

I don't know how your employer is going to "force" the new carrier to pay for medical bills from providers not included in the new plan but they're free to try. If I were you, what I'd be concerned about is the carrier refusing and the employees left responsible to pay these charges in full.