T
toniom
Guest
My employer (a small corp with 10 employees) deducted health ins. premiums from my check but stopped making payments to ins. company.
I was injured in a mountain biking accident and spent 3 days in the hospital. When I checked into the hospital, I presented my ins. card and no questions were asked.
One month later, I took a new job (with health ins.)
Two months later, I received notice from the hospital that my claims were being denied.
Some digging and investigation revealed that my former health ins. had been cancelled due to non-payment of premium. The insurance company did not notify me of this situation.
Since I didn't receive notice from the insurance co. and my employer was still deducting payments, I believed I had health ins. coverage when I checked into the hospital.
I contacted my previous employer, and he agreed to pay the bills, in light of the fact that he had committed fraud.
I didn't hear anything for nearly two years, and then a collection agency hired by the hospital noified me that no payment had been made and I was being held liable for the total amount due plus interest penalties.
By that time, the company had gone out of business and the owner was in the hospital with a terminal illness (with health coverage, of course). Since then, the owner has died and the widow is claiming ignorance and poverty. (both counts are contestable)
This is an awful predicament. I find it difficult to believe that an insurance company could cancel a policy without notifying its policyholder and that a hospital could admit a patient with and insurance card without verifying the validity of the card and notifying me that it was not valid.
The insurance company knew my policy was cancelled, the employer knew my policy was cancelled, and it seems the hospital would have known that my policy was cancelled. All this, and I had no way of knowing that my policy was cancelled!
How could this leave me liable for the amount due to the hospital? I'm not contesting that the hospital is owed money, I just don't believe it should be my obligation.
Please help!
I was injured in a mountain biking accident and spent 3 days in the hospital. When I checked into the hospital, I presented my ins. card and no questions were asked.
One month later, I took a new job (with health ins.)
Two months later, I received notice from the hospital that my claims were being denied.
Some digging and investigation revealed that my former health ins. had been cancelled due to non-payment of premium. The insurance company did not notify me of this situation.
Since I didn't receive notice from the insurance co. and my employer was still deducting payments, I believed I had health ins. coverage when I checked into the hospital.
I contacted my previous employer, and he agreed to pay the bills, in light of the fact that he had committed fraud.
I didn't hear anything for nearly two years, and then a collection agency hired by the hospital noified me that no payment had been made and I was being held liable for the total amount due plus interest penalties.
By that time, the company had gone out of business and the owner was in the hospital with a terminal illness (with health coverage, of course). Since then, the owner has died and the widow is claiming ignorance and poverty. (both counts are contestable)
This is an awful predicament. I find it difficult to believe that an insurance company could cancel a policy without notifying its policyholder and that a hospital could admit a patient with and insurance card without verifying the validity of the card and notifying me that it was not valid.
The insurance company knew my policy was cancelled, the employer knew my policy was cancelled, and it seems the hospital would have known that my policy was cancelled. All this, and I had no way of knowing that my policy was cancelled!
How could this leave me liable for the amount due to the hospital? I'm not contesting that the hospital is owed money, I just don't believe it should be my obligation.
Please help!