Hoping someone can help provide direction as neither my old job nor new job is providing clear enough answers.
The quick background is that I learned in January my position was being eliminated. A bit of a gut punch after so many years with the company, but given The Great Resignation, I quickly found a better job. I was even able to move up my start date so that my termination (and end of health insurance 1) was on February 25th, and my new job started February 28th with me being eligible for benefits starting March 1st.
Questions I haven’t been able to get direct answers to:
Do I need to purchase COBRA to cover the 3 day gap between jobs/insurance plans? It is available to me, but from what I understand it’s unnecessary in my case as the only way medical conditions that were covered by the old plan could be seen as “pre-existing” by the new plan is if the gap was 63 days. My wife is especially concerned as we would quickly go bankrupt with all her health issues if her conditions and/or prescriptions stopped being covered. My old employer’s HR said they were 90% sure we’d be fine. I am not a gambling man (except for that little bit I threw into crypto for the hell of it). Would have preferred a clear answer here. How do we handle continuing doctor’s appointments and refilling prescriptions if we don’t have new insurance cards or even member numbers yet? Just today, March 7th, I was finally in the system for my new job to select my benefits. I have no idea how long until this gets processed and we get new insurance cards/member ID #’s, but I assume not until after my enrollment window has closed (another two weeks or so). It will retroactively cover us starting March 1st, but there is a concern that going to an appointment without any new info or trying to refill a prescription at this time will result in not having it covered or being hit with several thousands in bills. New job told me to just tell anyone asking that our insurance has changed from Anthem to UHC and we’ll give them the info when we have it. I’m rather uncomfortable telling doctors offices and pharmacies to just “put it on our tab” like this. How should we really be handling this? Should we hold all procedures until we get new info? Pills, unfortunately, can’t be put on hold as these are absolutely needed daily. We’re worried the pharmacy will deny them. We already had one (luckily not a hugely important one) not get filled as the old insurance is no longer active.
I greatly appreciate any help from kind strangers. I want to ensure my wife is taken care of and can keep all her appointments and fill prescriptions the over the next few weeks, but I am admittedly clueless when it comes to the details of how health insurance works.
submitted by /u/CaptainRockout
[link] [comments]Hoping someone can help provide direction as neither my old job nor new job is providing clear enough answers. The quick background is that I learned in January my position was being eliminated. A bit of a gut punch after so many years with the company, but given The Great Resignation, I quickly found a better job. I was even able to move up my start date so that my termination (and end of health insurance 1) was on February 25th, and my new job started February 28th with me being eligible for benefits starting March 1st. Questions I haven’t been able to get direct answers to: Do I need to purchase COBRA to cover the 3 day gap between jobs/insurance plans? It is available to me, but from what I understand it’s unnecessary in my case as the only way medical conditions that were covered by the old plan could be seen as “pre-existing” by the new plan is if the gap was 63 days. My wife is especially concerned as we would quickly go bankrupt with all her health issues if her conditions and/or prescriptions stopped being covered. My old employer’s HR said they were 90% sure we’d be fine. I am not a gambling man (except for that little bit I threw into crypto for the hell of it). Would have preferred a clear answer here. How do we handle continuing doctor’s appointments and refilling prescriptions if we don’t have new insurance cards or even member numbers yet? Just today, March 7th, I was finally in the system for my new job to select my benefits. I have no idea how long until this gets processed and we get new insurance cards/member ID #’s, but I assume not until after my enrollment window has closed (another two weeks or so). It will retroactively cover us starting March 1st, but there is a concern that going to an appointment without any new info or trying to refill a prescription at this time will result in not having it covered or being hit with several thousands in bills. New job told me to just tell anyone asking that our insurance has changed from Anthem to UHC and we’ll give them the info when we have it. I’m rather uncomfortable telling doctors offices and pharmacies to just “put it on our tab” like this. How should we really be handling this? Should we hold all procedures until we get new info? Pills, unfortunately, can’t be put on hold as these are absolutely needed daily. We’re worried the pharmacy will deny them. We already had one (luckily not a hugely important one) not get filled as the old insurance is no longer active. I greatly appreciate any help from kind strangers. I want to ensure my wife is taken care of and can keep all her appointments and fill prescriptions the over the next few weeks, but I am admittedly clueless when it comes to the details of how health insurance works. submitted by /u/CaptainRockout [link] [comments]Read Morer/HealthInsurance