Paying for insurance that I don't actually have

[Maryjrose]

I have been paying for insurance (deducted from my paycheck) for about 4 months now through the company that I work for. It is vision and dental insurance, and 1800md. I tried to use the dental insurance today and the dentist said that my insurance has been cancelled since Sept 1st! The 1800md insurance had been cancelled on Oct. 23. They were cancelled for no reason, and it is still being deducted from my paycheck bi-weekly. What are my rights? Do they just need to rectify the problem? Reimburse me for what I've paid? I sent an email to the corp. HR tonight. The 1800md problem took about a month to rectify, with the HR saying I was enrolled, and the insurance saying I wasn't. But now I find that I do not have dental&vision that I pay for. I better check my life insurance too.

 

[cbg]

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have gotten calls or emails from employees telling me that their dentist, doctor, or eye doctor says their insurance was cancelled, only to find that the dentist, doctor or eye doctor was looking at the wrong account, the wrong account number, or insurance from a previous employer but the same carrier and that the insurance was in place all along. Almost as often, particularly with our dental carrier, the insurance HAS been cancelled, but not because of anything the employer did, but because the **** dental carrier screwed up. You got a little time, I'll tell you about one mistake on the carrier's part that screwed up about 120 employees. They almost lost our contract over that one.

So before you go in with guns blazing demanding reimbursement, it would behoove you to POLITELY report the problem to your HR and see what they are able to do to fix it.

 

[txls]

If you signed up for insurance and somehow it didn't get recorded, they should be able to fix it and get the coverage and it will be backdated. It happens.

 

[zddoodah]

They were cancelled for no reason

Nothing in the history of the world has ever happened "for no reason." There's always a reason -- even if you don't know what the reason is or it's a dumb reason.

What are my rights?

Attempting to compile a list of rights would serve no useful purpose whatsoever.

Do they just need to rectify the problem? Reimburse me for what I've paid?

I'm not sure what "reimburse me for what I've paid" means, but your employer should pay to you the money that was deducted from your pay for the cancelled insurance (assuming this wasn't a screw up by your dentist as suggested by "cbg"). Whether you are eligible to have the coverage reinstated depends on facts not included in your post.

 

[ElleMD]

I would also suggest you make certain the provider had the current card for the current policy (75% of the issues I get are because the card on file is outdated, especially if there is a change in carrier), that they inquired using the correct name (Mary Jane Rose and Mary J. Rose may sound like the same person to you, but may not to the carrier), and the provider was in the network.

 

[ferretrick]

I can tell you that I have had employees come in to me with similar attitudes to yours, screaming that they don't have insurance they are paying for. 100% of the time it has either been their doctor's office's error, or their own fault for using the wrong card. And-I work for a small company, so I don't have that many people to keep track of. HR and insurance companies are people too and they make mistakes. Do you like being attacked every time you make an error? Then maybe calm down, report the problem to HR politely and ask for their help getting it fixed. You catch more flies with honey.