Do Not Be Late Paying The Premium

Things Not To Do With Your Health Insuranace

DO NOT BE LATE PAYING THE PREMIUM

Foremost and most importantly, do not be late paying the premium! Most health insurance companies do offer a 30-day grace period before they will terminate you. This does not mean that the premium is not due until the end of that time. Your premium is due on the due date noted on the bill. Many insurance companies have the premium checks going directly to bank "lock boxes" and it can take up to two weeks for the check to post to your account. If your policy has lapsed for non-payment you will not have coverage. What that means is if you go to the doctors office or hospital for medical care, and they call the insurance company to verify benefits, they will be told that your coverage is not in force at the time. Believe me, that will be an inconvenience for you! Medical emergencies cannot be planned and you simply do not know when you will need emergency care. Make life easier on yourself by not jeopardizing your health insurance coverage. Also on this note, I recently had a gentleman tell me that his coverage was presently paid to the end of May, but his insurance company would extend benefits to him for an additional month when the policy ended. Not so I advised him. The 30-day grace period means they will not terminate you on June 1 if your premium is not received by June 1 - but will give you 30 days to get the premium in. It does not mean that they will provide coverage to you for an additional month at no charge. If you do not pay the premium, you will not have coverage. It is that simple.

DO NOT LET YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE LAPSE

More importantly than the obvious reason for not letting your insurance lapse is the fact that if you have continuous coverage you will not have a waiting period for pre existing conditions when you purchase a new plan. Thanks to the HIPPAA law, which was passed in 1996 - you can change health insurance plans and not have a waiting period for preexisting conditions as long as you have had continuous coverage for 12 or 18 months, depending on the type coverage you had. This means you can have insurance from your employer - quit that job, continue benefits under NJ Continuation or COBRA, then purchase an individual plan when COBRA runs out - and then get a job again with a company that offers group health insurance and you will not have a waiting period for preexisting conditions. If you quit one job, elect not to continue your benefits, and then several months later get a new job with health insurance coverage, you will have a waiting period for pre existing conditions. Last week a young woman called our office wondering if her new insurance company could impose such a waiting period for her as she just became eligible for coverage under her new employers' plan. She had elected not to continue her benefits from her former employer when she left that job, as she did not wish to pay the premium herself. Now she is most annoyed that she has a six-month waiting period for anything preexisting. If you elect not to have insurance coverage you are electing to expose yourself to the risks from which that insurance is there to protect you.

DO NOT PUT YOUR ID CARD IN A DRAWER OR THE FILING CABINET

Health insurance ID cards should be kept with you at all times. The commercial for the American Express Card sums up the idea perfectly - Do Not Leave Home Without It! Even if you are one of those rare people who memorize all the numbers in your life - like drivers license and health insurance group and ID numbers, you should still carry the card with you at all times. You may have the number memorized, but will you really remember it if you are suddenly taken to the hospital? What if you have had an accident, or your physical abilities are compromised? Not only does your ID card provide an excellent source of identification, it also alerts the medical personnel caring for you as to what type of coverage you have. This will be especially beneficial if your plan requires notification or pre-certification if you need certain tests or are admitted to the hospital. If you go running or cycling take the card with you. Tuck it into a sock - but make sure if you do not have your wallet or handbag with you, you at least have the card somewhere on you. You can request a duplicate card from your insurer which is a great idea for those of you who are very active and may benefit from keeping one in your wallet and another in your backpack/ bicycle bag / etc. Speaking of which, if you lose your card, call for a replacement immediately. It may take a few weeks for it to arrive, but you will make life much easier on yourself to order a replacement when it is missing than to wait until the morning you have a doctor's appointment and can't find your card.

DO NOT THROW OUT OLD ID CARDS OR EXPLANATIONS OF BENEFITS

Tempting though it may be to toss the old ID card into the garbage when you get a new one, this is ill advised. Better to toss it into a file folder appropriately labeled with the insurance company's name and the dates that insurance was in force. You will be glad you did this, when suddenly out of the blue, you receive a bill for medical services rendered several months (or years!) ago and need to know what insurance company was in force at that time. If you keep a file with the explanations of benefits from the insurance company in chronological order it will be much easier to find the notice from the insurance company showing what action they took on the claim.

Irene Card & Betsy Chandler share the responsibilities of running Medical Insurance Claims, Inc. a health insurance services company. If you have questions relative to this column or other related topics, we invite you to call (973) 492-2828, or visit our web site at www.miconline.com.