While I'm driving the Gloom and Doom bus, I'll blog about something else that I have found can be even more scarier than cancer. My insurance company is trying to prove that I applied for insurance with them under fraudulent terms, and then drop me without paying for any of my coverage.
Here's the back story. It has been my good fortune to become acquainted with several individuals who have the inside "know how" on how insurance companies work (one of whom works for and insurance company herself). When I began to sense trouble on my own insurance front, I consulted the bunch of them and here is what they said:
"Insurance companies are in the business of making money. They are not interested in losing money on any patient for any reason. If you are self-employed (as I am) and you have an individual policy (as I do) and you get cancer (as I did) they will move heaven and earth to drop you. This is because you are a lone little nobody without a group to back you therefore making you easy pickings for the kill. People at the insurance company are specially trained to weed out lone cancer patients like you."
In my case, my insurance company has frozen all payments to any of my doctors pending a five year review. According to my friends in the know, this means that the insurance company will closely examine all of my medical records for the past 5 years, and then try to catch me in a lie from my initial application. Not only will they be looking for evidence that I lied about having cancer, but they'll also be looking for any tiny foothold to prove that I lied about anything and then will drop me.
The stories: One lady was dropped by her company after they discovered she had not disclosed a visit to a psychologist. When she asked them how that could have anything to do with her current cancer, they said "You were probably depressed about having cancer." They promptly dropped her from coverage.
Another woman was dropped when the insurance company learned that she had fudged her weight on the initial application by 10 pounds. They declared this "fraud" and dropped her even though it had nothing to do with her cancer.
An third woman was given consent for a cancer surgery by her insurance company and proceeded with it. Afterwards, the company demanded a 5-year-review at which time they rescinded their approval of the procedure, refused to pay for it, and left her holding the $40K bag. Spiffy!
I have no idea what my own status is. Limbo I guess. I get letters in the mail every day explaining that payment is being held pending examination of the records. Sad stuff, huh? I'll keep you posted as the saga unfolds.
Paix - Jen
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