Tag Archives: having your health insurance terminated

Terminal and Terminated.

I realized yesterday that I have had continuous health coverage from the moment I was born until just now–fifty eight years of buying into the American Dream of health and happiness. And it’s hard to believe that one missed payment was the undoing of this longterm relationship–me and my coverage. And given the fact that they cashed the check, I think we can call this a late payment instead. *However, it is important to note (for the sake of accuracy) that I missed the grace period by a few days, not the due date. The due date was May 31st for June coverage. The grace period ended on June 30.

Yesterday I was most concerned about the bills I am now going to face for care, procedures and prescriptions that were procured under the assumption that I had coverage.

Today I am more worried about what lies ahead. If I am not able to reinstate coverage and/or scramble to be picked up by a new insurer by August 1st, I will have to cancel my CT scan on the 2nd. Ditto for the appointment with Dr. Shaw on the 7th, when I would have labs and also pick up my three month supply of trial drug.

This can’t happen.

I am going to get to work on figuring out where I will get future coverage from but in the meantime, I believe it is essential to have my Cobra coverage, in which I have already met my deductible, reinstated. And I am going to ask your help in doing so.

If each of you could send a letter to WageWorks in which you ask them to reinstate my coverage, I would be much obliged.

Say what you like in your letter but here are the facts. Although the termination notice is somewhat confusing, I missed my June payment. The way Cobra works is you have the month of coverage as your grace period but if you do not make that payment by the end of the month, your coverage is automatically terminated.

In my case, I thought I had paid. Because of my short term memory challenges, I keep a ledger of my bills as I pay them and I had checked off my Cobra payment for June. I pay my bills electronically and there are lots of steps to go through for WageWorks and I must have failed to push submit at the very end.

I got home from Montreal late on the 3rd of July and on the morning of the 4th, went online to pay my July premium, only to discover that I had missed June and was now locked out. I immediately called WageWorks and overnighted my appeal the next morning. On the following Monday I called to make sure they had received it and even though the P.O. showed my letter had been delivered, WageWorks could not locate it. I then faxed my appeal and called yesterday to ask about the status which is when I was told my appeal had been denied and that I had been terminated.

If you have access to a fax they can be reached at:

8335146416  ATTN COBRA APPEALS DEPT

If not, please mail to:

ATTN COBRA APPEALS DEPT, WageWorks INC PO BOX 2998 Alpharetta GA 30023-2998

Reference me as Evalynn Linnea Olson, ACCT #22234499. Let them know that this is a matter of life and death. That if I am forced to stop therapy my lung cancer will jump on this opportunity. And so should they—an opportunity to do the right thing.

xo