Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Kick ‘en Again, Post-Underwrite Him, Pt.5 – What should be done?

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Had these victims been denied at the onset, they could have either kept their former health insurance, or paced their treatment to where they could afford to make gradual payments and even searched out less expensive treatments outside of ‘network’. They could have even searched out another health insurance carrier and secured reliable coverage. But, because of their reliance that they had good health insurance, it becomes too late to fix. Instead, now they are “forced to try to seek coverage after his or her health status has changed significantly.” Good luck!

The current process allows the health insurance provider to conduct medical history investigations and qualifications well after the patient is deemed ‘qualified’. The patient isn’t even privy to this happening and is, appropriately, lead to believe everything is all right. After all, isn’t this the purpose of signing all those release forms? Imagine the patient finding out that the ‘reasonable investigation’ didn’t even take place until after medical treatment was needed, performed and billed. Then they are informed by their health insurance provider that they are ‘on their own’. This can lead to quick devastation.

This ‘post-claim underwriting’ turns out to be an ‘opportunistic’ practice for some health insurance providers, culminating with catastrophic consequences to the injured or sick consumer. These providers who practice this policy of not performing proper risk-assessment until after the ‘winning horse crosses the finish line’ should be made to accept responsibility for ‘due diligence’. If they deliberately delay risk-assessing investigations until after expensive medical treatment is needed, they should bear the brunt of blame. It was not the patient who decided that they wait for a more opportune time for an investigation. Except in cases of fraud, the providers should stick with their own commitments offered in the policy they sold.