Cancer Insurance

buckeye2
buckeye2 Member Posts: 428 Member
in Breast Cancer #1
I believe that the insurance agencies who sell cancer insurance are taking advantage of people's fear of getting cancer in the selling phase and then taking advantage of the stress of cancer patients in the settlement phase. I was sold a Cancer policy on three premises: 1) there are many expenses associated with a cancer diagnosis not covered by insurance. 2) a cancer diagnosis is a stressful time without being burdened with financial difficulties and we pay you directly..

Buying the policy in Oct. of 2010 turned out not to be very lucky for me as both my husband and myself were diagnosed with cancer this Spring. Since that time I have found that the first premise is correct, there are many expenses not covered by insurance. The problem is that the cancer policy pays the policy holder direct which requires the cancer patient to bill the cancer insurance company. This is extremely difficult due to the unique restrictions put on what they reimburse. For example they reimburse for surgery based on something called a "surgical unit". So the policy holder has to get an itemized bill with this information to the cancer policy company in order to be reimbursed. Secondly the process for getting any reimbursement is held back with bureaucratic minutiae. They have requested the same paperwork from me three times. At this time I probably have six hours invested in billing for reimbursement and have received $75.00.

This leads me to my point. I believe this cancer policy is counting on the stress associated with cancer to disable the holder from getting through the processes necessary for reimbursement. Because I believe I am being harassed based on my disability, I am mad. Are any others out there having similar experiences with their cancer insurance. Lisa

Comments

  • cinnamonsmile
    cinnamonsmile Member Posts: 1,187 Member
    #2
    I would contact your state
    I would contact your state legislature representatives and the insurance comminsioner for you state, and the better business bureau. I can not stand companies that do things like this. There is no reason for it other than greed. I would say to contace the heads of the bogus insurance company as well, but since they are living off of your dollars, they probably don't care and know what is going on. I am truly sorry for you would be mad as heck if I were you, too. If you feel you are being harassed based on your disability, I think you should report that as well. Really.....three times for the same paperwork? What did they expect to find ???? Would like to know their reasoning for that one...
    Good luck to you...
  • joannstar
    joannstar Member Posts: 403 Member
    #3
    I bought Aflac
    and have had pretty good experience with it. Bought it just 3 months before diagnosis. So far I think it has paid about $19,000 which has definitely been helpful. My agent helped me file the necessary papers and I was paid per their schedule: $300 per radiation treatment, $350 per chemo, $140 for the anthesiologist during my lumpectomies, a onetime $5000 payout for first cancer occurrence, etc. I also had fairly good insurance through work last year, so I consider myself lucky in that aspect.
    Perhaps your agent can help you.
    Good luck,
    JoAnn
  • mollyz
    mollyz Member Posts: 756 Member
    #4
    joannstar said:

    I bought Aflac
    and have had pretty good experience with it. Bought it just 3 months before diagnosis. So far I think it has paid about $19,000 which has definitely been helpful. My agent helped me file the necessary papers and I was paid per their schedule: $300 per radiation treatment, $350 per chemo, $140 for the anthesiologist during my lumpectomies, a onetime $5000 payout for first cancer occurrence, etc. I also had fairly good insurance through work last year, so I consider myself lucky in that aspect.
    Perhaps your agent can help you.
    Good luck,
    JoAnn

    I had one
    MY husband took out a cancer policy on us years ago thru his work well we really had for got about it and in the middle of me going thru i started looking thru our policies you know trying to make sure of what we had and i noticed we had one, well with a lot of papers to be filled out and 3 months of mailing the same papers to the company and the person i was suppose to be mailing it to kept saying he wasn't receiving it so i finally sent it so he would have to sign for it ,well that was the end and we received a check for $17.000 in a few days and that was a REAL big help on the bills we paid off a few little ones and caught up on everything the only thing about it is once it pays off like that it doesn't pay off again. MOLLYZ
  • buckeye2
    buckeye2 Member Posts: 428 Member
    #5
    I appreciate the replies.
    I appreciate the replies. Persistence pays off. Sometimes I think I was sent this challenge to learn patience. Lisa

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