Cigna wants to know if I have other health coverage...

[Schfifty Five]

Cigna is my main healthcare provider through my work. I have a family plan through them.

I got a letter in the mail from them that they are requesting me to complete a survey to let them know if I have other medical coverage such as coverage under my wife's employer, or medicare, etc.

I'm just curious as to why Cigna would want this information. Does anyone know why? I'm inclined to just respond to their survey but don't know if they need to know this additional info.

 

[rh71]

no reason to provide them answers - you will not benefit.

 

[NutBucket]

I receive this letter almost yearly from Anthem. It has language stating your coverage could be revoked if you don't reply, etc. I think once they did send a follow up letter...or maybe it was a phone call? Anyway, I usually ignore it. At least include a prepaid return envelope you cheap bastards.

 

[Slew Foot]

You mean the survey you never received in the mail?

Theyre just trying to pass the buck onto another insurance carrier in case you actually need something.

 

[BoomerD]

They're hoping you have a spouse with her own primary insurance...even if it's not as good as yours...OR...they're hoping you have another source of insurance on which they can lay off some of your medical costs. (if any)

 

[nakedfrog]

Yeah, standard cost-saving initiative I think.

 

[shortylickens]

I cant imagine any reason how answering could possibly be in your benefit.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Appreciate the responses everyone. I will just toss it in the trash.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Well, that will probably work out okay. It seems likely, however, that they will press you for that information if you do run into significant medical costs and that will just further delay their payment of your medical bills.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Cigna is my main healthcare provider through my work. I have a family plan through them.

I got a letter in the mail from them that they are requesting me to complete a survey to let them know if I have other medical coverage such as coverage under my wife's employer, or medicare, etc.

I'm just curious as to why Cigna would want this information. Does anyone know why? I'm inclined to just respond to their survey but don't know if they need to know this additional info.

The purpose is to see/detect if you have secondary coverage - which could benefit both you and the insurance (Cigna, in your case).

The fact is, I don't know of anyone that would ever have dual coverage of any sort - the only case I could think of is if someone had a government based healthcare (Medicaid, for instance) along with an employer based coverage.

If it's like the letters I have seen like this before, they aren't asking if your wife/spouse/SO has coverage... They are asking if YOU have dual coverage.


EDIT: And to be honest, I don't know quite how it works, but I HAVE heard it can be beneficial for you.... Something to the tune of if your primary insurance covers 80%, the secondary may be able to cover the remainder %. I don't know, and I have no experience here and have never researched the topic since it's unlikely to ever come up for me.

 

[local]

BCBS withheld payment until that information was provided. I finally caved when it was being sent to collections. The ins company just tells the biller that you have not provided the required information to process the invoice and it all gets dumped back on you. I got tired of filling them out as for about the first six months of coverage they sent that damn questionnaire on every single transaction at least two a week. But suddenly I stopped getting them about 16 months ago. That was my experience anyway.

 

[MrSquished]

I've paid a hospital bill off years ago. I was self employed at the time and just didn't have the funds. This was because my gf at the time threw a fucking massive heavy glass enclosed candle at me from close range. She bruised a rib. It felt so painful that it felt broken. I waited two days to go to the hospital. I should have charged her. Oh well. There goes two grand. Easy come easy go.

After it went into collections. I was uninsured at the time. I finally paid it off in full. I've since had two companies contact me to collect payment on that exact bill. You can't fuck with these companies they have all the leverage. After all it's all on your record.

Twice. Two bill collectors contact me for payment on something I settled for full price years ago. This shit can fuck with your life and you have no recourse. Obviously the hospital keeps sending out requests for the money. Which has been paid to satisfaction. You get a hospital with poor accounts payable departments you can get fucked.

 

[pcgeek11]

The purpose is to see/detect if you have secondary coverage - which could benefit both you and the insurance (Cigna, in your case).

The fact is, I don't know of anyone that would ever have dual coverage of any sort - the only case I could think of is if someone had a government based healthcare (Medicaid, for instance) along with an employer based coverage.

If it's like the letters I have seen like this before, they aren't asking if your wife/spouse/SO has coverage... They are asking if YOU have dual coverage.


EDIT: And to be honest, I don't know quite how it works, but I HAVE heard it can be beneficial for you.... Something to the tune of if your primary insurance covers 80%, the secondary may be able to cover the remainder %. I don't know, and I have no experience here and have never researched the topic since it's unlikely to ever come up for me.

Yes this exactly what happens. I have Tricare Standard via retired military and I have BCBS as primary. Whatever BCBS doesn't cover is usually picked up by Tricare. I hardly ever pay.

 

[boomerang]

I find threads like these interesting. The OP has gotten bad advice that he has chosen to go with along with a few replies giving good advice that he has discounted.

 

[Thebobo]

I find threads like these interesting. The OP has gotten bad advice that he has chosen to go with along with a few replies giving good advice that he has discounted.

Well what are the good and bad?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I've paid a hospital bill off years ago. I was self employed at the time and just didn't have the funds. This was because my gf at the time threw a fucking massive heavy glass enclosed candle at me from close range. She bruised a rib. It felt so painful that it felt broken. I waited two days to go to the hospital. I should have charged her. Oh well. There goes two grand. Easy come easy go.

After it went into collections. I was uninsured at the time. I finally paid it off in full. I've since had two companies contact me to collect payment on that exact bill. You can't fuck with these companies they have all the leverage. After all it's all on your record.

Twice. Two bill collectors contact me for payment on something I settled for full price years ago. This shit can fuck with your life and you have no recourse. Obviously the hospital keeps sending out requests for the money. Which has been paid to satisfaction. You get a hospital with poor accounts payable departments you can get fucked.

There are proper ways to pay off debt. The correct way is not to pick one of the random collection's companies and pay them, I believe the answer is always to pay the original source (Hospital) via certified US Mail. There are some resources available for proper procedure.

 

[boomerang]

Well what are the good and bad?

The OP has already made his decision but in case others are not so inclined to rely on advice given through a tech forum I will provide the link below.

https://www.thebalance.com/coordination-of-benefits-2645754

Good and bad is subjective so everybody can decide for themselves which is which.

 

[overst33r]

Coordination of benefits perhaps?

For those saying it will benefit Cigna, it shouldn't as they are "supposed" to treat a claim as if there was no secondary insurance i.e. a claim gets submitted to primary, they pay what they contracted. same claim gets submitted to secondary, they pay what they contracted but only applied to the balance of what the primary didn't' pay.

I still wouldn't respond as you can take care of this at the doc's office.

 

[slag]

You mean the survey you never received in the mail?

Theyre just trying to pass the buck onto another insurance carrier in case you actually need something.

They are trying to minimize their payout, not pass the buck. It stands to reason if you have another insurance option that you pay into, they should help pay the cost of whatever procedure you are having.

 

[NutBucket]

If it's like the letters I have seen like this before, they aren't asking if your wife/spouse/SO has coverage... They are asking if YOU have dual coverage.


EDIT: And to be honest, I don't know quite how it works, but I HAVE heard it can be beneficial for you.... Something to the tune of if your primary insurance covers 80%, the secondary may be able to cover the remainder %. I don't know, and I have no experience here and have never researched the topic since it's unlikely to ever come up for me.

1.) The ones I've received from Anthem ask about everyone on my plan.

2.) Yes, you can have that kind of arrangement but usually it seems to me its most common for folks on Medicare. I know my folks have supplemental Anthem coverage and pay very little OOP aside from premiums.

 

[Schfifty Five]

The OP has already made his decision but in case others are not so inclined to rely on advice given through a tech forum I will provide the link below.

https://www.thebalance.com/coordination-of-benefits-2645754

Good and bad is subjective so everybody can decide for themselves which is which.

I don't check back on these forums too frequently, so the last post I made, everyone said to not fill it out. I didn't see any other "good" advice until just now. I haven't thrown away the survey thing yet, so I can still fill it out if there is a legit purpose for it. I mean the posts in here are definitely split both sides, so can you really fault me for making one decision or another?

 

[dud]

A very common tact taken by insurance companies. They simply want to know if you have duplicate coverage that might be able to save them money on your coverage ... should you file a claim.

 

[deustroop]

It pretty important to answer the questions about similar insurance truthfully especially if you do have separate coverage.Failing to answer may invalidate some coverage down the road and lying would have the same result . You do not want that outcome. Are you in the USA ? Americans may lose some insurance under Donald and should think twice about jeopardizing what they got.
If there is duplicate coverage, Insurers have coordination of policies between primary and secondary insurers covering a particular business risk. They have a right to know as well, to prevent double payments. Double dipping could be both a breach of contract and possibly a fraud. So yeah, answer the questions.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I was double covered for about 4 years. You see, my wife gets insurance through her office, but it's really high deductible stuff.....like $10k for a family. I work for da gubment, so it's a big group policy. My deductible is far more affordable. Because we were double covered, we had a lot of perks like no copays for office visits and a lot of things would end up being cheaper because one insurance company would negotiate a lower rate (or so their letter stated) even though they didn't pay a dime. (Cigna)

Eventually, I dropped my coverage and we are just using my wife's. It's saving us about $4k a year, but would be much more costly if we ever needed any real work done. I may get mine back one day. We're just waiting for these pesky kids to start school to free up another grand+ a month to give to these greedy companies.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

This thread brings up a good point. If there isn't anything illegal with having double coverage can an insurance provider revoke coverage for having it? It isn't like people are out there with seven policies, each being used for paying for something and then expecting the doctor's office, clinic or hospital to send us a check for the excess in payments.