My health coverage insurance for many years has been through deductions from my retirement income through the State Employees Retirement System [SERS]. Up until that time, the cost of the insurance was staggering, over $800 per month more than my actual retirement benefits. The excess was billed directly to me...and paid in full without fail every month.
SERS offers different insurance carriers for non-Medicare and Medicare. When I notified them about my eligibility for Medicare, they switched my coverage from one to the other resulting in a substantial savings. So much savings that my retirement benefits now cover the entire cost and I even get a small check every month as well.
I'm happy about that.
For several months during that period I was suffering with some extreme back pain and was seeing my chiropractor for regular adjustments. I was contacted by the chiropractor a couple of weeks ago and informed that the original health carrier had requested a refund of the payments they had made on my account for the four month period that I was covered under Medicare. I explained the situation and advised him to bill the new carrier. Oops! The new carrier says I wasn't covered until December. So there was a four month period of no health coverage. I was advised to have the chiropractor bill Medicare directly. I haven't heard what Medicare had to say about it yet. I was also going through the kidney surgery about that time... I haven't heard anything about that either and it makes me a little nervous.
So since I wasn't covered from August through November, I wonder when I'm going to get a refund of the $5094.20 that I paid the original insurance carrier for coverage during that period. Something's not right with this picture....
No comments:
Post a Comment