Lessons Learned from New Insurance Cards

This past summer my wallet was stolen from my van. One of the things taken was my insurance cards. I called the insurance company and they sent all of us new cards. I had assumed it would be just a replacement, but the same number. WRONG! I found this out the hard way. I am 29 years old, and I obviously have so much to learn. I hate learning things the hard way, but it’s something that happens often.

My youngest daughter was born in May and my husband was supposed to go to his employer and get her on the insurance shortly after she was born. He failed to do this because we were so busy with our new normal that is escaped his mind, and a few months later the bills for her vaccines and checkups start rolling in. When we realized this, he went in to put her on the insurance.

He went in to the office to get her put on and they tell him that they needed to see her social security card. Guess where that was! It was stolen with her mommy’s wallet. So, we were going to get her a card as soon as possible.

In order to get new social security cards, you have to have birth certificate. We had our paper to order one, but had not gotten one yet. This is where you find out what bad shape we have been in financially. A birth certificate costs $15.00 here and we did not have an extra $15.00. That is so sad, but it’s true. This is the old way of how we managed our money, we didn’t. Pay day was a week away, so we waited.

We got the birth certificate and went to the social security office the next day to get the cards. Once the cards were in our possession, Todd took them to his employer to get Taelynn put on our insurance. This ended up happening about 4 months from the day she was born, so that was a lot of money already racked up in the few doctor’s visits we had. We had waited too long, and we are still waiting to find out if they will make it retroactive.

In the meantime, I had cut my hand on a glass and went to the emergency room. All my information for insurance was in the computers at the hospital from when I had Taelynn just a few months earlier. I didn’t even think about the fact that my new cards may have a new number. Also, my boys had gone to the doctor for strep tests, and my husband Todd went for blood work. Here come the bills. They looked like insurance had not covered anything.

Of course they didn’t! We had a different number now. That was not a fun way to discover this. We have spent the past few months calling insurance company, medical billing for different places, and we can barely keep these things straight. I think as of now, all of our bills are in the process of resubmitting the new insurance numbers. We are just waiting in limbo for the time being.

After we had Taelynn put on the new insurance, the new insurance card was given to the doctor’s office at her 6 month checkup. A few weeks later, we get the bill and it says that insurance did not cover it. Are you kidding me? I was so upset and confused. We called the insurance company and we were informed that Taelynn’s insurance isn’t effective until January of 2013. This was 4 months after we put her on. We asked them why, and they tell us to talk to our employer.

Todd talked to his employer and the lady at human resources says that doesn’t make sense and she is going to talk to a slew of people to get her covered back to when we put her on the insurance. They are going to try to make her insurance retroactive from the day she was born. Honestly, if they don’t, we understand that was our mistake, but she should be covered when we did put her on.

It is so overwhelming and irritating because all this is hanging over our head. We are just waiting now to find out what will be covered. And, we are still making calls as new bills come in for Taelynn. This could have all been avoided. Like I said earlier, I am very good at learning things the hard way, the very hard way.

Thanks for letting me ramble about my insurance nightmare! I hope it helps you to avoid one if you ever need to order new cards! Remember, the numbers will change!

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