Wal-Mart’s In-House Insurance Deceives Employee Expecting A Child
My husband’s employer was having open enrollment and we elected to switch over to his coverage for that reason. I called the number for the Wal-Mart BCBS insurance and asked how many more payments I needed to make to pay the insurance through September 1st (the date my husband’s coverage would begin). After that I sent in the full payment amount and assumed we would be covered through the delivery. My daughter was born on August 21st. It wasn’t until receiving several delinquent notices months later from the hospital that we found out the insurance was NOT paying our bills. Upon further investigation into the matter we were told (by Wal-Mart BCBS) that we had only paid enough premiums to cover us through August 14th! I was shocked and infuriated! We went through an appeal process to no avail. When I requested free legal services through an agency they actually got Wal-Mart BCBS to admit it was THEIR error, not mine in calculating the premiums, but they refused to correct this error and pay the medical bills. When we named them as a third party (because the hospital was suing ME) they claimed the ERISA Act stating as long as I was employed by them, and they were contributing to my 401k, I could not sue them. I was told by my attorney that the case could be taken to a higher court, but because he worked for the state I would have to find and pay someone to represent me. He said there were no guarantees of winning against such a big company and recommended I file bankruptcy instead. Reluctantly I did. I have never elected to restart coverage since then. Even though I recently divorced and am a single mom to five kids, I have applied for and received insurance coverage through the state.
—anonymous
