When someone dies do health insurance <span title="companies.....................?">companies...................</span>

Question

delay things? My mother had good insurance that according to her plan covers just about anything under the sun. Her medical card says 100%/0%. The hospital and nursing home even made comments about the fact that my mom had "great insurance". Anyway the claims are still pending after several months. One is for $40,000 for her first hospital stay in Sept. and the other for $59K for the 2nd time right before she died. The hospital says it is normal for claims this big to take a long time and the ins. co. says the hospital has not provided them with info needed. I'm suprised the hospital has not been more agressive in giving the ins. co. what they need to process. Is it normal to take this long and do big insurance co. find reasons to delay claims (even tho they are supposed to pay) because they know a dead person may have assets? At 1 point they tried to say her main insurance was Medicare even though she was only 64 and wouldn't be for many months? Silly reasons

Answer 1

My mother has passed away --do not pay any bill she has accumulated.   Excuse--dead people have to money.  The estate should have been settled by now.  Everyone has what it says iin the last will and testimony.   Take the death certificate to the court house and change the house title to who ever is suppose to own the home.  The hospital and Meicare can argue all they want -- not your business.  Change your cell pone number so they can no longer contact you.   Any mail that comes for your mother that is hospital or Medicare -- make it &quot;Deceased&quot;  return it to the post office.  Make a change of addrress at the post office so mail will not be delivered but returned to the sender...

Answer 2

If they wait long enough they loose...

We had a gastroenterologist who did a colonoscopy on my dad and never billed the insurance for a year...Then he was told to bad...

The one I would get paid is the ambulance...Make sure it is paid.

Answer 3

It isn&#039;t unusual for large claims to take long periods of time to sort out.  Six months to a year is somewhat &quot;normal&quot;.  I wouldn&#039;t worry about it unless and until the hospital bills your mom&#039;s estate and indicates that her insurance has paid their part.  

I&#039;m sorry for your loss.

Answer 4

VERY interesting guide info about your Question HERE:

http://all-insurance-online.blogspot.com

Good luck!

Answer 5

Sadly it is quite common for insurance companies to not want to pay and wait for the other insurance to pay first.  I have known people who had trouble getting the insurance to pay while the hospital is coming after them.  They had to get a congressman to put some heat on them.  (I think it was Medicare).  But yes they ended up contacting a local state congressman to get things paid.  You might even ask a lawyer to write a letter, that always spooks the insurance companies.  Yes it is a game with the insurance companies.  So sorry when you have much more important issues to deal with.

Answer 6

I&#039;m sorry for your loss.  They don&#039;t necessarily delay payment when someone dies, it&#039;s more likely due to it being a high dollar claim.  The insurance company will review the claim extensively.  They will go through all the medical records for the stay with a fine tooth comb to make sure they are not paying for anything they don&#039;t have to.  When you have a high dollar claim like that, the process can take a while.  Depending on the nature of the hospital stay, the claim could have hundreds of individual things that the hospital is billing for that the insurance is going to look at.  That&#039;s probably what&#039;s taking so long.

Answer 7

I&#039;m sorry for the loss of your mother.

A 100% coverage doesn&#039;t mean 100% of everything is covered--there are usually exclusions and caps--could even be a deductible that does not show on the card.

Unfortunately these things can take time for no good reason and I gather you want this addressed so that probate can move along.

No idea how long this is taking, but definitely the hospital should be moving along on the claim as it&#039;s in their interests to be paid. No idea what the insurance is doing but if you&#039;re not being billed by anyone, should be fine to let them sort it out. What concerns me is the crazy claim of Medicare for a 64-year-old. Could be someone is trying to NOT pay. Unless she was put on disability, she can NOT have had Medicare, so where would they get this crazy notion? (I know it&#039;s not Medicare--no such thing as a 100% pay there.)