Once again, a representative from an insurance company has called me, and left a message that didn’t give me any clue as to what the call was about. This is especially confusing because the call came from the insurance company that we recently canceled a policy with. What on earth was this about?
Recently, my husband and I canceled our health insurance policy. After doing some research about what it cost, and learning about the many things that it did not cover, it turned out that it was just too expensive for us to afford.
Canceling a policy involves a few steps. We called the insurer and specifically stated that we wanted to cancel the policy. The representative on the phone said that we had to fax them something that clearly stated that we wanted to cancel the policy. We did both of those things before the plan took affect, and we were told that we wouldn’t end up getting charged for the policy that we have cancelled.
Not long after that, I got a phone call from a representative from that insurance company. It was from “Erica”, the representative that I spoke with when I called to ask questions about exactly what this particular health insurance policy covered. Her message didn’t say much more than that she wanted me to call her back.
This was confusing for several reasons. First of all, the policy is in my husband’s name, not mine. I was a “dependent” on the plan. If the insurer was trying to talk us into keeping the policy, then shouldn’t they be talking to him instead? I couldn’t understand what the rep could possibly want to talk to me about, now that I no longer have a policy with them.
I called back the insurer, and immediately got shunted into their automated message that described the best way to send in my payment, so it would reach them even faster. I was on hold for a while, before a different insurance rep answered. He was obviously not Erica.
The new rep had no idea why Erica had called me. He tried to look it up, but didn’t find any information. He then put me on hold, so he could attempt to connect me to Erica. This, too, didn’t work. Eventually, he resorted to telling me that he would leave Erica a note to call me back, (again).
Erica did call back, while I was out today. She left another message on my phone, that, again, didn’t leave any information about why she wanted me to call her back. Once again, I waded through the automated message about payment, and sat on hold. Once again, I got a representative on the phone that was not Erica.
This new guy took all of my information. He needed my name, address, and age. Once he had gathered all that, he appeared to gain access to something that could, potentially, tell him more about why Erica had called me. When I spoke with Erica, I asked her to mail me something that detailed exactly what was covered under “preventative care”. She was calling to tell me that she mailed it.
Then, the rep said something scary. “Oh, you called yesterday to make an automatic payment”.
To make a long story short, Anthem Blue Cross charged us for the first month’s premium of the policy that we have already canceled. After pointing this out, the rep said that the insurer will be mailing us a check for that amount, and it should arrive in a few days. It better!
Image by Mr. Thomas on Flickr