At the end of 2007, to save money, I chose to not re-enroll in my employers insurance (UHC) but to use my last year on my parents insurance, before turning 26 next year and getting booted off, to save some money by not double insuring myself. Then I decided I wanted to get banded and found out that my parents insurance, Altius, does not cover banding but my employers insurance, UHC, does.

So I spoke with my HR department today and they said that if my coverage was terminated with my parents plan I could enroll with them and not have to wait for the end of the year annual enrollment.

So here is the question - they work on the honor system. If I tell them that the coverage has been terminated they take my word for it, I enroll with UHC and get banded sometime this summer. Otherwise I have to wait for January and hope my company keeps UHC next year. Any thoughts and opinions would be appreciated, I am on the fence on this one. Thanks guys, love this forum!!!

Oh golly, this is a hard one. I think I would be afraid of getting caught and risking your future benefits. It could be concidered a moral dilema but we all know insurance companies have no morals at all and try to get out of paying everything they can. You probanly shouldn't take any advice from me anyway, I had a oral surgry this morn and I'm pretty well medicated, not thinking well......so remembering the state I'm in, I'm saying "go for it"

The problem I see with this is "IF" they request a copy of the "Termination Letter"... Then your hosed, and will jeopardize yourself in eyes of HR - which could be a problem in the future.

I'm not of fan of insurance companies and the hoops many have had to go through for WLS - This one is tough, not sure I'd take the chance...FWIW.

so call and terminate with your folks' insurance.

best to be honest.....you will sleep better

Go 4 It!!! You only live once.

If you tell the lie, and at a later date they find out otherwise, they will cancel your insurance AND revoke everything they've paid from when you signed up to when they found out.

Good point, well looks like I need to cancel some insurance and sign up for the other on the same day. No reason to get greedy. I need to stay focused on how lucky I am to have this problem

I would cancel the one policy, and then sign up for the other, then you can sleep good tonight, and not have to worry about a lie.

I didn't mention this - and should have...But when I had UHC, when I married and wanted to drop my Ins. & switch over to my husbands Ins. (save money of course)...they requested a copy of my Wedding Liscense - And get this ... We worked for the Same Company (at the time) and had the Same Ins.

Be prepared that they may ask for a copy of a Cancellation Policy from your parents Ins.

I'm a tad lost...but I'm with the other poster.

Termination just means ended. Doesn't mean kicked out.

So why can't you terminate?

Seems HR was just saying you couldn't be double insured. So....don't be!

But ask HR again ....they will be up front w/ you if you need a termination letter or just something showing when the coverage ended.

Could be more simple than you think.

Just jump throught the hoops, probably isn't as hard as you think and get moving on bandland. Good Luck.

I know someone who did something similar and is now being investigated for insurance fraud. Not only is is morally wrong, it's criminally wrong and if you are found out - which is easy for them to do - you not only will have to pay all of the expenses back to the insurance company, you could face going to trial on the criminal side.

Is it worth that?

Also, before you cancel and switch to your companies insurance, get specific details on what you have to do to qualify for surgery. Some require a 6 month diet history under a Dr.'s care. If that's the case here, you wouldn't even be eligible until Oct. 1 st. In that case, it might be worth your while to wait.

Good luck!

please tell me how to make the tickler

It's probably not wise to take advice from people who know nothing about the medical insurance business on something this important!!!

So here is my input with 10 years of working for a medical insurance company in Customer Service and Claims:

If lapband is what you want, make sure UHC covers lapband. Some carriers may only cover bypass.

Find out what the waiting period is for WLS surgery. That means how long are they going to make you be on coverage before you are eligible to have WLS? I believe the plan that I have required that I be on coverage for 12 months prior to the surgery even being considered even if the member is found to meet criteria for coverage otherwise.

Find out what the preauth requirements are for getting WLS, I don't know of any insurance company that doesn't have some kind of requirements. If there is a waiting period then you can work on meeting criteria while you wait.

If after looking into the above information you feel that it is worth going for it then in my opinion you must cancel off your parents policy.... here's why I believe that:

UHC will almost certainly find out about your other insurance plan. That is because of something called Coordination of Benefits and Creditable Coverage/Prior Carrier Credit. When you get on coverage with UHC they will almost certainly ask you on your enrollment forms if you have other coverage or if you've had it within the last 60 days, there are two reasons they do this that I know of. One is so the two insurers can coordinate coverage for services that you have. The other is so that if your new plan has a medical waiting period (which may be different then the one for WLS) that you get credit for the coverage that you had previously which means they waive the waiting period.

The thing is that the only reason for you to have two insurance carriers is to have the benefit of two carriers, so what is the point of staying on the old one if you're going to try to hide it from the new one? Depending on how these two carriers handle coordination of benefits it could very easily come out that you have another plan... as simple as one doctor submitting a claim form stating that you have a plan other then UHC. If that happens you could most certainly face being retro cancelled off the UHC plan because you didn't meet criteria for getting coverage outside of the open enrollment period. If they retro cancel your coverage then you will be responsible for all those bills.

To me, this is playing with fire and you will almost certainly get burned.

An additional note... I am assuming that the reason that you are considering saying your coverage through your parents plan is cancelled is to have the benefit of two plans. But logically if you are trying to keep them from finding out about each other there is no way for you to get the benefit of having both.

Most insurance carriers handle coordination of benefits (COB) the same way. That means that it is likely that your UHC plan would be considered the primary coverage over your parents policy. What you probably don't realize is that insurance companies are often required by COB laws to work together to make sure you are getting the benefit of having both plans. So what I see happening is that you would go to your doctors office (for a visit unrelated to WLS) and you would present your UHC and Altius ID cards. Your doctors office submits the claim to UHC and after they process it the doctors office submits the claim and the explanation of benefits to Altius to give you the benefit of your secondary coverage. Altius gets the claim and they don't have any record of you having coverage with UHC so they contact UHC to determine which plan should be primary... that is how UHC finds out you still have other coverage and weren't eligible to come on coverage outside of the open enrollment period.

So.... after all the yapping I've done I will say that laws vary by state and the information that I've given is based on the knowledge I have from working in Washington state. Your insurance carriers rules regarding COB may be different then what I am familiar with.