Friday, January 3, 2014

Check out your hospice provider! Are they covered under your plan?

Mom was put on hospice in September.  At the time, her assisted living facility offered their parent company’s hospice services and I thought that sounded easy and that communication would be improved because they were under the same umbrella.  There were hiccups along the way but my job is to straighten it all out and straighten I did.  The train appeared to be running smoothly on the track.

Suddenly this week, we experienced a derailment!  On Monday, December 30, I received a call from hospice saying there was a problem with billing.  They had not been able to submit any billing for the services.  I was told that they would look into it and find a new hospice provider and it would be a seamless transition for Mom.
On Tuesday morning, December 31, I received another call stating that Mom’s insurance provider was indicating that Mom’s coverage ended that day.  Having worked at a health insurance company for 20+ years, I said that was correct and if you call tomorrow (January 1) they will also say coverage ends as of December 31 – of 2014.  She was trying to discover what hospices were participating providers for Mom’s plan.  Anticipating that, I had already looked and was able to give her the name of a hospice that was covered.
Maybe I was being naïve but in all my years of working in the health insurance field, I have never known a provider of any kind to begin treatment without checking to ensure they were a participating provider and would be paid for their services.  Evidently I just found one that doesn’t…  You would think that it would have taken less than three months for them to realize they were unable to submit a claim?
Just as I was sitting down to eat lunch that day I received a call from the new hospice provider.  The prior hospice provider’s three month oversight suddenly required an emergency on my part and the part of the new hospice provider.  I was asked to squeeze in a trip to Mom’s to sign papers prior to my commitment to my grandchildren that afternoon for New Year’s Eve.  Lovely!
The changeover was much more relaxed.  The first day with the first provider I felt like a train was running over me – not because of Mom’s diagnosis but because of the number of stressed out hospice people all there talking to me at once.  I went home exhausted that day!
This time Mom and I sat with one nurse and I signed the papers, provided Mom’s medical ID cards, and we talked about the calls I would receive over the next few days from various people who would be visiting, checking and helping Mom.
I’ve received those calls and will now need to keep a close watch to ensure things are going smoothly again.  Today the question of Mom’s coverage came up again with the new provider.  They said the insurance carrier was stating that Mom’s coverage ended on December 31, 2014.  I assured them that she was covered, checked online and called them back.  I asked what ID number they were using.
The ID number was the issue.  Although Mom’s ID number had not changed, they were still calling in to the automated system with the number given to them by the previous provider.  It was Daddy’s ID number, not Mom’s.  I know if I call the insurance provider, they have Mom’s coverage tied to Daddy because she is still covered under his plan until she passes - even though he died in 1988.  Her ID cards, that I have shared with the ALF, the first hospice and now the second, show her ID number and that is the number that has to be used for the insurance company’s automated system.  Issue resolved…

No comments:

Post a Comment