Read the Fine Print, and Don’t Forget About It

What!?Let’s set the stage for a tale of a 3-hour tour I took today. Imagine you have a physically and medically exhausting genetic condition that necessitates 16+ specialist visits per year, well over $2k/mo in prescription medications, and a PPO insurance plan that is just shy of costing the same as a second mortgage. Now imagine you just received a letter in the mail from your health insurance company that informs you that your recent doctor’s visit was not covered due to said condition and that no expenses due to said condition will be covered for the first year after enrollment in the plan.

My wife and I are complete and total medical opposites; she’s only been to the ER once, can count her lifetime usage of antibiotics on one hand, and doesn’t even like doctors. Every fiber of me wanted that for one year. Just one year.

That’s not exactly true, though, because there were fibers that were upset with the insurance, upset that I’d left my office job, upset that I might have chosen the wrong insurance plan, and upset that I am not independently wealthy to pay for my own condition by the age of 30. Okay, the last one was ridiculous, but those fibers were there, too.

After two hours of discussion our options and mentally and emotionally preparing to call my old boss, I looked up our plan details since our paperwork didn’t mention anything about that clause. After 20 minutes of searching, I found the page that states that prior creditable coverage within 63 days of enrollment waives the exclusion.

Shoot, we didn’t have any lapse at all! What gives!?

A quick call to customer service and I was in touch with a rep. within 3 minutes. I told her about the letter and that we had continuous coverage with them for the last 9 years, and wondered if that didn’t count as “creditable” coverage. She immediately saw my previous plans with starting and ending dates and was prompt to apologize for any inconvenience and anguish the letter had caused.

Now THAT’S customer service!

The company?

Aetna.

Don’t Settle For Poor Service

I’ve been a pushover for most of my life. There, I said it, now let’s move on. I have spent the majority of my life receiving sandwiches with mayo and onions when I said to leave them off, ice in my drinks after requesting the absence of ice, and a myriad of other service-related oversights and outright slaps. The problem was that I still paid and either didn’t enjoy my product or didn’t eat all, if any, of it.

That has changed, and it wonderfully started changing when I met my wife. I say “started” because it wasn’t too long ago that I still fell into old habits more than a man nearing 30 should. I started taking my food back to the counter or back to the kitchen. I discovered that returning an item at the store does not cause a rift in the universe. Did you know that you can return a toaster after 2 years? Inside family story, but true, nonetheless.

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