Private Insurance Billed For Meds

[evandc]

Vet friend 100% P & T for twelve plus years. He was low on meds & had doctor write few days to fill outside until his VA Meds arrived. The private insurance company told pharmacy couldn't pay because the same had been billed from VA recently. BTW, this is blood pressure meds & not some type of legal dope or whatever.

Where is this covered in CFR or other regs? Insurance companies don't question anything because it's the government & they don't want any problems. This just seems wrong but I don't know where to start looking.

Thanks,

Don

[LarryJ]

Don,

Do what I did and immediately stop giving them insurance information. After they billed my insurance a couple of times and took money from my medical savings account that my wife was unable to use as a result (I am 90 SC), I learned to tell them I have no insurance. It took me 6 months to get my insurance money back. I switched insurance at the next open season and am now uninsured as far as the VA knows.

You DID have to provide your Social Security to your NEW insurance provider, didn't you?

If so, and I'm almost certain that you did, BIG BROTHER KNOWS. All of BIG BROTHER knows.

And, then, of course, there's always ECHELON.

Ya know, what I get a kick out of is the fact that the gubbermint now, after wanting this capability for eons, they now have your current and past physical locations.

That's what caused several people to be arrested in one of Dallas's drug raids. The PoPo just drove around and picked all these fine folks up. One of them had gone out of town for the weekend................they just waited until they knew he was back in town, then arrested him.

[Chuck75]

Medicare HMO?

The VA is prohibited from billing Medicare. Are they saying that what you have is really private insurance?

There is a current problem with this kind of insurance, in that the government may be collecting about $100 a month from you, and the HMO plan some other amount. In addition, the insurer agrees to pay instead of medicare, thus doing the governments job. It just gets messier from there. I have a similar problem, in that I was covered by my wife's state employee plan until she was forced to retire. Then, it was a case of paying over a thousand a month for the insurance, or convert it to a Medicare "Advantage" plan. This results in co-pay, and payment from the insured that is actually more than it might have been under straight medicare, and also the loss of private insurance that might have taken up the slack. As it did before my wife retired.

They bill my insurance also. What surprises me is I have a Medicare HMO and they found it on their own and bill them.

[Chuck75]

I've had this occur, and the real out was to use Wal Marts $4.00 @ month generic drugs. The $4.00 is below the co-pay amount.

Don,

Do what I did and immediately stop giving them insurance information. After they billed my insurance a couple of times and took money from my medical savings account that my wife was unable to use as a result (I am 90 SC), I learned to tell them I have no insurance. It took me 6 months to get my insurance money back. I switched insurance at the next open season and am now uninsured as far as the VA knows.

[Testvet]

the all these new consumer cards for grocery stores, drug stores etc and your credit cards or bank debit cards the data mining companies know what brand of underwear you buy how much fresh produce, what cuts of meat you buy etc there are no secrets any more unless you pay cash and don;t use the bonus cards from the stores all cell phones now have GPS units in them if they have your cell phone number and you turn it on they can find you anywhere there is no "privacy" any longer unless you deal only in cash and don't have a cell phone and no computers the idea of that movie 1984 or book has been taken to a level even the science fiction writer did not imagine when he wrote that book decades ago they can track citizens now from birth to their grave and everything they do in between unless they do a cash transaction of less than 10,000 and I imagine one day that will be changed where the public doesn't know it toa lower amount of 5,000 or possibly lower depending how well they make the computer programs and the amount of federal agents they want investigating it

if you want privacy you need to find a small island somewhere else in the world

[Commander Bob]

the all these new consumer cards for grocery stores, drug stores etc and your credit cards or bank debit cards the data mining companies know what brand of underwear you buy how much fresh produce, what cuts of meat you buy etc there are no secrets any more unless you pay cash and don;t use the bonus cards from the stores all cell phones now have GPS units in them if they have your cell phone number and you turn it on they can find you anywhere there is no "privacy" any longer unless you deal only in cash and don't have a cell phone and no computers the idea of that movie 1984 or book has been taken to a level even the science fiction writer did not imagine when he wrote that book decades ago they can track citizens now from birth to their grave and everything they do in between unless they do a cash transaction of less than 10,000 and I imagine one day that will be changed where the public doesn't know it toa lower amount of 5,000 or possibly lower depending how well they make the computer programs and the amount of federal agents they want investigating it

if you want privacy you need to find a small island somewhere else in the world

Thanks for the post Testvet. I have been yelling that in the wind for some time now!!!

[Chuck75]

Some years ago, the military was allowed/authorized to bill private insurance for military members even when they were on active duty. It may be that the language was general enough that the VA is somehow using this as an excuse to bill SC conditions. I know that in my case they have refused to stop billing drugs other than metformin, even though the drugs are associated with diabetes treatment. Since the drug costs @ $8.50 are below the co-pay, the insurance pays nothing. Sticking me with the co-pay for drugs that should not be subject to co-pay.

Edited May 24, 2010 by Chuck75