The Saddest Thing of All
By Keiti | June 19, 2008
Today I discovered that I’ve been without health insurance since the first of June. Even though I complain about not having health insurance, I do carry a major medical policy in the event of something catastrophic.
Anyway, I periodically check my banking for any erroneous charges and in today’s perusal discovered my June premium had been credited back to me. I was a bit confused so I started making the calls. The first one was to my bank which couldn’t tell me much of anything except that the chargeback had been initiated by my health insurance company. So I called the insurance company only to be told that they had received a cancellation letter from me.
The minute I heard that I started freaking out - I certainly hadn’t cancelled my health insurance - especially since it’s due to expire right after I leave for Scotland and once I start school I’ll be covered by the UK’s national health insurance, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I hate to admit it, but my first thought was fraud or identity theft (never mind the fact that canceling someone else’s health insurance certainly wouldn’t benefit anyone trying to steal someone else’s identity), but I couldn’t figure out how anyone would have obtained the information. There’s always system hacking, but that’s not where my mind went first - I’m not going to go into that particular thought process except to say that certain members of my family have pulled some spectacularly stupid crap at times.
So I had the CSR at the insurance company fax me a copy of the letter - by the time I got back to the hotel from work, the fax was waiting for me and I got to work. The first thing I did was look at the signature which didn’t resemble mine in the least; whoever tried to forge my signature didn’t even really put any effort into it. I didn’t recognize the handwriting which relieved me more than I can tell you. Then I read the letter - standard “I’d like to cancel my policy” letter. Short and to the point. Because it was originally faxed, the fax number from the person who’d sent it was still visible, so I googled it and discovered it corresponded to a Dr.’s office in Aurora, Colorado. I called the telephone number listed and verified the fax number. Then I called the Police Department in Aurora and left a message for the officer who handles fraud cases.
A quick check of my credit report revealed nothing out of the ordinary (though I did discover I have a super high credit score - Go Misfit!).
Finally, I pull out the cover sheet that had been sent with the original fax and called the third party company who had forwarded the fax to the insurance company. I’m speaking with the CSR, explaining the situation still trying to figure out what the hell’s going on when I take a good look at the cover letter and realize that the SS# doesn’t match mine.
So after discovering it was a mistake on the insurance company’s part - same name, same policy number, applied for at roughly the same time, but different SS# - I felt like a complete jackass. I called the Police Department back and left a second message for the fraud officer explaining all had been figured out; that it was simply a case of a SS# not being verified with the rest of the information and I apologized for wasting his time.
Then I sat down and breathed a huge sigh of relief - yes, it’s a hassle to have to investigate, put the pieces of the puzzle together, fax over a letter to the insurance company explaining their screw up and get my insurance reinstated. I also plan on calling the other woman tomorrow to give her a head’s up in the event something gets screwy on her end - If I can help someone avoid the same freak out and hassle, I’m al for it.
The bottom line is that I don’t think anyone can be too careful with their identity and credit.
And the saddest part of all is that I immediately jumped to some nefarious goings on and deduced an innocent mistake rather than the other way around.
I can’t express how unhappy that makes me.
Topics: Human Behavior, Life in General |