by Zarxrax » Fri May 18, 2012 07:57 pm
I started a new job in october 2011, and set up the health insurance online through a website. A woman at my job assisted the new hires with getting it set up online. I selected the plans that I wanted, indicated that I don't smoke, and everything seemed to be fine.
However, literally just a couple of weeks later, I had to sign back up for the 2012 year. I looked over my plans, everything seemed to be in order, and so I submitted it again, thinking that I had everything set up the same.
Around february 2012, I noticed that the health insurance was taking money out of my paycheck that they shouldn't have been taking, so I investigated, and discovered that they had me listed as being a smoker. I was not listed as a smoker for 2011, but for 2012, it had gotten switched.
Now, over the course of several months and several phone calls with the insurance company, I kept being told that its possible for me to get it switched back, but I kept getting the runaround, being sent incorrect forms, and things like that.
Finally, my 4th time calling them, I spoke with a supervisor who told me that for 2012, they changed the computer systems or something, and everyone was defaulted to being a smoker, and we were supposed to have manually set it back to non-smoking if we didn't want to pay the smoking fee. She also told me that I can NOT change it back.
In fact, she told me that normally they CAN change it, and that's why 3 other representatives had told me this, but the company that I work for had told them NOT to make any changes, and so that's why they can't change it.
I feel like I am being scammed out of $1200, and I don't know what I can do, if anything. I was going to try to speak with the HR department at my workplace, but I discovered that they outsource HR to a different company. If I try calling the one phone number that is available, I end up getting forwarded to the insurance company..
Is there ANYTHING I can do in this case, or am I basically screwed?
However, literally just a couple of weeks later, I had to sign back up for the 2012 year. I looked over my plans, everything seemed to be in order, and so I submitted it again, thinking that I had everything set up the same.
Around february 2012, I noticed that the health insurance was taking money out of my paycheck that they shouldn't have been taking, so I investigated, and discovered that they had me listed as being a smoker. I was not listed as a smoker for 2011, but for 2012, it had gotten switched.
Now, over the course of several months and several phone calls with the insurance company, I kept being told that its possible for me to get it switched back, but I kept getting the runaround, being sent incorrect forms, and things like that.
Finally, my 4th time calling them, I spoke with a supervisor who told me that for 2012, they changed the computer systems or something, and everyone was defaulted to being a smoker, and we were supposed to have manually set it back to non-smoking if we didn't want to pay the smoking fee. She also told me that I can NOT change it back.
In fact, she told me that normally they CAN change it, and that's why 3 other representatives had told me this, but the company that I work for had told them NOT to make any changes, and so that's why they can't change it.
I feel like I am being scammed out of $1200, and I don't know what I can do, if anything. I was going to try to speak with the HR department at my workplace, but I discovered that they outsource HR to a different company. If I try calling the one phone number that is available, I end up getting forwarded to the insurance company..
Is there ANYTHING I can do in this case, or am I basically screwed?
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