Aetna Inc. The "not in network" scam. Hartford Connecticut

Approximately a year ago we purchased a health insurance policy for my three children from Aetna Inc. We did not file any claims for several months and assumed Aetna was a legitimate provider. Last winter one of our children came down with Strep and we had to file a claim.

The first step we took was to visit Aetna's website to find an in-network doctor. Almost, if not all, of our area doctors were listed as being within the Aetna network for our specific plan, so we selected one and took our daughter to that doctor, paid the $40 co-pay, and received treatment for her. About a week later our other daughter became ill with the same condition and we repeated the process with her.

A couple of months later we received a bill from that doctor for the full amount of services provided and were informed that our Aetna had refused to pay the bill. We immediately called Aetna and were informed by a company rep that the doctor we used was not a part of the Aetna network and had never been part of the Aetna network. I immediately returned to the Aetna website and found that the doctor we had used was still listed as an approved provider for our specific plan and informed the Aetna rep that I was speaking to that I was on their website observing that the doctor was listed as an approved provider for our specific plan on. For the next hour, no matter what I said, the Aetna comapny reps and managers I spoke to continued to state that our doctor was not part of their network and had never been part of it. Needless to say we are out about $400 plus several months of premiums for a worthless policy. We have also been unable to get Aetna to cancel our policy and stop taking the premiums from our bank account. After canceling the policy on three separate occasions in writing, over the phone, and by e-mail we were finally forced to pay a fee to have our bank put a stop on our bank transfer to Aetna. We were also promised a refund for the last two months of our policy and never received that.

Mark
Mountain View, Missouri
U.S.A.