Humana Insurance Would not disenroll my child Humana Missouri Nationwide

Since notification was sent by Medicare, it seems Humana dropped the ball. Seems unlikely that the computer is specific to the client- They are frickin' machines.

Sorry you hate medicare so much. Maybe you should file a complaint against medicare.

Franzg, do you have access to Humana's computer systems? Because that's the only way Medicare sends notices to carriers to cancel a particular member. So, no, you don't have that access? Oh, so I guess you're talking about something you know nothing about.

"We received a letter at the beginning of June 2007 stating that coverage for Medicare would end the last day of June 2007."

Medicare- on time.

Humana- slow, and probably negligent. Also, Humana interfered with prescription timeliness.

Humana- also has higher "morbidity and mortality" rate than Medicare. That means if you have Humana, you have a greater chance of getting sick or dying than if you just have Medicare.

Humana- Has better lobbyists and number crunchers. Medicare has no lobbyists.

Please give us Medicare back. It is being held hostage by managed care. Sure it sucks, but seems much better than this crap, and being sick or dying sucks much worse.

So, you want to blame how slow Medicare is on Humana? Whatever.

The second comment is in response to your post disputing the validity of Medicare's official letter of notification.

You claim that since it was a letter in the mail, it was the equivalent of receiving a letter from Ed McMahon stating you have won $1000000.

I think your advice is useless. Now do you understand?

Now go back to Humana's PO box, and shred all the written grievances and appeals. I guess you don't think they are valid either. After all, Ed McMahon sent you a letter of notification as well.

Franzg said, "Sorry, I still have no reason to question the integrity of the person who posted the original complaint.

I guess you are advising us that the EOBs we get in the mail from Humana are just a phony scam as well."

Not sure what that second comment means, but you don't know anything about health insurance, so why are you commenting on everything?

Sorry, I still have no reason to question the integrity of the person who posted the original complaint.

I guess you are advising us that the EOBs we get in the mail from Humana are just a phony scam as well.

'We received a letter at the beginning of June 2007 stating that coverage for Medicare would end the last day of June 2007'

Ok, you got a letter. Once I got a letter from Ed McMahon saying I won a million bucks. That doesn't mean it's true.

Medicare must be cancelled first. Period. Their rules, not Humana's. If Medicare didn't cancel you out in a timely fashion, that's not Humana's fault. Trust me, Medicare is slow to react to these things.

"We received a letter at the beginning of June 2007 stating that coverage for Medicare would end the last day of June 2007"

Medicare actually notified the customer in advance. What should the customer have done? What is the burden on the customer once they receive notification that Medicare is no longer responsible for paying for the prescriptions?

Should the customer have hung a big banner in front of their home saying "We no longer have Medicare"? Or maybe a full page ad in a Kentucky newspaper in the hopes a Humana employee understood they are no longer covered by Medicare?

Is Humana that inefficient that is must place the burden of "notification" on the customer? Maybe Humana should make us perform surgery on ourselves as well.

Regardless of whose "fault" it is, the managed care system is quite inefficient. It is like having The Three Stooges manage our healthcare. This is another example of how managed care costs so much, and improves our health so little.

Franzg, a carrier will not disenroll a member from a Medicare based plan until they get notification from Medicare. This is a Medicare guideline, not a Humana policy. PERIOD. If you want to whine at someone for the turnaround time frame, try looking at Medicare.

"So at the last minute we had to have Medicaid to an emergency Humana Medicare override so that we could get the scripts, and keep in mind that my sons anti-rejection medications are $3500 to $5000.00 monthly."

Sounds like Medicaid.

what company helped cover the prescriptions from June 2007 through December 2008? Obviously some one was. And what changed from December 2008 when the sripts were covered to january 2009 when Medicaid said that Humana Medicare had to pay their share first? Mediacaid is saying they will cover everything Humana Medicare doesn't, so I don't see the problem here. Are you saying that because of this you can't get your son his needed medication?

I'm actually quite appalled that you find this kind of predicament "humorous".

I don't find this funny at all. Someone being charged monthly for a non-existent prescription plan is kind of sad, and represents the "Keystone Cop" nature of managed care.

Medicare knew the client no longer had Medicare part D. They even informed the client in a timely manner.

Humana had no idea, and made the disenrollment process long and unpleasant.

Can't Humana do a little better than that? We pay $640 billion a year for these nincompoops to screw up our coverage.

Ok, I guess that I was wrong. Franzg's comment actually takes the cake.

He said, "I still think the client had NO MEDICARE
It was cut off. I think Humana owed the client for the fake Medicare part D premiums."

Let's think about that for a moment. First of all, you can't get a Medicare supplementary plan without having Medicare. I'd hope that would be common sense. Second, if the member didn't have a plan with Medicare, none of the member's claims would have been paid at all by Humana since the providers wouldn't have been able to send in a Medicare Explanation of Benefits. In other words, if a provider didn't send in a Medicare EOB, Humana wouldn't know what was left for them to pay.

Keep the humor coming, Franzg.

It was cut off. I think Humana owed the client for the fake Medicare part D premiums.

It sounds like this client is complaining for being left flapping in the wind by Humana. They claim also that "as of today March 26, 2009 I think I finally got this resolved but with NO HELP from Humana." Thank God they were able to get this resolved.

This is just another case illustrating how managed care screws up our lives to the tune of $640 billion a year, not to mention the time and effort it takes United States citizens to resolve its blunders.

Hi Kimberly,

I just wanted to elaborate more on what Law said. Many times there is a lag in processing times in enrollment with any Medicare system. Basically Humana has to send the information on to CMS and they have to process it as well; this problem is further compounded by the fact you stated you were also covered by Medicaid...Medicaid is run/funded at the state level, while Medicare is Federal. So that makes 3 separate entities that have to transfer and process all of this information.

Is this process ideal? Absolutely not. I work on the Medicare side of operations at Humana and have seen first hand similar problems to yours because of the inefficiency in this system. Although my opinion will seem a bit biased because I am an employee, I can tell you that many times the faulty party (if there is one) is hard to identify, and as your carrier we are the only ones you speak to.

Although the website is hard to navigate, I recommend CMS.gov for information regarding Medicare and Medicaid. I was looking for a phone number for Medicare for you, but the site is currently down for maintenance. Once you find it, I would call Medicare and ask them what date they have your son being disenrolled, and compare that to the date you disenrolled him with Humana.

Once you've done that, if you have more questions, post them on here and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

Sounds like Medicare was discontinued in 2007.

If Humana can't help, why not refer the client to Medicare directly?

Because the client no longer has Medicare.

Sounds like Humana messed up, and needs extra time to figure out how to handle this situation.

Can Humana collect premiums for Medicare part D while the client is no longer enrolled in Medicare? YES, according to Humana. The client needs to jump through hoops to disenroll in a paid program with no coverage.

This sounds like a real ripoff. I hope there are not too many cases like this one.

If Medicare was in fact the culprit, someone PLEASE give this poster the contact # for Medicare?. According to I am the "Law", Humana can contact Medicare directly.

This is just another case where the client is left out of the loop while their care is being denied, but also being blamed for not drafting a letter informing Humana that Medicare is no longer their carrier.

C'mon Humana, get it together for once!

Um, ok, so did you ever consider that the lag might be on MEDICARE'S side? You have to disenroll from both, you know, and Medicare is notorious for being slow. Humana basically forwarded this cancellation info to Medicare (that's the 24-72 hour turn around time frame), but who knows how long it'll take Medicare to work everything out on their end? Basically, the "nine reference numbers" you got from various reps just meant Humana notified Medicare nine times for you. Did you even read the documentation Humana and Medicare sent you? I'd wager not. Blame the right party next time.


P.S. You should've initiated the cancellation process way before you went to that pharmacy.