Aetna Fires You From Your Job Without Your Company's Permission
Richard O'Connor, the Vice President of Marketing for Aetna, might want to rethink how his department handles its customer retention program in this economy, particularly when it comes to telling people that they're still valued even though they've been let go. Chris received just such a letter today, and now the VP of his company's HR department is trying to figure out why Aetna fired Chris.
Here's what happened:
With unemployment continuing to skyrocket, who knows when your employer will unceremoniously pull the rug out from under you ... or the whole company? When I got my mail at home today, there was a letter from Aetna, my employer's group health carrier, that carried the scary subject line "How to replace your employer's group health insurance." Huh, what? That was enough to get me to keep reading.
It only got worse. "It can be stressful when you lose the health insurance coverage provided by your employer and have to find a new plan. Aetna understands and we want to help."
Huh, WHAT!? Last I checked, I was still gainfully employed, and my 1,000-plus-employee employer was quite solvent, thank you very much. OK, so maybe it's just a poorly written marketing letter. But wait: "You've been a valued Aetna group member and we're looking forward to continuing to serve you as an Aetna Advantage individual plan member."
Individual!? By now my blood pressure is approaching the stratosphere. Is this how my employer tells people they're not needed anymore? Did my employer not pay their premiums? Is my employer planning mass layoffs and told the insurer before they told us? All these questions, and so few answers.
Step 1: I called the phone number on the letter. "Um, I'm trying to figure out why I got this letter, since I'm still covered by my employer as far as I know." The person on the other end of the phone has apparently gotten this type of call before. Your caller is in denial; don't talk to them about how they're newly unemployed and in shock, etc. Instead, just politely say that you can't talk about the caller's insurance status, but *do* remember to try to sell them that individual insurance policy that they now really, really, really need. A couple of minutes of that, and I give up.
Step 2: I start going up my management tree at work. Nobody knows anything, and I think a couple more people just got nervous.
Step 3: Right to the VP of HR at my company. They shuffle it through the HR tree and finally assure me that neither I nor the company are in trouble, and my insurance is just fine, thank you. They'll take it up with Aetna to try to find out what the blazes happened.
Step 4: Try to calm down.
So, the bottom line: Don't let your insurance company scare you by making you think you've been fired or lost your coverage. Thank you, Richard C. O'Connor, Vice President Marketing — you ruined my Friday afternoon.
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Comments:
I know that once I'm laid off, instead of using that money to feed my family and pay my bills, I'll turn to Aetna to help me through the hard times.
Its overreaction by the OP but understandable. Aetna is not saying that you've lost your employer provided insurance, they are saying it is stressful when you do. I agree with the previous poster that said it was a preemptive move to inform you of options in this market where a LOT of people are being laid off... even if you aren't, you probably know someone who is and Aetna may retain or even gain business that way... a bit shady playing the fear card? Yes, but isn't that par for the course with insurance?
Wow.
If he is laid off and is treated for high blood pressure, at least he can prove it wasn't a preexisting condition.
My fiance had that happen to her from BlueCross or BlueShield (don't remember which one). Except it was the whole company that was "fired". It happened because the insurance company marked all the employees insurance as expired for January 1st, but marked 2008 not 2009. Boy, that was funny when they had to explain it to everyone.
It's stressful when you get your girlfriend pregnant by mistake but you don't want to find out through a 3rd party, especially if they are are just talking in hypothetical terms.
AETNA handles my employer's disability leave. every three to six months they require my doctor to prove that i still have type I diabetes. and then they wish me a speedy recovery.
and if my doctor says they can't predict how many and which days i might need to miss in the next quarter for medical emergencies then they send the paperwork back as unapproved, sometimes as many as three times in the past.
i especially enjoyed getting the letter on the 9th of the month stating that paperwork was due back to them on the 1st of the month. and on the 12th the paperwork itself arrived with a due date of the 3rd.
did i mention calling my cell phone every day for a week while I was in ICU to ask if i was getting released to go back to work yet? the nurse answered it for me once and told them to quit it.
Kaiser did this to me too. It turns out they DID cancel my health insurance, by mistake. But I was still gainfully employed. Whee...
What's going on with you, Consumerist?
This is a shitty misleading headline that barely has anything to do with the article.
Bad headlines are becoming extremely frequent, Don't make me drop you from my RSS feed.
I got a similar letter when I got promoted and my company HR mis-coded me in the system. So to Aetna it looked like I was not eligible for health insurance when in reality I was.
Whoa, that's pretty scary. Can you sue them for this or something?
It looks like the letter may have been presenting a hypothetical, but it's certainly not obvious to me.
Reminds me of the letter I got recently from Nationwide Insurance. It appeared to be saying they were proud of themselves because they had "forgiven" (not raised my rates because of) my auto accident. Well, I'd filed a claim a few months earlier -- my first in many years -- because my neighbor's tree had dropped a sizable limb on my car! If that had used up my probably-one-time-only "forgiveness", I was going to be pissed. A call to my agent assured me that they were just introducing a new program and speaking hypothetically.
@StutiCebriones: seems to me like all the flying off the handle (if the OP treats every day this way) would cause high blood pressure on the daily
@fantomesq: I think the COBRA in there probably contributed to the overreaction. I'd probably freak out a bit if I saw that as well.
No, that's definitely trying to sell him something other than cobra.
Someone screwed up at the insurance company and (hopefully) just used the wrong list to do a mailing.
@fantomesq: I disagree. Although the letter did not technically say "you've been laid off" or "you've lost your coverage," there is no reason for the OP to be considering COBRA coverage unless one of those things is the case. The letter is making the assumption that the OP is need of such options.
@catastrophegirl: That is truly despicable. I'm sorry you had to deal with such idiocy. Apparently it's a theme at Aetna.
About 15 years ago I was sent a similar letter from Aetna, though it was letting that Aetna was dropping it's auto insurance coverage, and my policy had been canceled.
A coverage lapse and a canceled policy cost me quite a few bucks on my replacement policy, I'm sure. I'm surprised they are actually still around. Good to see they are as sloppy and careless as ever.
@guroth:
What good is Yellow Journalism if the headlines or content are not misleading?
Oops, sorry, I thought we were still in the 1890's.
Oh, that's right. There ain't much difference between Yellow Journalism and the Interweb.
Just stay around, we need people to the scream about the bad and scream at the stupid.
Similar to the crap I get about my 1986 Pontiac (long ago was sent to car heaven)for which some idiot company still believes I might want to buy an extended warranty.
@Corporate-Shill: What's wrong with the headline? His insurer sent him a letter apparently under the impression he'd lost his job when he hadn't, thus the insurer considered him "fired" but the company didn't. The headline communicates that.
I used to work for Aetna. I have to say they have their crap together. This? Seems bad.
The Prudential merger was ugly.
@rlee: I got a totally scary phone message from my insurer (and I'm with the OP, I'd have freaked out, everything involving health insurance and the unexpected is freaking-out-worthy!) about how I needed to call RIGHT NOW about a VERY IMPORTANT "issue" with my insurance and they'd been trying to reach me and blah blah blah.
I called in a total panic, and they wanted to enroll me in some stupid-ass prenatal plan where they send me weekly reminders to eat good food and take my friggin' vitamins. And send me a book. And give me some kind of "health assessment." Which was all very bizarre because the way they knew I was pregnant was FROM PROCESSING MY OB/GYN CLAIMS, so OBVIOUSLY I'm receiving adequate care.
I was actually speechless with fury. I wished I had, I don't know, consumer choice in health care or something. Because there wasn't a damn thing I could do about their scare call that turned out to just be dumb-ass marketing for a useless product.
@Eyebrows McGee: They shouldn't have approached you in some an alarming way, but it's not marketing a useless product to you, but trying to enroll you in a disease management program, likely. And yes, I know, pregnancy is not a disease, but it is a temporary condition to be managed!
What some insurers have figured out is that a lot of primary care doctors are too overworked and have too many patients to manage chronic conditions like diabetes for their patients (doing things like sending reminders for an annual checkup, that their blood test or eye exam is overdue, etc). Doing those things results in WAY healthier patients and better outcomes, so the insurance companies not take on some of those functions (and use claims information to know when you're overdue for stuff).
So in your case they were just trying to enroll you in a management program, which while you specifically may not need because you and your MD are on top of things, some people aren't so lucky or as knowledgeable, and can use the help (and obviously from the insurance company perspective a healthier pregnancy is cheaper for them).
@Skeetz: The letter is awfully present tensey to be referring to a hypothetical "when/if you get laid off" scenario. I don't think the OP's reaction was flying off the handle at all.
@catastrophegirl: A friend lost an arm some years ago. It took him quite some time to convince the powers that be that it wasn't about to grow back.
The letter is skanky, but is no different than the other "official business" letters that look like bills, but just want you to buy some useless service.
BOO AETNA
You stay classy, Aetna. >:(
I happen to work as a health care provider, and I can tell you that Aetna is one of the worst insurance providers my office has the misfortune of having to deal with. My favorite part of their shtick is the whole "pretending we never got that bill" garbage when patients or offices submit them.
These guys are classic bastards, and should all be fired, out of a cannon, into the sun.
@Yossarian: I guess I just found it odd because a pre-emptive letter like this just doesn't follow termination protocol. In a real world scenario the employee gets fired and the benefits run out a month or so later, depending.. at least in my experience.. i doubt the benefits supplier is allowed to know before an employee of the comany finds out he's fired.. and i assume the paperwork is filled at the same time.. give this pink one to the employee and fax this copy to the benefits provider.. so i guess that's why i feel it was a tad dramatic.. but always good to look into it
I few years ago while employed in the country of Iraq and paying $500/mo "Out of my own pocket" to Cigna for my family's coverage, my kids needed inoculation shots for school. Cigna refused to cover it and told me "Don't call us unless there's an Ambulance involved." Then, they hung up on me.
I say, let their companies burn to the ground, and reserve a special place in hell for the thieving bastards.
I work in a radiology office and from my experience with insurance is never ever mix aetna with cobra. Theres no communication with them and the 3rd party administrator and to get the eligibilty going for after you pay the premium. It could take months for that administrator and aetna to get u back on track. I know sounds terrible but Ive seen it happen when we go bill. Fair warning even if you have a prexisting condition do not go thru a cobra administrator cause you will be screwed. Look elsewhere or get a straight policy.
I just got a letter letting me know that my insurance was canceled, but it is was because our company switched providers.
The real suck of the OP's situation is that he got the letter on Friday afternoon. I'll bet that was a fun weekend...
@gatewaytoheaven: Perhaps Aetna screwed up and accidentally released the letter(s) prematurely? Hmmm. Of course everyone in HR will deny, deny, deny .... until you're finally called into the conference room a week or so from now.
@formergr: Yeah, I know all that, but I didn't appreciate the extreme hard sell, and I don't really think freaking out a pregnant woman with veiled threats there's a problem with her insurance is part of managing a healthy pregnancy!
Also, I did read the pamphlet, and I didn't see much of anything that was useful that they were going to provide. It looked like they basically wanted to send me a lot of spam from Babies R Us and other baby merchants, in exchange for the "benefit" of them reminding me to take my vitamins.
That's what's going on right now with Blue Cross, Blue Shield. Mr. pecan pi keeps getting mail from BCBS because his employer switch vision and medical insurance to another company, but kept BCBS on as dental insurance. And they keep sending us mail trying to tell us about the great benefits we have with individual insurance because the company itself just sends out these generic mailings without understanding where your insurance coverage actually went. To BCBS, we probably look like we don't even have anything except dental insurance, and they send suggestions as to what plans they offer.
It's starting to get kind of annoying. We receive one every few weeks, and we always open them because we do have BCBS partially, but it usually turns out to be spammage like the Aetna letter.
This article misses the bigger issue and is misleading. First of all, it's an advertisement, fool. Second, insurance companies are offering insurance plans that ensure that you will be able to maintain your health coverage if you get laid off, at a price that will possibly be less than COBRA or an individual policy. It's very sleazy and preys on people's fears and stupidity.
Here's the thing, you don't actually "use" the coverage until you lose your job because if you have your job you're presumably still covered by your employer - but you still pay a premium in the meantime. Essentially it is insurance insurance.
For this to be worthwhile, you're betting that you definitely will get laid off and that the cost of getting insurance/COBRA will be more than your current plan plus the additional premium you're paying until you get laid off. That's like renting an apartment but not living there just because it has a reasonable rent and you might lose your house some day. It might make sense to some lobster accountants, but there are much more productive ways to throw away your money.
@fantomesq: Definitely not an overreaction. Sometimes if you are going to be laid off, other entities involved could spill the beans before the firings happen.
OMG. That was in no way an overreaction or a misleading headline. Any company that is doing this kind of marketing in this economy should really be more aware of the long term consequences: what if they gave someone a heart attack? Scaring your customers is NOT the way to build brand loyalty, it is precisely the way to send them to other providers.
Aetna is still allowed to sell health insurance?! This is the health insurance company that a) forced my spouse's co-worker with breast cancer to get a letter from her doctor certifying her chemotherapy was not "elective", and b) had a CSR admit to us that yes, they understaffed their phone lines in order to discourage calls.
@Keter: certainly, except you don't usually have much of a choice when it comes to health insurance.
& unfortunately, employers rarely care about service as much as cost in regards to insurance.
@Justin Klotz: uuhh...ok. i'll buy that, but this letter is very poorly written if that is what it is trying to portray.
look at the last paragraph: "you've been a valued Aetna group member and we're looking forward to continuing to serve you as an Aetna Advantage individual plan member."
if that doesn't scream "you're unemployed &/or losing your coverage", i don't know what does.
Mr. Lumbergh told me to talk to payroll and then payroll told me to talk to Mr. Lumbergh and I still haven't received my paycheck and he took my stapler and he never brought it back and then they moved my desk to storage room B and there was garbage on it...
It's a preemptive move by Aetna to ensure that once you are laid-off, that you're aware that they'll be waiting for you with open arms.