Can anyone explain how the insurance companies prove you have a pre-existing con!
Question: Insurance companies try to discourage people from waiting until they get sick in order to purchase health insurance. One way in which they do this is to impose pre-existing condition exclusion periods. This means that if you have a medical problem which exists at the time you enroll in or purchase your health insurance, the insurance company will deny all claims pertaining to this medical problem for a certain period of time.
If you have job-based coverage, the pre-existing condition exclusion period is limited to 12 months (18 months if you are a late enrollee) and only applies to conditions for which you sought treatment in the 6 months leading up to enrollment. You may be able to apply creditable coverage to offset your pre-existing condition exclusion period. For example, if you were on an individual policy before enrolling in your job-based coverage, you may be able to subtract the amount of time you were covered on your individual policy from the pre-existing condition exclusion period.
The rules governing pre-existing condition exclusion periods in individual policies vary widely from state to state. As a general rule, they are very different from the rules limiting pre-existing condition exclusion periods in job-based coverage. Check out these consumer guides which contain state-specific information about pre-existing condition exclusion periods in individual policies.
Answers: Insurance companies try to discourage people from waiting until they get sick in order to purchase health insurance. One way in which they do this is to impose pre-existing condition exclusion periods. This means that if you have a medical problem which exists at the time you enroll in or purchase your health insurance, the insurance company will deny all claims pertaining to this medical problem for a certain period of time.
If you have job-based coverage, the pre-existing condition exclusion period is limited to 12 months (18 months if you are a late enrollee) and only applies to conditions for which you sought treatment in the 6 months leading up to enrollment. You may be able to apply creditable coverage to offset your pre-existing condition exclusion period. For example, if you were on an individual policy before enrolling in your job-based coverage, you may be able to subtract the amount of time you were covered on your individual policy from the pre-existing condition exclusion period.
The rules governing pre-existing condition exclusion periods in individual policies vary widely from state to state. As a general rule, they are very different from the rules limiting pre-existing condition exclusion periods in job-based coverage. Check out these consumer guides which contain state-specific information about pre-existing condition exclusion periods in individual policies.
All those medical questions on their forms that they have you fill out, and also if you put your previous medical insurance info they can check that way also. Make sure that you read all their forms before filling them out and signing it, especially the small print. On some of their forms when you sign to release medical records you have to look at the fine print because they will never tell you straight out that they are going to check with your former doctors or insurance companies. They are banking on the fact that you will sign all the papers and without knowing it you are giving them the authority to look into your past medical history. The best advice I can give you is to ask many questions and don't sign anything until you are satisfied with their answer.
Previous medical records for one thing. Also, if you are asked to go in for a medical exam before you are approved for insurance and they find something at that time it is the pre-existing condition even if you knew nothing about it.