It’s no surprise that Greg Lee isn’t the only unemployed Minnesotan to be caught off guard by a COBRA health coverage cancellation notice. His predicament, featured in my Sunday column , arose after a minor accounting error on his part. Lee’s coverage was administered through Igoe Administrative Services, a San Diego-based company that handles COBRA for his previous employer LA Fitness. For the last month, he had been trying to get Igoe to reinstate his coverage. But it turns out that Lee might have had more luck if he knew that there was a federal government department tasked with handling these types of situations.

After I contacted the U.S. Department of Labor , a spokeswoman urged me to publish the toll-free number for COBRA concerns. If you call 1-866-444-3272, a benefit adviser can assist you with problems, like they did in Lee’s case. While Lee has his coverage back, Whistleblower heard from several tipsters who didn’t get any warning before they lost their insurance either.

Jeanette Pierre, a 62-year-old registered nurse from Eden Prairie, wrote to Whistleblower after she saw Lee’s story. Her coverage, also administered through a third party, was canceled after the company said she had failed to pay her premium. Pierre was upset because she had called the company numerous times to confirm when her premiums were due. Eventually, they sent her a letter on June 18 to tell her that her payment was due on June 1.

This kind of confusion seems to be pretty common, which is why there are federal laws that require grace periods so consumers have time to resolve their situation before their coverage is canceled.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Buyer beware, Complaint sagas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.