Mixups on a health plan bought through the state’s insurance exchange have left a Las Vegas family facing more than $1 million in medical bills.
The family’s troubles began in February, when Amber Smith delivered daughter Kinsley five weeks prematurely. Kinsley spent 10 days in Summerlin Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, and Amber’s 40-day hospital stay included two surgeries.
The Smiths bought insurance from Anthem Blue Cross through Nevada Health Link in October and made two premium payments in January. Yet the claims are being denied because Amber’s birth year is listed incorrectly on the family’s insurance identification cards, Smith said. It’s one year off — written as 1978, when it should be 1979.
Missing the birth year was just one example of a screw up that can only happen when government employees and computers are mentioned in the same breath.
The Smiths are the latest in a line of consumers reporting technical problems with Nevada Health Link, the Xerox-built marketplace through which Nevadans can buy subsidized health insurance to comply with the Affordable Care Act. Las Vegan Larry Basich ran up more than $400,000 in uncovered bills in February after Xerox’s system couldn’t figure out which insurer he signed up with. Basich got coverage in March, after a flurry of media attention.
We are pretty sure a Las Vegan refers to someone that lives in Vegas rather than someone that refuses to eat anything that walks, swims or flies.
Nevada Health Link transferred the Smiths to a “special case unit” in April, but Smith said the representative he works with cannot tell him when his coverage issues will be fixed, when he will have access to his account or when he will begin receiving statements and invoices.
Surely this will be resolved before the open enrollment ...... which coincidentally does not begin until AFTER the fall elections.
How convenient.
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