How Bluechoice Carefirst scammed me, and how I beat them
Many of you know that the past couple of years I lived a true bureaucratic nightmare that cost me thousands of dollars. Let me explain.
When we lived in Maryland, we bought independent insurance from Bluechoice Carefirst. They autobilled our monthly premium (which was nearly a thousand dollars), to our credit card. But, when we decided to move cross country, we could no longer use their services, since they are limited to doctors and providers located in Maryland, and only cover Maryland residents. Plus, UCLA had insurance which I could buy at more affordable rates.
So, I called Bluechoice Carefirst, and they told me I had to send a letter to an address they provided. I did as I was told.
This was in August of 2007.
I noticed, to my horror, that they continued to bill my credit card in September and November of 2007. I called them. They said I needed to send a letter to the same particular address. They assured me they’d refund this money. I sent the letter and thought it was taken care of.
It wasn’t.
I continued to be billed. I had to keep calling them. I got one customer service rep to give me an actual person in charge. She gave me the name “Denise Green,” who I was told was the customer retention specialist, and her direct phone number.
If Denise Green is a specialist at anything, I think it would be “managing to be away from her desk at all hours of the day.” Because I called and left numerous messages, and she was never there. And the worst part is that she would have her outgoing message end with the phrase, “And may God give you a very blessed day.” That would just burn me up.
I wrote many more letters. I called customer service. I received a NEW address to send the letters to from customer service. I sent my letters there. But still I was billed nearly $1000 a month, every month. For coverage I couldn’t even use if I wanted to.
I called my credit card company and explained the situation and asked them to stop allowing them to bill to my card – and to refund the previous billings since I hadn’t authorized it. They told me to send my letters of cancellation to them and they’d “investigate.” With visions of magnifying glasses and trench coated gumshoes pounding the pavement on my behalf, I sent them copies of every letter I’d sent, along with a rundown of the calls I’d made.
My credit card company responded about a month later. They determined the charges were valid and they would not reverse them or refuse future charges. When I asked them why, they said that Bluechoice Carefirst told them I was still covered, and hadn’t cancelled. Whoa there, Columbo, that’s quite an investigation! You’re wasting your talents at the credit card companies. There are unsolved murders out there that could use your dogged dedication to the truth!
Finally, desperate and seriously not knowing what in the world I could do (and literally more than $10,000 in hole to this whole debacle at this point) I posted a plea for advice on the excellent site Ask Metafilter. Users told me that every state had an Insurance Commissioner and Insurance Adminstration, whose job is to prevent exactly these kinds of abuses.
I contacted the Maryland Insurance Adminstration.
Enter Tara Wilkerson, the first real person who would talk about this situation and try to get to the bottom of it. And she was not happy with what she found. Bluechoice had purged all the phone calls, but did have records of me calling to cancel. However, they said they never received the letters, so they couldn’t cancel. They said the first time they had verifiable communication from me was May of 2008, and they would refund my premiums between then and October of 2008 – so… 5 months.
The commission sent me a letter telling me this was my settlement, but that I could protest it and request a formal hearing if I didn’t think it was fair. I was tempted to take what money I had coming to me and be happy.
But then it was weird – Carefirst told Tara that they had already sent me the refund, and in fact they did not. I had to contact her and tell her I never got any check. This made her very angry – because she had to go back and ask them what was going on and they said they were “in the process of sending the check,” and they were sorry if she misunderstood them previously.
Very shady.
I decided, I’m going to push this more. I called Tara and said I wanted the hearing. I reminded her that they had admitted that they had verifiable communication as of May 2008 requesting cancellation and they continued to bill me another $5k from that point. I told her that this was them admitting that they were untrustworthy.
She agreed. And said she hadn’t thought of it in that way, but they were basically admitting to taking $5000 after they knew I was out of state and wanted to cancel.
Today I got a letter: “Our investigation revealed that CareFirst BlueChoice Inc. has violated Maryland insurance law in the handling of your account. Therefore, this Administration has ordered the company to return to you, premiums paid from September 1, 2007 with interest in the amount of 6% per year within thirty days.”
I win! And I never even had to attend a hearing.
Turns out that the date of my cancellation didn’t really even matter. Their investigation found that CareFirst’s own rules state that once I was no longer a Maryland resident I was no longer covered by definition.
Busted, CareFirst. Busted.
And I hope this blog post shows up when people google them. So if you want to link to it from your blog when you talk about CareFirst, be my guest. They were trying to steal money. And they almost got away with it, too, if it weren’t for this rascally kid.
good stuff. dropped a story on my blog, linking back to yours: hopefully this complaint will start turning up more highly-ranked on google searches soon.
I am just aghast when big companies betray trust so blatantly. In most cases, they have all the resources and you have few. It is one reason the increasing practice of companies requiring that you waive your rights to legal action and instead submit to arbitration concerns me so much.
I’m equally upset at the action of the credit card company. I would think that if there is no way to cancel a service being billed to the card that it would be the time to cancel the card and look for a new card issuer.
Glad you got the letter. Let us know when you actually get a check in hand.
Congrats, Jason. Vindication, indeed. Too bad the interest rate was only 6%; you must have paid a lot more over two years. I did not know about this debacle, but I’m glad you mentioned it. I’m not much of conspiracy theorist, but health insurance companies, particularly for non-corporate clients (families, individuals, small businesses), seem to do everything they can to not pay claims and otherwise hold onto money. This is also why I hate auto withdrawals from bank accounts and credit cards. I think that consumers need to have much more control over auto withdrawals.
You rock Jason! I love when people burn on the insurance bad guys of the world. They suck. Hope your post gets lots of hits and Carefirst will be Carelast soon.
Wow, Jase….this confirms my worst fears about what companies can do! What would a person without your perseverance, smarts, and resources have done? This is actually pretty scary!
I’m so GLAD you won! Not just because you’re my son, but this just isn’t just and maybe it has helped stop this company from doing this to others.
That is so awesome!! I guess their name is really MONEYfirst huh?
So recenlty I had a similar thing – way less dramatic. I signed up for Comcast’s triple play – get all three services for $99. Cool. Signed up, forgot about it.
Then one day about 7 months later I actually looked at the statements (I auto pay) and it was $150!! What??!? So I checked the fine print, and they were charging me for triple play (which includes internet of course) AND internet – again. And no, my internet was NOT doubly fast!
So I called and they switched it, and I said – hey I want my money back. The lady said, not sure if we can do that. Call this guy at this number. Did it. Left message. Waited. Nothing.
I hate stuff like this. Finally I found time to call back, and this lady said – let me look into it. Put me on hold apparently until I died. So I hung up.
The amazing thing is – she called me back!!! And refunded the full amount. YES.
haha way to go jase!
peaj -
You’re right, but they have their ways of keeping you from canceling. In this case, it’s that I had a ton of rewards points which I would have forfeited. So I had to redeem them, and then call back. But then that wait time would be crazy, and I knew it. Plus (and I forgot to mention this in the post) my credit card was expiring by the time the credit card company’s “investigation” was completed, so I knew BlueChoice wouldn’t be able to bill it anymore.
But the funny thing? When it expired, BlueChoice sent a letter with my California address HANDWRITTEN on the envelope asking for me to update my expiration date so I could still be auto-billed. So they obviously knew my new address, and they obviously knew I didn’t live in MD anymore. At that point, I felt like they were just mocking me.
Looking back, I really wonder why I didn’t just cancel my credit card much earlier – but I think I was too trusting that these huge companies would eventually get it right. That I had to actually seek protection from a government agency when the facts of the case are so clear is still incredible to me.
Christian -
Comcast was giving you the Quadruple Play, apparently.
I’m not much of conspiracy theorist, but health insurance companies, particularly for non-corporate clients (families, individuals, small businesses), seem to do everything they can to not pay claims and otherwise hold onto money.
Almost by rule Carefirst would deny any claim ever and wait for me to call them before they’d approve it. I always wondered what happened to people who didn’t actually read their insurance related mail closely and take the time to call them. I think they count on the percentage of people who don’t, and make a lot of money off of that unofficial policy.
Ya Got me good Jas….I laughed spit on my keyboard with the Whoa there, Columbo comment….thank you very much. But congrats on beating those no good yellow
bellied lily livered polka dot bikini wearing whoo ha’s.
So great Jase!
Jason, how shocking and under”lying” can one company possibly be? Now, you can serve as an advisor to others who are caught in such traps as these. And, it could easily happen to any of us. Yeh, for your perserverance!
Go to hell.
Jason — followed a link here and loved your story. One thing though, you have to be careful when canceling a credit cards, it doesnt automatically let you off the hook for services that are auto-billed. Had you done that, and they decide to fight you in court for the owed money, they might could win. Canceling a card, (or stopping a check) can be construed as fraudulent because it is an attempt to not pay an owed service. Yeah you can argue that it was a legitimate cancellation due to them not honoring your cancellation, but it would be up to the courts.
I had a landlord dispute once and almost lost because I moved my account to avoid them collecting rent they werent entitled to. Had I cancelled the account, with out moving the money (disputed rent) to a holding account, I probably would have lost. AND THEY WOULD BE ENTITLED TO TRIPLE DAMAGES!!!!
this story is so great–good job on persevering until justice was won!
It is great to know you had someone like Tara to help fight the battle for you. Now you just need that check and hopefully it won’t take long for them to write it!
Congrats on your successes!
Wow, what a victory, Jase. Characterisitic of you, though, to fight tooth and nail if you’re sure you’re right. Great job. Would there be a chance of legal charges filed against the company by Tara and friends. Could you file charges?
Jason
I am SO hoping the Denise Green who left the comment above was not the one named above in the article. I am SO hoping that is just a prank someone’s pulling. And I am SO hoping that, if it is the same person, that you screenprint the comment and send copies to Tara Wilkerson, CareFirst, the Consumerist blog, Ask Metafilter, and Denise’s church to show the true colors of this “customer retention specialist”.
awesome …. sounds inspiring for all those who are playing the silent victims so far
great work and amazing post !
Came here via MetaTalk – and wow, this is amazing. I mean, due to the many “I’m sorry, we don’t cover that test to make sure you don’t have a serious illness” type saga I’ve had with my insurance company, I don’t think much of the administrative powers of these companies. But this was way over the top. Someday someone’s going to sue the stuffings out of that company.
And congratulations! I bet it’s all been a huge relief. Also – you should make a copy of the check when it comes in and frame the thing. I imagine it’s rare.
Praise God, I am so glad for you and your family that this was resolved in your favor, Jase, congratulations! How frustrating and infuriating this all must surely have been.
Great point about letting the card expire – I hadn’t thought about that.
The Denise Green in the comments IS NOT the real Denise Green. I know this for two reasons. (1) I saw the isp address of the commenter and he’s a good friend and jokester, and (2) Denise Green would NEVER communicate with me under any circumstances, as she has shown by ignoring my multiple pleas for attention left in her voicemail box.
Also, someone had commented elsewhere that I should have used delivery conformation on my letters. This is true, and I could have avoided a lot of heartache if I had. I guess once again I was just too trusting that the people on the phones and the company in generally would want to get this right. I’ll be more vigilant and paranoid in the future. Lesson learned.
Someone had also mentioned that until I get the check I shouldn’t celebrate. This is also probably true, especially given their track record. However, the official decision from the Commission said that Bluechoice broke a law where they could be penalized up to $125,000 per unlawful incident, and since they charged me for 13 illegitimate months, they could by law be on the hook for 1.65 Million dollars. I would think they’d want to settle this matter quietly at this point rather then appeal and risk it getting in front of a judge who is angered by their abuse of corporate power who decides to throw the book at them.
At this point I’m feeling enough swagger that I kind of hope they do appeal. I’d love to see them penalized, personally – they’ve made my financial life a bit of a hell just because they could. And over an amount of money that is a rounding error to them, but a huge deficit to me.
Finally – I have to say that this is a case where government does exactly what it ought to do – protect the rights of the citizens. I had my rights of property and promises violated here, and this state agency is finally righting those wrongs.
what a story! I am glad you got it straightened out. I am impressed!
What is the point of insurance anyway? Given that these companies turn profits it basically means society as a whole is losing out. That’s not counting the distortions in the market that they introduce i.e. perpetually high prices. Doctors are hardly the victims either. When was the last time a doctor put up a price list in the waiting room? Or a blood test facility? Why is it that rocket scientists work for salaries but the ferociously greedy doctors get paid per task? The mess won’t be sorted out until doctors get used to being paid a third of what they’re making now — even then they’d be living quite comfortably.
And the only reform that would make insurance work is to outlaw them or make them return your money if you don’t end up using it.
Outrageous does not even begin to describe your situation. I admire your persistence and I only hope I can be as patient as you were should this happen to me!
Best of luck and thank you for your post!
1.65 millbills. *Whistles* Now that’s some serious dingage. I can see the jokers appealing and requesting arbitration, but losing their shirt in the process since they broke state law willingly and knowingly.
Don’t plan on spending any of that cash yet, it may take awhile for that to hit your mailbox.