I recently worked with a client who had been involved in a car accident. Thankfully, he was not injured and never even needed hospital treatment.

However, because there was an auto insurance claim on file, Medicare’s system was showing the auto policy as the primary payer. That caused problems with his Medicare claims and led to a lot of confusing paperwork arriving in the mail.

Many people don’t realize that Medicare follows “Coordination of Benefits” rules to determine who pays first when another type of insurance, like auto or liability coverage, may be involved. Even when treatment is unrelated or no injuries occurred, those records can sometimes remain attached to a Medicare file until they are updated or corrected.

After 3 long calls with Medicare’s Coordination of Benefits department, we were finally able to get everything resolved and have Medicare process things correctly again.

Sometimes these issues are fixed with one quick phone call… and sometimes it takes a little persistence. 

This is also a good reminder: if you receive Medicare paperwork or claim denials that don’t seem right, don’t ignore them. Often, there is a fix — it just takes someone willing to help navigate the process. The agents at The Health Insurance Store are here to do just that when needed.

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