Seething Abated
Every so often (although more and more often these days) a residual check arrives in the mail for Zach. Nine times out of 10, we have no idea when these are coming.
Ten times out of 10 we have no idea how much they'll be for. Some are less than $10, some are more than $100. Even when the checks are small ones, they are always a nice surprise and a great affirmation. Occasionally, when they are more substantial, we pause to heave a sigh of relief in the split second before earmarking them for some unexpected expense we've just encountered.
I, of course, do not get residuals.
But once in a while, I do get an unexpected check in the mail. Usually it's weeks and weeks after I've filed a health insurance claim—so long after that I've completely forgotten about it and have moved it from the "awaiting reimbursement" column to the "just one more sunk cost on the way back to good health" column in the unconscious spreadsheet that inhabits my brain.
What I don't get, however, is reimbursement checks for health insurance claims I didn't submit.
Until now, that is.
In going through a stack of mail today, Zach found two checks, totaling $676.18, from our secondary insurance company, all for prescriptions I had filled last year.
I haven't had a chance to verify this yet, but I think the secondary insurance company took the statement from my primary insurance company that showed that I'd exhausted its prescription-drug coverage—the statement I had to send in in order to get the secondary insurance company to step in and cover my prescriptions going forward—and spontaneously converted it into a claim for all of my co-pays from 2006.
That's pretty much the equivalent of the IRS filling out your tax return for you and then sending you a refund check before your W-2s even arrive in the mail.
Hmm.
Maybe I can get the secondary insurance company to call the IRS. . . .
Ten times out of 10 we have no idea how much they'll be for. Some are less than $10, some are more than $100. Even when the checks are small ones, they are always a nice surprise and a great affirmation. Occasionally, when they are more substantial, we pause to heave a sigh of relief in the split second before earmarking them for some unexpected expense we've just encountered.
I, of course, do not get residuals.
But once in a while, I do get an unexpected check in the mail. Usually it's weeks and weeks after I've filed a health insurance claim—so long after that I've completely forgotten about it and have moved it from the "awaiting reimbursement" column to the "just one more sunk cost on the way back to good health" column in the unconscious spreadsheet that inhabits my brain.
What I don't get, however, is reimbursement checks for health insurance claims I didn't submit.
Until now, that is.
In going through a stack of mail today, Zach found two checks, totaling $676.18, from our secondary insurance company, all for prescriptions I had filled last year.
I haven't had a chance to verify this yet, but I think the secondary insurance company took the statement from my primary insurance company that showed that I'd exhausted its prescription-drug coverage—the statement I had to send in in order to get the secondary insurance company to step in and cover my prescriptions going forward—and spontaneously converted it into a claim for all of my co-pays from 2006.
That's pretty much the equivalent of the IRS filling out your tax return for you and then sending you a refund check before your W-2s even arrive in the mail.
Hmm.
Maybe I can get the secondary insurance company to call the IRS. . . .
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 8:21 PM
2 Comments:
quick, cash those checks before the insurance company decides it's a mistake!
Good news...a nice way to start the new year.
I agree with Torre!
cash it , cash it, cash it!
Seriously, those are such great little missives--especially cuz they aren't always so "little"...
xo
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