Location: Massachusetts Hello. Up until today I've only ever been a silent lurker in this sub but I'm feeling kind of lost in this situation of mine. I've tried to keep as much information vague as I could while still maintaining relevance. Apologies in advance for how long this turned out to be. I (28F) am a field technician. I was injured on the job in a car accident (not at fault) while driving between work locations. It was a pretty bad accident, but I was lucky enough to get away with only a couple of injuries. Long story short, after a 13 hour stint in the ER they told me to follow up with my primary and sent me on my way. I knew I’d be out of work for a while, but I had a small nest egg to fall back on in the meantime so I wasn’t all that worried.  The next day I called my primary care doctor and found out he had recently left the practice, and the only other doctor there did not take Worker’s Comp claims. None of the clinics or urgent care centers I contacted would take workers’ comp cases either, without prior approval or referral from WC themselves. I returned to the ER in my town about a week later and was referred to a clinic (Let’s call them OC) that would treat me—but only if my workers’ comp insurer (WC) signed a fee agreement. Shortly after, a rep from WC called me. I mentioned that I was considering legal counsel for a possible third-party claim against the at-fault driver and she replied that if I retained a lawyer, it would be unethical for her to speak to me any further and that she would only speak to my attorney from here on. A day or so later I did eventually retain a lawyer—but only for the personal injury case, not workers’ comp. From that point on, both my lawyer and I called the WC rep daily for over two weeks, with no responses or voicemails. I had to get my HR rep from work to reach out directly and received a reply from the WC rep almost immediately. She told my HR rep that they could not sign this fee agreement until she had completed her investigation. At this point it’s been like 19 days since the accident with no communication from her whatsoever. I called every day and left a voicemail every day, more so to document the lack of follow up on her end.  After three more weeks of this I reached out to my HR person again and she was able to see that my claim was denied about two weeks after my accident. The denial haad a note that said I was unreachable (false) and she also found a letter that was formally filed with the state saying I was denied because I had deviated from my route (also false, and never discussed with me). My HR person was able to get WC’s supervisors involved, and the WC rep contacted me shortly after to report herself that the denial was due to “failure to report in a timely manner.” At this point, I won’t lie, I was pretty angry hearing that, but I was still trying to keep cool. Calmly, I pointed out that WC rep’s lack of communication was the sole cause of this denial and she pretty much just brushed me off and started asking other questions related to my claim, presumably to actually file it properly this time around. She then verbally accepted the claim “without prejudice” and told me the OC fee agreement would be signed that day.  I went over this whole issue with my attorney and she said I shouldn’t rock the boat if they’re cooperating now. My problem is, it’s been a month and four days since WC rep said that she’d sign that agreement “before the end of the day” and the agreement is still not signed, so are they really cooperating? I have not seen a specialist for my injuries to this day and without going into detail, I’m basically bedridden at the moment.  Roughly one week after that call a WC supervisor reached out and told me I would need to sign and notarize a Section 19 agreement. This was the first time this agreement was mentioned, and no one indicated it was a condition for approving treatment. Over the following weeks, I continued to check in with both the supervisor and the original WC rep as they negotiated the fee (or so they claimed) with the specialist’s office. At one point the WC supervisor says that they have reached an agreement and that they were preparing to sign a finalized version. After about a week or so I reach out to the WC supervisor, who hands me off to the WC rep, who then says that she was waiting for the signed Section 19 from me first—implying that the fee agreement was being held up until then, although no one had explicitly stated that before. When I asked for that clarification, the WC rep clammed up again and stopped responding. I’ve asked twice with no answer, and when I asked a different question on an email chain she and her supervisor are both on, she responded right away to THAT question, refusing to answer the last two in the email chain where it is just her and I.  As of now, I’ve been without medical care for about three months. I’ve received no workers’ comp wage benefits, and I’m unable to qualify for state assistance because there’s no formal record of accepted benefits. My injuries are not improving, possibly from lack of care, and I’m growing increasingly concerned about long-term damage. My current attorney has advised against escalating things with WC, fearing they might stop communicating again, but at this point I’ve lost all hope that this company is acting with any sort of good faith and I feel like something else needs to be done. At the very least, I really believe that this level of dishonesty shouldn’t go unpunished by their supervisors or the state if need be. If I didn’t have my savings to fall back on I’d be in a lot more trouble, but even so this money won’t last forever.   My problem is: If I pull the trigger and start playing offense here it sounds like it might be much, much longer before I see any specialist for my injuries. Everyone has warned me that Workers’ Comp is a nightmare but I never expected this much of a problem. The way I’m feeling right now, I’m very close to pursuing legal action against them as well, but every time I mention what I’m going through in my close circle the consensus seems to be “Yeah they suck but it is what it is.”  Does the state take these kinds of complaints seriously? Does it sound like I am justified to pursue legal action if I decided to go there? It sounds to me like they’re withholding care unless I sign this agreement so they can cover themselves first. I need a realistic opinion before I decide what to do next. I try to never act in the heat of the moment but I’m kind of at the end of my rope.  TL;DR Workers’ Comp is doing what they do best. Would I be making it worse if I tried to hold them accountable?

Location: New York I am trying to navigate the ongoing challenges in the hardship surrender of a life insurance annuity (qualified) I inherited from my father when he passed in NOV 2013. He was 82 years old when he passed and was already taking disbursements (Metlife at that time). In early 2014, I truly thought that I had requested a full pay-out on the life insurance; however, Metlife then informed me that I had already annuitized the policy (?), and it was documented on my 2014 annual FMV notice from Metlife that there was "no servicing agent on record". At that time, I did not get too upset about the mix-up because my family was doing fine financially, then. However, I am now 61 and my wife is 62; and now our financial situation has turned dire, as last year we already liquidated the other inherited life insurance annuity from Security Benefit which was super easy and paid-out within days. The reason for this eminent need is that my wife lost her job in March 2024 and she has been unsuccessful in finding a new role in this unsure job market (>500 job applications), and her NY unemployment insurance was exhausted long ago. We also have three sons, with two currently being in college in which one of them has autism in which I have dedicated my life, acting as his personal attendant of sorts to assist his K-12 education. His disability application for SSDI is still in the appeal process with the SSA, so we have paid for his first year of community college, with a great deal of assistance from me. Unfortunately, after several documented/recorded calls with Brighthouse, they have failed to provide me with a copy of my original contract, or the ability to even open an on-line account. Whenever I call them, I am not even treated as a real Brighthouse customer as my annuity contract is immortalized allowing me no visibility of my account, and I am informed that I will not be able to withdrawal the money until age 73. After 11 years, the annuity is only worth \~$28,000 (started out at $37,000 in 2013). It's not a lot of money to most people, but it could save my family at this point! I would be so grateful if the legal expert in this community could help me navigate down the correct paths to possibly resolve this solution as we really can't afford a financial planner or attorney at this time. I'm not even sure that I'm using the correct surrender request form (EF-70N-DXC 10/23) because I never get a response from Brighthouse, and I am very gracious in my communications with them.

Is it even legal for Healthy Paws pet insurance to increase premiums at almost 200% in CA? This is outrageously high!! Anyone experiencing the same? #healthypawspetinsurance

A few weeks ago, I was in a car accident while driving my parents' car that I wasn’t in fault. When I called my parents insurance company they told me i wasn’t covered by their insurance policy and didn't say anything and said to call the other party to solve this they didn't informed me on any of the steps so I assumed that I have to only call the other persons insurance. I wasn’t covered under my parents insurance, as they excluded me from due to not having 3 years o experience and I had no idea how much this would impact me. This was totally my fault for not being informed. My parents don’t speak good English and the language barrier wasn’t clear whether they added me or removed me from their policy. I'm a full time student taking 30 units this spring and currently I live with my boyfriend near my campus and visit my parents about once a month. That day, I just wanted to go to the gym and didn't think much about it so I drove myself since my parents were busy. I never thought that one small decision could turn into something so overwhelming. I’ve only been driving for a year, and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me. I didn’t even know that I was supposed to notify the DMV if the accident caused more than $1,000 in damage. I’ve tried everything I called my parents’ insurance company, I called the DMV to request a hearing but they told me there’s nothing I can do because I wasn’t covered. Now, I’m facing the possibility of having my license suspended, and I feel completely lost. Is there *any* way to stop this from happening? I don’t want one mistake to take away my ability to drive. If anyone has advice or knows what I can do, I’d truly appreciate it.

So I recently opened a new policy with GEICO for my car. A few days after opening the policy(march 2025), they added a driver without contacting me or giving me any notification. That alone increased my premium $450. The driver that was added is my GF that doesn’t live in my household or is licensed to drive(never got a DL). They claim I added her in a quote but i didn’t quote with them since ~Nov-Dec 2024(she visited during this time and left in Jan)I know you’re supposed to include any person in the household in a policy due to liability but I’m currently living alone. GEICO also claimed that they use “DMV records” to add drivers to policy on behalf of the customers if we didn’t do it already. That couldn’t be the case since my GF had no affiliation with the DMV in my state. Any advice on this matter would be appreciated

Hey all, I’ve been having issues with my insurance trying to approve a surgery. My surgeon submitted a prior authorization and they denied it. They resubmitted it with a different diagnosis to meet the criteria. They usually take 5-10 business days. But within 48 hours I checked my UHC account and it said “cancelled”. What does it mean when it’s been “cancelled” and not actually denied? I have United Healthcare through my mom’s work. Thanks!

We were uninsured for awhile, and honestly, it wasn't that bad. We had a 94% discount from the hospital we used and had a great experience with them for many years. Fast forward to last year, we officially got insurance. Cigna. We have an HSA account and a high deductible. We spend SO much money, but I view this as paying for peace of mind so if anything horrendous happened we would be covered. Now, I just got word that our hospital is discontinuing service with Cigna and everything is going to be considered out-of-network. This is a blow to our family because 2 out of the 4 of us require specialists. My son is medically complex and the hospital has a children's hospital wing where he sees 5 specialists a year and may need surgery in the coming years. I've spent years finding a medical team that works for our family and they're all at this establishment. It's all being pulled out from under us...it takes effect in 3 weeks. I don't know what to do now....should we go back to being uninsured? How do we shop around for insurance? Should I look into catastrophic insurance? A friend recommended US Health Group but after searching this sub I'm hesitant. Key points: 1) We make too much money for any form of government assistance (however, we are NOT wealthy) 2) We live 2 hours away from the next closest children's hospital and I have yet to find out if they accept Cigna. 3) How do I vet an insurance company? TIA

So a few years ago Freedom Mortgage bought my Mortgage from Veterans United. I qualified for a VA rate adjustment at some point down the road and they were very helpful to set up a payment system where I am paying money every two weeks shaving years off the amortization schedule. The problem arose when we had water damage to my house during a storm. After getting the insurance figured out, there was mold involved which made things tricky, I had a large check which was going to be used to pay the final contractors to put the house back together. The check was sent to me, I signed it and sent it to Freedom because it was large enough to require the involvement of the mortgage company. The problem arose when they kept moving the goalposts and demanding more paperwork, more inspections, and more reports. After nearly two months of providing them with everything they finally cut a check, for less than the originally cited amount. I was told the amount was less because they withheld money which had already been paid. They said if I wanted more money I could either give them an itemized list, down to the nails, of every penny I am asking for or get an inspection at my expense to confirm the work hasn't started. Freedom is holding my money hostage and making every step of this process impossible. I cannot stress enough to get as far away from this company as possible. The only reason I am still with them is my 2.25% APR. The scariest part is their inability to tell me what they are going to do with the extra money once we are done.

I recently found out that there were wrong 'occurences' under my name (list only) in family's auto insurance, which stated that i had two accidents between 2021-2023 "CLUE only". However, I did not have a license nor owned a car (my family only got the car in 2024). We had no previous insurance/cars, so these records were completely impossible and wrong. The insurance company asked me to contact LexisNexis to dispute and update it (because they said all insurance companies pulled that info from lexis nexis and there was nothing they could do to change it). Each time I called them, it was a min of 30 min on hold and when i finally got through to a live agent, they said their system was down so they could not authenticate anybody's ID and asked me to call back 24 hours later. I've been trying for 3 days, but each day an agent would tell me the same thing about their system being down/not able to help anybody at this point. LexisNexis also said that even after customers' ID were authenticated, it'd take 30 days to send a result by mail (another 7-10 days). It was a frustrating experience. Wonder if anybody had similar experience with wrong records from LexisNexis - thanks.

Hello, I have a few questions how to handle my PCP or Labcorp messing up with my insurance details. I had a bloodwork taken at my primary care and apparently they sent it to Labcorp. But Labcorp billed my insurance with the incorrect details apparently - my name and Member ID, group number are wrong. I got a mail in Feb asking for insurance details but the return address was not online on their website, so I thought it was phishing. I called the Billing department and asked them if they needed my insurance details, and they said "it is pending with insurance and there is nothing you have to do but wait". I don't have this call recorded. Today I got the invoice number and it says the below: "Reason for Bill: We attempted to file a claim with insurance. According to BLUES NJ: HORIZON BCBS, the patient name or subscriber number did not match their records. This balance is now the patient responsibility" I don't want this to impact my credit score but I don't want to pay $1000 since my PCP or they made mistake that I had nothing to do with. I will call them tomorrow morning but I have a few questions. 1. Since they dumped the responsibility on me, can I sort of force them to refile with insurance? What do I do if they refuse? 2. How long generally do I have to sort this out (not paying) so it doesn't impact me. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm just pretty pissed right now so apologies if I sound rude.