At the end of 2024 my wife visited an allergist to try and get a handle on her allergies. A boat load of testing later and she needs allergy injections for her horrific environmental allergies to attempt to get control of them. Everything is good with this allergist at this point. It’s the end of December 2024 and the allergist informs her at her appointment at the end of the next month (January 2025) she will owe $1500 to start her year long series of injections. We have a HDHP with HSA so we totally understand that cost because the deductible resets. Well life punched us hard over the next month and my wife has ramped up her attempts to find a new job because she is so unhappy at her current one. Given everything going on and the fact that she isn’t sure if she will continue to have the same insurance or access to the same provider to complete the allergy injections if she gets a new job, she decided now isn’t a good time to start the allergy injections. So she cancelled her appointment 48 hours prior to the scheduled appointment. This provider did not give her any kind of verbal, written, mimed, carrier pigeon, etc policy related to appointments, billing, and/or payment policies for the practice. Nothing. So at the beginning of February 2025 she received a bill from Quest for the bloodwork she had done in December 2024. Two of the bajillion tests requested by this provider were not covered and it was going to cost us almost $700 out of pocket (whole separate issue we’re handling). She couldn’t find an EOB so I told her to log onto the portal to see if she could download it. Well she logs onto the portal and there are $2,000 worth of claims submitted from this allergist in mid January 2025. They were not the claims related to her appointments in December 2024 and they were submitted two weeks before she cancelled her first allergy injection appointment. To make a long story short, the allergist prepped the injection two weeks before my wife’s first allergy injection over the course of 3 days and submitted the claim to insurance for it. The doctor’s office is saying she is responsible for the bill and I’m saying that sounds like fraud for billing for treatment she never received and was prepared without any kind of contract or informed consent to give her the opportunity to prevent this from happening. My wife has spoken with 2 different insurance reps and one was like yeah you’re responsible and the other said I’m referring you to our fraud department. The doctor is entirely unhelpful and has refused to communicate with her on 1. Why there is no practice policy to avoid this situation and 2. How long that injection mixed up in good for and 3. What happens if she stops doing the injections after one appointment. What do we need to know about this? Is this fraud? Should we push to not be responsible for this cost? Did my wife make a mistake somewhere in understanding how allergists operate and missed what is the obvious to the field she should have cancelled her appointment at minimum two weeks before it was scheduled?

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.

I was in a minor fender bender in a parking lot. Other driver was turning into main drive. I was passing a car that was stopped so I was hard to see. I had minor scrape to left front bumper and other driver had minor scrape to left front. Probably about $1,000 damage to each car. Exchanged info, he's an attorney who does work for state farm. I had camera in car, but actual collision was on side so actual impact not shown. Sent my info and video to State Farm. Got an answer in one day. Was told it was inconclusive, and no one was at fault. So, we both pay our deductibles. It seemed like State Farm looked at the option that would cost the company the least, especially with the speed the determination took place.

I have a BCBS of Illinois community health plan, and I've been looking to find a dermatologist that's in network and when I go on the website look under the "in network" tab, everyone I call says they do not accept my insurence. This isn't the first time I've dealt with this either... Even when I call and get a list from that it's the same story. Am I doing something wrong? By the sounds of it a lot of the offices I call make it seem like they asked to be removed from these lists and never were.

I’m moving to a new state and currently have renters’ insurance with State Farm. I filed a claim for a theft in my building a couple of months ago, where a large amount of my personal items were stolen from what was supposed to be a secure mailroom. Last Friday, I contacted a State Farm agent in my new state to set up a policy for my next apartment. After taking the weekend to get back to me, she said she had spoken with the underwriting department and they couldn’t write me a policy because of that claim. She specifically said I couldn’t have an active claim in the last **24–36 months**. That doesn’t make sense to me. Why would the rule be a range instead of a clear cutoff? Is this standard insurance practice, and I’m just unfamiliar with it, or did she give me incorrect info? The vague timeline feels odd, and I’m wondering if she was just making it up or if she has the information wrong. I ended up going with a different insurance company anyway, but just wondering if she was BSing

Are there any stated income HELOCs out there? I dragged my feet on UMPQUA which auto approved up to 100k, but when I finally got around to applying, they changed their DTI from 50 to 40% and their estimated DTI for me came 38-43% so it triggered stips. I don't need a HELOC, but would like to open one just in case. Figure is popular, but requires you to draw the full applied amount for, and they charge you 5% off that (big no thanks). I have about $200k in room for 85% CLTV, but I'm ok with max limits of $100k for auto approvals. Anything full doc is not worth my time, so I don't want to go down those avenues, and I don't want anything that requires a draw at open that you get a fat charge on. Thanks!

I've had Fetch since my dog was less than a year old. The only pre existing condition he had at the time was allergies. I knew IVDD was common with the breed (French Bulldog), so I wanted some cushion in the event he ever needed surgery. He is now 6, and has been diagnosed with IVDD, but hasn't required surgery and hasn't had any signs in over a year now. The only other condition he has had was lyme, but that was taken care of so I'm not concerned about that either (never met the deductible with that treatment). Fetch doubled my rate a couple years ago, so I dropped my coverage to $5k and deductible to $750, 80% coverage. I've been paying about $712 annually for 4 years now. Just got an email that they're increasing this to $1650. I can't justify that for the crap coverage I'm getting, but I KNOW something is going to happen as soon as I cancel. I'm coming to terms that no matter who I switch to, IVDD will not be covered, so I'm mostly now thinking of any other issues he may have as he's getting older. I'm looking at **Spot, Pets Best, and Embrace**. They all have better coverage amounts for under $100/month. Spot says: '...we will no longer consider a condition to be pre-existing if it has been cured and free of symptoms and treatment for 180 days, with the exception of knee and ligament conditions". Anyone have experience with this? Seems too good to be true. They're quoting me $80/month for 10k limit, 70% reimbursement, 1k deductible. Also open to any other recommendations!

Bought my home back in 2018. My mortgage company chose Berkshire Hathaway and they paid them through my mortgage payments so I didn't pay BH direct. I got notice last week that my policy will be cancelled end of September. Do I need to shop insurance myself or is that up to my mortgage company since they have vested interest in my home? Can I tell my mortgage company what company and policy that I want?

I had horrible customer service experiences with United Healthcare this past week. Horrible enough that I want to send a complaint to the appropriate people. I have unsuccessfully searched all over for an email address - I can't stand the thought of another phone call with them. Does anyone know the email address?

Earlier this year, I was involved in an accident where I was side swiped by a gardener truck. I was on a residential street and slowed down to look for parking. The gardener truck was behind me but decided to pass me, and when I drove forward a little to park further up, the truck merged back into my lane and struck my car with the equipment hanging off its trunk. They sustained no damages while my drivers side window shattered, mirror broke off, and fender/door sustained damages. Around 2 months ago, we received a letter from their insurance saying they assessed 55% negligence on their insured driver and 45% on me. They were also willing to pay for 55% of my damages. My insurance decided to take them to arbitration. During this time I received 2 letters from my representative. The first said that while the other insurance company has accepted full responsibility for the accident, they have not been able to reach a settlement for damages paid. I then received a second letter a month later saying that the arbitrator has ruled in favor of the other party. This seemed like a complete 180. I was shocked to learn of their final decision and emailed my representative asking if any of my $1,000 deductible would be recovered. She said no and sent me a copy of the arbitration decision which stated the following duties breached on my end: vehicle failed to keep appropriate lookout and they failed to maintain safe parking maneuvering. Is there anything I can do at this point? I know the arbitration decision is binding and final but I am honestly just stunned, especially because it felt like the truck failed to safely pass my car. I spoke with my insurance and they said my premium will most likely double. Is this fair?