TL;DR: Employer canceled insurance benefits without notice while on FMLA due to nonpayment, despite efforts to pay. Hi, there. I’m currently on a medical leave of absence from work, and have been experiencing some difficulties with my FMLA/insurance benefits. I’m new to this, so any input would be appreciated! My leave began the last week of December and I’m set to return on 3/24, the last day of my FMLA protection. Since my leave started, my main priority was getting my insurance premiums taken care of so as not to lose my benefits, especially since I’ve racked up substantial medical bills over the course of my leave. I reached out to my benefits department, and was instructed to reach out to a third party (WEX) to make payment, which I did. WEX informed me that there was no balance due reflected on their end, and to reach back out to benefits. This back and forth has gone on for months now. At one point, they told me to reach out to BCBS to make payment, and BCBS acted like they had no idea why I was directed to them in the first place. I’m over 10 weeks into my leave, and have not received a single correspondence about my health insurance until today. Not a phone call, email, or letter. I did, however, receive a bill from WEX for my vision and dental coverage, but nothing whatsoever in regard to my medical coverage. Once I received the dental/vision bill, I called same day to make payment and was told, again, that there was nothing in the system to apply payment towards. Reached out to my benefits department again, and they said they could see the unpaid premium for my dental/vision. Called WEX again, and after escalating and speaking with a supervisor, was told that the reason why I was unable to pay my dental/vision is because the plans had been cancelled due to nonpayment. When I reiterated several times that I’ve been trying to pay for quite some time by that point, I was told that if I mailed the payment ASAP, there is a “strong possibility” they might reinstate the plans. I mailed the check the following morning, and am hoping it works out in my favor. What I’m most concerned about, though, is my health insurance. I spoke to someone in our benefits department in February, and was told that because I’d exhausted my PTO the first half of January, my insurance premium would have been deducted from one of those paychecks. According to the representative with whom I spoke, “January was covered.” I told him I’d received bills for my dental/vision coverage, but still hadn’t received anything for my health insurance. He told me to just wait a little bit longer for it to show up in the mail. Over 10 weeks later of non stop calling and trying to stay on top of things, and I still haven’t gotten anything. I expressed that due to the nature of my leave, I really needed to keep my insurance coverage, and was terrified the third party was going to cancel my policy for nonpayment. He reassured me that the only one able to cancel my insurance would be my employer, and they would “of course” provide me with ample notice prior to that. When I told him it didn’t make sense that I’d receive bills for my dental/vision but not my health insurance, he told me to not worry because my health insurance will remain as is regardless. That my account would just go in a rears and my employer would deduct the unpaid premiums accrued during my leave from my future paychecks once I’m back to work. A supervisor from benefits called me today (10 weeks after my initial call), letting me know that the reason why WEX didn’t have my balance due in their system was because my health insurance was cancelled on 1/28. When I told her that I’ve been calling for help for months now, and continue to get the runaround, she just kept saying it was my responsibility to cover my premiums while on FMLA. When I told her that benefits told me no one would cancel my health insurance without notification, she disregarded it. Same when I mentioned the rep telling me that my account would just go in a rears and they’d deduct the premiums from future paychecks. She told me that I owed for January, February, and March, and that there is a 10-day grace period where I can get caught back up to “hopefully” have my coverage reinstated, but couldn’t be for certain. I checked my last paycheck from January, and the deductions are reflected on it. I’m just very confused because she was adamant I owed for January still too. I just don’t see how they can cancel my insurance: 1. Without notice, and 2. After I’ve made an effort to get it paid since the very beginning of my leave. Someone had mentioned this being problematic because of potential FMLA violations, but I’ve never gone through this before and I’m honestly unsure of the process, and obviously don’t feel comfortable reaching out to my employer given the misinformation I’ve received thus far. Our market is experiencing mass layoffs right now, and I was hesitant to go on leave in the first place because of it. I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning or not, but the day before my leave was set to begin, thought to call Alight just to make sure I was not going to be reprimanded for not coming in. The representative informed me that my LOA request had been cancelled. This gave me pause, as the only ones who knew about the LOA request was my immediate supervisor and Alight. I’d have been no call, no show and subsequently terminated had I not thought to call beforehand. I’ve just been worried so much about all of this, and honestly regret taking the medical leave even though it was necessary. I’ve spent more time going back and forth with my employer than I have with my physicians and it’s been hell. Does anyone have any input regarding this situation? Is this just an HR issue and nothing more or should I consider seeking legal counsel? Thanks so much ❤️

Hi y’all. I recently opted to cover my cat. I’m paying a bit more than I’d like to, but I’m willing to keep the policy if it’s a good investment. My cat has a preexisting condition they won’t cover. That sucks. Online I’m seeing customers were dropped due to aging pets. What are your experiences with this company? Is it ok or should I run in the other direction?

I purchased private health insurance through an agent with Freedom Life Insurance. I'm starting my own business so have to handle my own insurance. I got a Freedom plan that is supposed to give me 4 free doctors visits before deductibles/copays kick in, and somehow I'm paying more than my insurance every time. They only pay $100 per visit. I am livid that I'm spending almost $400/month for a policy that doesn't seem to pay anything!! What is the deal with this?? They only pay $100, the rest is on me. This is directly different than what I was told it would be, and there's no way for me to know what I'm going to be paying unless I get a full bill breakdown from each doctor beforehand which I have never in my life had to do. The plan is a United plan, yet my agent said these major doctors don't have a good contracted rate with United. HOW? United is universally accepted. Should I have my agent find me a different plan? Go back to Marketplace where they switch your plan every year? Where the heck does a person go to get health insurance that isn't rocket science, actually covers what it says it will cover, and doesn't change all the time? Does the plan I'm on even sound normal?

This is a wild one and I'm just looking for some kind of guidance or advice. Try and make the story short, my wife got into a car accident this morning, the car was in her mothers name who passed away and there was a lien on it so we weren't able to get it in our name but the car was on the insurance. This morning, on her way to work, she turned at light and was hit by a 1990s Jeep. After giving insurance information, we went home and contacted our insurance company. Found out we didn't have insurance, when we did, or we thought we did, back in February 2025, I registered a new car with AAA and got insurance. The lady specifically told me I had insurance and said we were good until August, but all she did was sign us up for road side service. I have a receipt of when I went in as well. My car I added was also on the account, but everything else was missing. I filed a claim and they're going to do an investigation. I'm just feeling like I'm in a black hole right now and am super confused and worried. I really can't afford to be put in this situation currently and thought I was covered by insurance this entire time.

I am a 33yo f and my sister is 30yo f. We both have geico, same coverages, haven’t been in an accident or have gotten any tickets in 5+ years. We both have newish cars. Hers is a 2024 Mazda and mine is a 2025 Nissan. We live together at the same address. Why the hell is her car insurance almost half the cost of mine?! I am so annoyed about it! Lol

Hi All, I'm hoping you can help me review my options and come up with a plan for a recent unexpected (and I believe inaccurate) medical bill. I get annual cleanings and other routine dental care (e.g. 1 set of x-rays a year) for free under my dental plan. I have just recently gotten off of my parent's insurance and onto my own plan so I made sure to double and triple check both on my insurance provider (Cigna)'s website and on Zocdoc that I was booking an in-network appointment. At my appointment, however, I was seen by a different dentist than the one I booked with who ended up being an out-of-network dentist. I was surprised by a $400 bill from Cigna, which should have been $0, several weeks later. A fruitless chat with a Cigna rep led to them reprocessing my claim, even though I knew it wouldn't do any good since the information submitted by the dental office showed that I was seen by the out-of-network dentist. A week ago the claim was processed and my bill went up to nearly $1000 because they say the facility is out of network. It is not, and I have a screenshot from Cigna's website showing it isn't. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit lost about how to proceed. I know about the No Surprises act but am not totally sure how I would go about using it to my advantage here -- I do have the original emails showing that I booked my appointment with a different provider than the one who saw me, but am not sure how I can communicate this to the right people. Any advice about next steps would be very much appreciated! TIA for helping me figure out how to move through this. EDIT: In my 20s, live in NY State, insured through employer.

This happened in Texas, USA fwiw. Thanks for any opinions or advice. I did not purchase the rental company's insurance but did pay for the rental with my Chase Sapphire, which has good collision coverage. Dent in bumper not too major. The other driver clearly was at fault and in fact didn't even collect my info since we both knew it was her fault. I got all her info and now my rental company is *trying to get my insurance info*. I refused to give them my insurance info on the accident form when I returned the vehicle since I wasn't liable. Also I only have liability. The rental company, in their initial email after the accident did not mention whether they tried to contact the other person. What's my play? Should I contact Chase first and get a person for the rental company to contact or what should I do?

I got a missed call followed by a text from an Agent I just recently purchased car insurance from requesting a photo of my Drivers License. I have no accidents/claims going on. I’m the only driver. No co-mingling of cars/insurance with other potential drivers and no other potential household drivers are in any accident/claim mix up either. She asked me for it over the phone a few days ago when I was purchasing. I told her that I wasn’t comfortable sharing her a photo of it because I had already given her every bit of information from my DL. *Side note: She’d made me feel a tad bit uncomfortable during the quoting process so this was my attempt of staying vigilant since it’s a small agency/broker* She replied that it was fine that I declined as she already had all the DL’s info I had already provided her. But today I have a missed call, voicemail, and text from her stating the company requires it. Is this normal/common practice? I briefly worked in insurance myself (SF) and per my training that was sensitive info so getting it emailed to us/texted to us was already merky waters. I was trained to take the data directly over the phone and immediately input it in the system—avoiding requesting info being sent to you and sitting in a text/email portal rather than a secure encrypted server. TIA.

I have Liberty Mutual I pay $364 I’m getting a new car and they want me to pay $600 any guidance on who I can try to get the new car insured through? It’s a 2021 dodge charger scatpack. i’m 24

I have one of my dogs on insurance, the other one isn't, both of them ended up with allergies before I was able to get insurance going (my first girl showed clinical signs in the first 2 weeks). It's unfortunate as they're both rescues and it's a bit out of my control as they weren't puppies when I got them. I'm thinking about cancelling my first girls because it's done absolutely nothing for me, and switching to Banfield's care packages. I currently pay $45 a month for one of mine. Just curious if anyone has experience with them, and if so do they think it's worth it over actual pet insurance?