New Mother Battles Health Insurance, CBS4 Helps
DENVER (CBS4) – Daniel and Sydney Binette were newly married when they found out they were going to have a baby. The young couple was in a new city, Sydney had a new job, Daniel had just started nursing school, and they were working on paying off student loans.
"Both my husband and I are 24 (years old). We both decided to stay on our parent's policy," said Sydney of how they were getting health insurance.
A baby wasn't in the budget, but they figured with careful planning and a strict eye on spending, they could make it work.
"We were expecting an out of pocket max of roughly $7,000," Sydney explained.
She called the insurance company on numerous occasions to go over the numbers, penny-for-penny.
"They had assured me on multiple occasions that as a dependent, she (the baby) would be covered on my policy for 30-days post delivery.
Rosemary was born, and the bills started coming in. Insurance didn't pay the ones for Rosemary.
"Every single day I was on the phone with them, for probably three weeks straight. I couldn't even count how many hours I was on the phone with them," Sydney told CBS4.
United Healthcare told Sydney that Rosemary was not covered because Sydney, herself, was already a dependent on the policy. But that was not was she was told before the birth.
"They told me that she would be covered for 30-days post delivery," Sydney confirmed.
She filed appeals and complaints -- all were denied, until CBS4 got involved.
"We don't have the ability to pay those claims that they are now sending us," Sydney said.
United Healthcare gave us this statement:
We apologize to Ms. Binette. We corrected this mistake as soon as it was brought to our attention and all of her claims have been paid appropriately.
United Healthcare honored what it's customer service representatives had told Sydney, even though technically Rosemary would not have been covered on the policy.
"It was definitely as a result of you reaching out to them for us that things have really worked out in our favor."
