Dealing with insurance of any kind can be a stressful experience for anyone if you aren’t familiar with the language and jargon used on the forms. Health insurance is no different – particularly when you are trying to make sure that the health insurance you have covers all of your health needs, including any regular therapies, durable medical equipment, specialist visits, and regular tests.
Navigating the world of health insurance can be daunting, but our Client Services team here at MSAA has a couple of resources that can help get you started on resolving your questions and issues:
- Patient Advocate Foundation – The PAF provides case management for patients who are dealing with insurance, employment, or other legal issues related to their medical condition.
- State Insurance Departments – This link will take you to a map of the United States with a link to each individual state’s insurance web page that can offer more information about the insurance laws and the insurance marketplaces available in your home state.
- Life Happens – This non-profit provides information and resources to find life insurance, disability, and long-term care insurance policies/plans, and they can help you find a local agent to assist you with those plans.
You can also visit the main website for Medicare and Medicaid to find additional information about these two government-funded health insurance options.
This is just a short list of resources that you have at your disposal to help you work your way through your insurance questions. For more information about your particular question or issue, please feel free to reach out to our Client Services Specialists at (800) 532-7667, ext. 154 or at MSquestions@mymsaa.org.
MS progressive debilitation meets the criteria of a long term disability provision – working while disabled. Generally, a short term disability benefit should transition to a long term disability benefit for those suffering from MS who experience a 20% reduction in either pay and/or ability to work eg 40 hours to 32 hours. However, the insurers are not providing the requisite information under their fiduciary duties and MS working people are being denied their benefits while working until being totally disabled. Upon total disability, benefits are either being terminated due reclassification to part time status when such employee should have been and continued to receive full long term disability plans.
What has the MS society received in terms of similar experiences and have they sought recourse on behalf of MS populations inclusive of department of justice for prosecution under fraudulent denial of employee benefits (DOJ manual – DOL and DOJ enforcement)?
Thank you.
Thank you for reaching out to the MSAA, Patrick. You bring up excellent points regarding benefits for individuals living with disabilities and MS. The National MS Society’s organization may have great feedback regarding this matter and what has been done on behalf of the MS population as they are directly involved in MS patient advocacy issues and disability rights. You can find additional information on their website here, https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Get-Involved/Advocate-for-Change. The Patient Advocate Foundation is another advocacy group directly involved in insurance benefit and mediation issues, https://www.patientadvocate.org/. I hope attention continues to be received on this matter and that individuals living with MS obtain benefits rightfully deserved. Thank you again for reaching out and if you have additional questions please feel free to email MSQuestions@mymsaa.org. Thank you and take care. Angel, MSAA Client Services Specialist