Exclusive: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients

[kpete]

Source: Reuters

Exclusive: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients
Murray Waas
LOS ANGELES
Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:00am

(Reuters) - One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton, a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.

U.S. | Health | Healthcare Reform

None of the women knew about the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders -- more than any other health insurance company in the United States.

The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women's specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L2LS20100422

[onehandle]

1. There's your 'Death Panels,' Sister Sarah. nt

[Zambero]

18. Expect no comment from Sister Sarah on this

She's too busy guarding Grandma's plug-in, when not earning bazillions in speaking fees.

[SocialistLez]

25. Why care about the peasants?

I'm sure she has great health insurance and even if she didn't, she can afford to pay all her medical bills.

[perdita9]

37. Sister Sarah not a big supporter of Women's Rights

I find it interesting that the 'pro-lifers' never seem to get too excited about stories like these.

Who cares if a bunch of women were hurt as long as Well Point kept Wall Street happy?

[awoke_in_2003]

63. women are nothing

but baby dispensers to pro-lifers. Welcome to DU

[tomm2thumbs]

47. +1 and they have it already to go - isn't the insurance industry great!!

they won't have to even ramp up to start - they're doing it right here, right now

[Patsy Stone]

64. Exactly

:thumbsup:

[crim son]

2. This should be on the front page of every news publication.

I am furious.

[SocialistLez]

4. SHOULD BE but won't be NT

[valerief]

6. Our Pravdas won't print this stuff here in the USSR, the United States of Slavery and Repression. nt

[Gman2]

3. This article is a lie. They werent culled for cancer, they were culled for

not dotting an I, or crossing a T. Automatic fraud investigation. Why is noone crashing a plane into ceo offices?

[brendan120678]

40. As soon as the insurance companies...

see how much a specific patient is starting to cost them, they go into investigation mode to find a reason to drop them.

Usually it's incomplete paperwork, or other such nonsense. That way they can get rid of their "liability" without saying it is because of a specific condition.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. Hey, at least we aren't Scandanavia or France.

Those poor souls don't even have insurance companies.

[valerief]

7. Poor things. They have actual healthcare instead. How do they cope? nt

[rpannier]

74. They wouldn't have to cope with their Socialist money grubbing insurance

If they had a lot chickens

[valerief]

82. Ha! Which came first: the chicken, the egg, or the hospital bill? nt

[Diclotican]

30. MidwestTransplant

MidwestTransplant

We do - but we have laws in place, to stop misuse from Incurance companies who else maybe wanted to play that card to us... And that is the BIG difference between US and the scandinavian country's We have strick laws who are in place, to stop the biggest misusing of this type of things...

And off course, we also have public healt care, who we pay for by our taxes every mounth.. Who are going into the big vallet of the government, and then out to things like an public healt care - who all have the posibility to use when needed... Not perfect by all means, but better than this... Better pay the taxes, and live even with cancer, than to be trown out like this...

Diclotican

[dbmk]

80. We do here in Denmark, though :)

Health insurance is possible and a some larger companies offer them as part of the employment package fx.

It usually covers loss of income, subsidies for medicine, treatment at private hospitals and so on.

Explanation for the subsidies part:
We have to pay some part of price ourselves for (not if it is a part of a treatment on a hospital, but something you have to take daily fx.)) - but get a supplement from the state if it surpasses about 150 dollars a year - on medicine approved for the programme (On some medicine supplements are only avaliable for pensioners).

For what is between the ~150$ and ~250$ you get 50% coverage.
For what is between ~250$ and ~600$ you get 75% coverage.
For everything above that you get 85% coverage.

Under the age of eighteen the coverage for the first bracket is from 0$ and is 60$. You doctor can recommend you for 100% coverage in the top bracket if you have a chronic or continual need for the medicine.

What you buy is automatically reported by the pharmacy and your refund calculated and returned to you.

Treatment at the hospital is always covered.

So yeah, we might have the insurance companies. But we don't _need_ them.

And I happily pay my 63% on the last kroners earned to keep it that way.

[havocmom]

8. Advocates of mandated support of the industry that does this can kiss my sig line

[superconnected]

14. Since you want it to stay like it is, why not CHEER for this company to do this, because this IS how

it is right now.

The idea of getting the public on a national health care program is that when they change their view point and rely on heath care for all they start regulating dirty companies like this - which is in all the health care legislation that's been proposed so far.

So get our your pom poms and CHEER for this company since you clearly support the way they operate now, since I'm sure you don't agree with me, by your sig line.

There's a reason these companies are fighting the national health care bill.

[havocmom]

20. LOL Not favoring madates is not same as pro-status quo

But suggesting it is sorta smacks of rove tactics of applying labels to people just to denigrate their position.

But thanks for playing.

[Mark D.]

42. Because He's Misinformed

I too opposed the mandates in the health care bill. Until I learned after its passage, as broadcast on Keith Olmbermann's show, that there are no teeth in the 'mandate'. The bill says clearly, those who chose not to buy insurance will be penalized. If they don't pay the penalty, however, there is to be no additional penalty for just that, no interest charged, no civil or criminal prosecution. This alone made me accept the bill as 'better than nothing, even if not the true public option, or Medicare buy-in, or single payer that I'd prefer' as did Dennis Kucinich. I think knowledge of this very important aspect of the new law was why he finally supported it, as he too had the biggest problems of all with the so-called 'mandate'.

[havocmom]

22. super connected?

to whom/what?

[superconnected]

24. It's a song from the now disbanded pop group Belly.

A terrific song.

If I worked for the health care industry, I would be spending all kinds of money talking you out of the bill that they've already successfully talked you out of. No more propaganda needed.

[havocmom]

26. Thanks for explaining

Not familiar with the group.

[dflprincess]

33. What national health care bill?

All we got was the Health Insurance Industry Profit Protection Act and the industry didn't put a whole lot of effort into fighting the final bill.

This kind of crap will still go with the insurance bill just passed - and if they can't find a reason to cancel a person's coverage, they'll raise the premiums or out of pockets to levels that will either make the policy unaffordable or make it impossible for the individual to access care.

Regulation? Let's hope a better job is done with enforcing regulations with the health insurance companies than has been done enforcing worker safety regs. And that any penalties that are levied aren't so minimal that they're written off as the cost of doing business. I'm not holding my breath.

[jeff47]

71. Question:

Health insurance, like all insurance, works because of cost sharing. Lots of people pay their homeowner's insurance premiums, and the money is paid out to the one person who's house burned down.

Under the new law, pre-existing conditions go away (now for kids, 2014 for adults). Under the old system, it was pre-existing conditions that made healthy people buy insurance.

(Here's the question, finally) Now that pre-existing conditions are gone, how do you get healthy people to buy insurance?

It makes absolutely no sense to buy health insurance while healthy, because you can buy it when you arrive at the emergency room, or when you're diagnosed with an expensive disease. Then you can cancel it once you've recovered. With no healthy people in the pool, there is no cost sharing, thus the sick are forced to pay out-of-pocket for their care.

All healthcare systems that do not have pre-existing conditions require a mandate. In most industrialized nations, the mandate takes the form of taxes which pay for single payer or national healthcare systems. But that's still a mandate.

So, if we're not going to have a mandate, what mechanism do you propose to bring healthy people into the pool?

Public option? Still requires a mandate. Single payer? Would be the best by far, but that too requires a mandate in the form of taxes.

I know the mandate is not exactly "fun", but in order to get rid of it we'd need an alternative to keep the healthy in the pool. What's yours?

[Dappleganger]

9. BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD

They should have been included in that article's title as they are a big part of that story.

As a 2-time BC survivor this makes me shake with fury! People, it's not about republican vs. democratic--it's about corporations against the little guy. Do you have any idea just how many from BOTH sides of the aisle are having their coffers padded in some way by the health insurance companies??

[barbtries]

10. as i read your post

at first i thought you meant you are a 2-time BLUE CROSS survivor.

glad you're still around :)

[Dappleganger]

11. Ha-thanks! I'm a Blue Cross of FL survivor

That's a whole 'nuther story, unfortunately.

Now we are with Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN which is supposed to be better--we shall see.

[SocialistLez]

23. I thought the same initially NT

[KaryninMiami]

12. Geeeez-- scumbags isn't even good enough for them.

It's good that this made it to reuters- might get some national and international coverage- let's see if it makes it to CNN and the national networks.

[JDPriestly]

13. The health care bill should have eliminated discrimination in rates

based on pre-existing conditions. That would have cut the cost of insurance for medical care down by at least a fourth if not a third.

What lay person even knows or remembers being exposed to hepatitis as a child. That is just ridiculous. And treatment for acne? What percentage of girls in their teens is treated for acne? It must be very large. And how often could a notation about acne treatment be mistaken for a notation about some other skin problem?

Pre-existing conditions should be of concern to the doctor, but not to the insurance company.

I read the letters at the end of the article. In one, an author stated that he did not think that this would be any different in Europe. I would like to assure all DUErs that it is very, very, very different in Europe. You don't apply for insurance at all. And your insurance company may refuse to cover specific treatments that they simply do not cover but they do not refuse to cover a treatment for you that is medically indicated just based on your medical history -- unless your doctor does not think you should have the treatment.

[Delphinus]

79. Sounds like a dream come true.

We may wake up some day to your way of doing things ... I hope, at any rate.

[Shining Jack]

15. That's beyond disgusting...

these practices are simply criminal ! :grr:

[naaman fletcher]

16. It's too bad we just gave these people more business with the health care bill.

The whole industry are now just scumbag middlemen.

[Zambero]

17. Oh, but pulling the plug on Grandma is so much worse

This all sounds like an honest "mistake" on the part of these well-intentioned insurance folks!

So moving right along, let's make sure to repeal all this socialist nonsense HCR stuff. Oh, by the way just what is a "pre-existing condition"?

:sarcasm:

[myrna minx]

19. K&R n/t

:grr:

[Bette Noir]

21. Single payer universal health care would be the simplest solution,

but the Senate is immune to simple solutions.

We can't abolish the Senate, as a constitutional amendment to do so would have to go through the Senate, and they're not going to legislate their cushy jobs away.

The easiest solution, for me, would be to retire to Canada, but I'm not sure I could pass the physical. Yeah, there's a physical required for older people who want to move to Canada. They're not stupid. They don't want illegal aliens from the US crossing the border to take advantage of their social safety net.

[The_Commonist]

27. What's the point of having health insurance again?

Fuck corporatism.
Fuck it straight to hell...

[patrice]

28. YEAH BUT, Keep your government out of my "Health" "Care"!!!!!

[Guilded Lilly]

29. As we all know quite well by now

Insurance companies are not in business to help anyone who has purchased their services for years.
Insurance companies are in business to steal money and make huge profits while people die.

[TwilightGardener]

31. I love this: that Wellpoint pays for and encourages mammograms (good PR!), and then

targets those who find tumors for investigation and then rescission. It's very clear what they're doing--find out if you have cancer, so they can drop you. Hope they all burn in hell.

[SocialistLez]

43. +1 It's EXACTLY what they're doing. F-ing (you choose the expletive)

[KamaAina]

32. Today's Worst. Persons. In The World!

:grr: :banghead: :nuke:

[SocialistLez]

44. Ha ha, so true! NT

[grahamhgreen]

34. GET RID OF THE PUNISHING MANDATE!!!! Or get a public option before we give these killers trillions

[truedelphi]

49. Now now now - that is not what the President had in mind

He said, and I quote, "We could be able to embrace Single Payer Universal HC IF our nation did not already have a system in place. But since we do have a system in place, then any efforts to reform that system must be uniquely American and include the system already up and running."<slighlty paraphrased>

End of story. (Except for the part where Rahm and his brother helped the Big Insurers to so much, and gave the Big Pharma people everything that they wanted.)

[IndianaGreen]

55. Like when he went to Wall Street to speak of reform while he got money from Goldman Sachs

What a corrupt system do we have!

[truedelphi]

57. A lot of the fault is the media's - Back in Ed Murrow's day,

Had some President said he felt we needed to include in our "reform" efforts the very people who made that reform necessary, Murrows would have been up and down that President's logic till the President reversed himself.

But sigh, I doubt that kind of reporting will ever come back.

Perhaps if Rachel Maddow quits with her major focus on the Tea Baggers and Sarah and spends some time parsing the statements of those, like Obama, who supposedly are on the side of the people, but she seems to be under control now too.

[hunter]

35. Most people with serious illnesses get dumped when they don't pay the premiums.

They're not working, don't you know, and not paying much attention to the paperwork either. Just you try to keep track of all the crap the insurance companies demand from you when your head is foggy from the chemotherapy and other serious meds...

This kind of thing is to catch those rare people who keep on paying the premiums even when they are seriously ill or injured! How dare them cost the CEO's and the shareholders like that! They are bound to screw up sometime.

[Trillo]

36. "computer algorithm"? Or cleverly constructed spin (i.e. pack of lies)?

Perhaps this story is the real purpose of government cancer surveillance.

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia (collectively, states) have enacted laws that authorize or require the creation of repositories or surveillance systems for patient information or data related to cancer diagnosis or treatment (collectively, cancer registries). While a majority of the states have established formal state cancer registries, including reporting requirements and operational procedures, via statute, others have established cancer registries or reporting procedures via mechanisms other than state legislation.

Forty-six states have laws addressing the confidentiality of cancer registry information. In general, these laws require that information reported to the registry must remain confidential and privileged and may not be released except in specified to provide cancer patient information to a cancer registry.

more@ http://www.scld-nci.net/snapshots/spring_02_snapshot.pdf

I guess "confidentiality" means something different to humans versus corporations. How does one keep medical information private from one's own private insurer, and still keep getting any kind of medical care?

The only way is to not get medical care and insurance, but now we have mandated insurance purchase required, further increasing the burden on the poor who probably want their medical privacy respected as much as anyone else.

[Trekologer]

60. They go off of what procedures they've paid for

The algorithm is pretty simple:

if cancer treatment claim
then fraud alert


It's not very sophisticated and doesn't need to be.

[Trillo]

68. If so, a fix is quite simple.

Use a third-party payment processor, could be the government, that blinds the patient's name and account number as well as any billing "details" from the insurance company. Just batch an entire day's payments in a lump sum and say to them, today you owe us X amount. If the insurance co fails to pay, regulators are advised immediately.

[doctorspa]

38. wellpoint

Democrat Max Baucus, for instance, recruited former Wellpoint Vice President Liz Fowler as a top aide in 2008, the same year her company was ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars to families they had illegally cancelled insurance on. And it was Liz Fowler who wrote much of the health care bill which
has specific exclusions to help her former employer.

[JoshieR]

39. Capitalism at its finest.

[DainBramaged]

41. Since torture is still legal, let's torture the Wellpoint Executives who approved this

at least we'll get some small measure of revenge.

[Stuart G]

46. You are correct...Kick and Rec..

[h9socialist]

45. Of course they do participate as a corporate sponsor for the Breast Cancer Walks!

So whoever said a company has any obligation to be morally consistent? Such a requirement might cause (horror of horrors) share prices to decrease! Just contact your local Chamber of Commerce (aka: Ruddy Bastards) for more information.

[katandmoon]

48. "Health Insurance Reform" lets them do this. Obama's big triumph.

[Captain Hilts]

50. Women are FAR less likely to put up a fight or sue. And they know it. nt

[Captain Hilts]

51. "Insurance companies perform an important role." - President Obama. nt

[grahamhgreen]

52. They kill people to make money - they should be outlawed. Period.

[IndianaGreen]

53. Wellpoint Lobbyists Axed Key Protections for Breast Cancer Patients From Health Care Bill

Wellpoint Lobbyists Axed Key Protections for Breast Cancer Patients From Health Care Bill

Jane Hamsher.Founder, FireDogLake.com
Posted: April 22, 2010 02:18 PM

Federal investigators have told Reuters that WellPoint, the country's largest insurance company, is using an algorithm to identify women with breast cancer for the express purpose of dropping their coverage.

Murray Waas writes that WellPoint "specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies":

The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

Wellpoint claimed that these women had made material misrepresentations in order to justify dropping their coverage, but Waas says they were dropped "based on either erroneous or flimsy information." Last week, Waas reported that AIDS patients were being similarly targeted for recision.

The version of health care bill passed by the House of Representatives would've allowed these women to apply to an "independent external third party" for review before being dropped. It also would have required Wellpoint to keep their coverage in place until the board made its determination, and policies could only be canceled in cases with "clear and convincing evidence of fraud."

Those provisions were not included in the Senate Finance Committee bill, however, which became the basis for the final health care bill signed by the President.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/wellpoint-lobbyists-axed_b_548220.html

[Swede]

54. K&R

This is disgusting.

[grahamhgreen]

56. "the health care legislation lacks teeth... to either stop or even substantially reduce rescission."

This is why we need to kill the mandate.

[Nikki Stone1]

58. :(

:(

[kimmerspixelated]

59. As awful as that is, maybe there's a silver lining

for which I will get flamed, no doubt. What's going to be costly is the chemo, etc. If a woman can't afford what a mainstream doctor will most assuredly reccomend,(poisons and radiation) then maybe the patient will have a eureka moment of getting a second opinion from perhaps an alternative doctor. I've been reading Knockout with Suzanne Summers, where she interviews docs that are CURING (I know-not allowed to say that), or let's say greatly managing their patients for a much healthier outcome with a lot of methods and nutrients I had never seen before, worth reading! Anyway, like it or not the wave of the future will have to embrace alternative methods! It's a win-win esp. for the patient! Doctors are admitting that chemo rarely helps at all!... But still! It's SO not right for these rip-off insurance agencies to snake their way into people's pocketbooks and then drop them like a hot potato. They are sub-human!

[cutlassmama]

62. The Paw-Paw herb is supposed to do that.

[onlyadream]

61. My friend had breast cancer

and her husband was laid off. I've seen this too many times to think it's a coincidence.

[Tx4obama]

65. Gonna be a segment on MSNBC Countdown tonight regarding this issue. n/t

[defendandprotect]

66. k

[crushx]

67. This nearly happened to my aunt...

but fortunately for her she was actually able to keep her policy. It was still a scary experience.

[femrap]

69. k and r

I fucking hate Corporations. And it is simply EVIL and IMMORAL to have corporations that make money off illness and death.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :grr: :grr: :grr: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[derby378]

70. Reform bill advocates, I hate to say that I told you so...

...but this is all happening under what Obama calls "a really good bill."

Healthcare reform has not, I repeat, HAS NOT happened in America yet.

[Snazzy]

72. Wellpoint got to Reuters already-article truncated severely

Now completely excised from the article is the moving story of nurse Robin Beaton.



Reuters wire update states:

(Removes all references to Robin Beaton in first paragraph and throughout to reflect that the insurance company that canceled her policy was not a WellPoint subsidiary)

---

According to their damage control PR at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wellpoints-reuters-response-91845649.html

"Another significant error in the Reuters story is that WellPoint rescinded coverage to Robin Beaton. As noted during her public testimony during the US House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Ms. Beaton is NOT a WellPoint member, but rather was insured by another company."

----

So Reuters disappeared her. And disappeared about half of the article too.

Too late for me to figure out what's up exactly, but I'd wager it's some technicality on Beaton. I also like how in their friggin' press release they capitalize "NOT" just like arguing with the challenged on these here Internets (I find the random/emphasis capitalization people tend to be disingenuous, YOUR mileage may vary).

Original article is here for one place:

http://www.theusdaily.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=1053995&type=Business

I only noticed this because I had been putting off a blog post. Trying to follow Blue Cross stuff in NY. 12 hours later the same article morphed into nada. Them lawyers are busy.

[Snazzy]

73. 3230 less words. Words in this article about 1PM EDT: 4,212 --and at about 4AM: 982

Lawyers who make there be less words, remarkable.

3230 less words.

I had read this and bookmarked it on Reuter's own site.

That's from after the dateline/byline, etc., and cutting any stuff at the end. Just article text.

Disappeared.

So Wellpoint 3/4 killed the story is more like it.

(I have it saved here and will run a side by side comparison tonight. Worth first checking Reuters and see if any story left though....)

[Snazzy]

76. What other company? Testimony of Robin Beaton before Energy and Commerce

Testimony of Robin Beaton

My name is Robin Beaton, and I am 59 years old. I was a registered Nurse for 30 years.
I worked in a hospital, had insurance, and was in good health. I retired from nursing, and started
a small business. I got an individual policy with Blue Cross and Blue Shield ("Blue Cross") in
December 2007.

In May 2008, I went to the dermatologist for acne. A word was written on my chart and
interpreted incorrectly as meaning pre-cancerous. Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with
Invasive HER-2 Genetic Breast Cancer, a very aggressive form of breast cancer. I was told I
needed a double mastectomy. When the surgeons scheduled my surgery I was pre-certified for
my two days hospitalization. The Friday before the Monday I was scheduled to have my double
mastectomy, Blue Cross red flagged my chart due to the dermatologist report. The dermatologist
called Blue Cross directly to report that I only had acne and please not hold up my coming
surgery. Blue cross called me to inform me that they were launching a 5 year medical
investigation into my medical History and that this would take approximately 3 months.
I was frantic. I did not know what to do or where to turn. I knew I could not pay for the
surgery myself Shortly thereafter I turned to my Congressman Joe Barton for help. Mr. Barton
and Christy Townsend worked tirelessly to help me.

Next, I found out that my insurance was completely canceled; this was devastating. I
had to completely refocus on what to do where to turn because my insurance canceled me.
Cancer is expensive and no one wanted to pay for it. This is America and we deserve good
Health Care.

Earlier in my life off and on I had a fast beating of my heart which was not a current
problem, just something that happened when I was upset. I truly did not even think about this
when I applied for insurance; I even offered to go take a physical they said no.
The sad thing is Blue Cross gladly took my high premiums and the first time I filed a
claim and was suspected of having cancer they searched high and low for a reason to cancel me.
There is a nurse who attends my church who works full time for Blue Cross and all she does is
read medical records looking for reasons to cancel people. After she heard what happened to me,
she told me how very sorry she was.

Blue Cross will do anything to get out of paying for cancer. Another sad fact is anyone
who has a catastrophic illness who is not part of a group stands a great chance of being left out in
the cold without insurance.

One of the main things I look forward to in my life is attending a cancer support group
every Monday and Tuesday. We meet others who have cancer and share our lives. Four of the
woman in my group had their insurance canceled because of cancer. The women in my group
frequently talk about once you have cancer you are considered uninsurable. This has been very
difficult to speak because I could be canceled again. I live with fear everyday of my insurance
company.

Continuing my story after Blue Cross canceled my policy I went everywhere looking for
help. I went to County Hospital where I was placed on a waiting list to get a Mastectomy.
Several times I went back to the County Hospital they would always say the same thing, "Why
are you here?" I answered, "I have cancer and need a mastectomy." The county hospital stated,
"Sorry we have misplaced your records." The process was unending trying to get help for cancer

I did every thing to get help. Everywhere you go takes time. No help was found until
Joe Barton after working a great long time got Blue Cross to reinstate my insurance. After being
diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in June 2008, I was placed back on the surgeons list to get
my Mastectomy. I finally received the surgery on October 2, 2008. My tumor grew 2.3 cm to 7
cm also; I had to have all my Lymph nodes removed due to waiting from June to October 2.

I am still undergoing chemotherapy every three weeks. Cancer is expensive and no one
wants to help. I pray with all my heart that no one has to go through the sheer agony that I have
endured for 1 year.

I did not deserve to have my insurance canceled. Blue Cross set out to get rid of me.
Blue Cross searched high and low until they found enough to get rid of me.

I pray that someone will listen to my story and help people like me who are powerless
against big insurance companies.

Thank You

Robin Beaton

June 11, 2009

--------

Blue Cross is Wellpoint.

--------


http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1671:energy-and-commerce-subcommittee-hearing-on-terminations-of-individual-health-policies-by-insurance-companies-&catid=133:subcommittee-on-oversight-and-investigations&Itemid=73

And here, from the transcript which I just searched for every instance of her her name and related discussion, ( http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090616/transcript_20090616_oi.pdf ), this is apparently how they deny she was covered by them:

Ms. Beaton, let me ask you, Blue Cross and Blue Shield came back to you after finding out you needed the surgery and said that they were taking your insurance and the date of rescission was dated back to the date of enactment of the insurance. Is that correct?
Ms. {Beaton.} I am kind of hard of hearing.
Mr. {Burgess.} Your rescission was effective on 12/07, which was the date that the insurance was initiated. Is that correct?
Ms. {Beaton.} Right. They gave me back all my premiums.
Mr. {Burgess.} Okay. That was going to be my question.
They refunded the--
Ms. {Beaton.} I never cashed the check because Mr. Barton told me never to cash it and I never did. They rescinded all my money back to the day that they said--in simple language, they wanted nothing to do with me. They gave me back every penny that I had ever given them and they considered never being insured by them.

-----

That's right, they attempted to refund all of her payments, ever, and therefore, in parallel bizarro insurance/greed world thinking, she wasn't covered by them.

Once upon a time she had another carrier, and the PR/lawyer reasoning goes that once Wellpoint/Blue Cross sent that check to her which she admitted they sent in this hearing, she was admitting she was covered by some other unnamed carrier. She did no such thing of course, but apparently it was enough for Reuters to snuff the story.

-----

Obama cited her to Congress:

Another woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her breast cancer more than doubled in size. That is heart-breaking, it is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/politics/10obama.text.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

-----

How Robin Beaton Became Exhibit A in Obama Versus the Insurers

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Robin Beaton found out in a phone call from a member of her cancer support group that President Barack Obama cited her insurance ordeal as a reason to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.

“I cried when I finally watched him talk about my case in his speech” to Congress, said Beaton, 59, of Waxahachie, Texas, who is battling breast cancer. She saw a rerun of Obama’s Sept. 9 speech to Congress on cable television.

“If he’s able to bring this fight back to what it’s really about, I’ll feel so honored, like my story made a difference,” said Beaton, who runs a booth at an antique mart. “Every day I live in fear of them canceling my insurance.”

Beaton said she had her health insurance canceled once before in 2008, days before she was scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy. “She forgot to declare a case of acne,” Obama said in his speech. “By the time she had her insurance case reinstated, her breast cancer more than doubled in size.”

“Pure and simple, I had pimples,” Beaton said in an interview yesterday, the morning after Obama discussed her case, without mentioning her name. “The hospital suddenly wanted a $30,000 deposit, and nobody on this earth has $30,000 unless you are really rich.”

...

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the company that Beaton said dropped her health insurance, supports changing the health system so that people with pre-existing medical conditions are covered, as long as all Americans are required to carry health insurance coverage, spokeswoman Margaret Jarvis said. She declined to discuss Beaton’s case, citing privacy laws.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=a3rdVt807i4c

---

Sure sounds rock solid that she was their policy holder to me. Looks like Obama thought so too.

[Snazzy]

78. hmm, I may be wrong

Blue Cross of Texas might not be Wellpoint (most of rest are).

http://www.bcbstx.com/

Still, the creepiness is systemic.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

75. Rescission would not exist if your application for insurance consisted of 2 lines:

Your Name
Your Address

If we are all being forced to jump into the pool, then let's get rid of all cherry picking entirely.

How much do you think insurance is going to cost for a 55 year old woman with a new diagnosis of breast cancer, even in the new high risk pools? Plus, to get into the high risk pool you have to be uninsured for six months - that's your government participating in treatment denial for you and effectively serving you with either a death sentence or bankruptcy since you'll never be able to afford the initial surgeries, chemo, medication etc. while you wait for the six months to go by. Gee, what a great choice America.

Why add additional layers of regulators to monitor this evil practice? Get rid of the practice altogether. If the insurance companies cannot exist without denying services to those that need them the most, then they are proving that they cannot perform their putative function unless the playing field is tilted in their favor, thereby admitting that profit is not a sane foundation on which to base health care reform. But then we already knew that.

What we have is Health reform written for, by, and to the benefit of criminals who practice and profit from death by spreadsheet.

[Solly Mack]

77. K&R

[jtrockville]

81. Health Insurance is a SCAM. Could it be any clearer?