If I pay for more than one health insurance, is it possible to use them all to pay off a health bill?
I have health insurance through multiple companies. If one only pays so much and so does other, shouldn’t I be able to combine them and pay off a bill?
Tags: Health, Health Bill, Multiple Companies
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on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under Other - General Health Care.
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most insurance will have a clause that they wont cover what someone else will cover so might make things difficult
Coordination of Benefits is the concept that allows you to use multiple insurance plans to pay parts of a bill. Generally, claims are billed to your primary insurance company and that remaining amount is then billed to the secondary insurance company. The total amount paid can not exceed 100% of the cost. You may still be responsible for an amount after both companies have paid their part.
There can be quite a few restrictions regarding COB (Coordination of Benefits), so contacting both companies can help to clarify the situation. Typically you can call and speak to a representative and mention Coordination of Benefits, and they should be able to provide you with more details.
Usually, one has to be “primary” then one can be secondary. Sometimes it will cover the bill and other times it will not. Every insurance company evaluates & has its own inclusions & exclusions. BTW/ if one company is billed as a primary but is actually secondary it may not pay at all. The way it works, the medical bill goes to the primary first then the secondary–the whole bill does not go to all of them at once.