Blue Cross Blue Shield recently decided to give it’s former CEO a huge severance package. The dollar amount of this package is controversial, and has been questioned. One might think that this would be an indication that the company was financially well off. Even so, this didn’t stop the insurance company from treating one of their customers very poorly. Blue Cross Blue Shield threatened to cancel the health insurance coverage of a man who is a senior citizen due to a ten cent discrepancy.
Blue Cross Blue Shield in Boston, Massachusetts, gave a severance package of $8.2 million dollars to their former CEO Cleve L. Killingsworth in 2010. He will also be receiving $1.8 million dollars this year, 2011, and will then get $925,000 in 2012. This totals out to around $10.9 million. The Attorney General for the state of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, has started an investigation. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a not-for-profit insurance company.
Unfortunately, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Boston doesn’t treat all of it’s customers with the same generosity the company has shown to their former CEO. They recently threatened to cancel customer Septimeo Murray Jr.’s prescription coverage because he was ten cents short on his insurance payment. The senior citizen used a money order to pay his bill for the prescription drugs he takes for high blood pressure and high cholesterol in December of 2010. The money order was for $183.00. It seems that he accidentally paid ten cents less than he should have on that bill.
He then got a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield stating that they had not received his payment for his Blue Medicare Rx Value Plus plan premium. The letter continued, stating that if the insurance company didn’t receive the payment by the end of February, 2011, that they will “disenroll” him from the insurance plan. The letter noted that this was in regards to exactly ten cents.
Instead of rolling the ten cents over to his next bill, Blue Cross Blue Shield felt it was appropriate to send this kind of threatening letter to a customer whom they did receive a payment from. I wonder how much money Blue Cross Blue Shield spent to send out this nasty letter? A spokesperson for the insurance company, Tara Murray, offered some explanation. She said that there is a requirement that all customers “be current” with their premium payments. She also said that the insurance company offers 60 days for a customer to pay a past due premium, and expressed that they must adhere to this requirement for all customers. This, in regards to a bill that was paid on time, except for ten cents.
Fortunately, Mr. Murray did have the ten cents, and was able to send a check for it to Blue Cross Blue Shield. To do so required him to pay for a 42 cent stamp. He was, ultimately, able to keep his health insurance coverage. This situation reminds me very much of when Ceridian Cobra Services canceled the health insurance policy of a Vietnam veteran, due to a two cent discrepancy on a bill payment.
Image by Kevin Dooley on Flickr