Health insurance warning

When my husband retired and my COBRA coverage expired, I wanted to replicate the health insurance I had used for many years through his employer.

The health insurance vendor I had been using assured me that he was duplicating my insurance – but it was not true. Health care providers do not necessarily accept all product lines from a health insurance company. Bottom line: You must call your providers before you buy insurance and ask if the specific product line you are about to purchase will be accepted.

If you are buying insurance over the telephone be sure to mention during the recording that you use a specific set of providers. When the Kentucky Department of Insurance investigated on my behalf, no specifics were on the recorded segment of the transaction. The list of providers on the company’s website was grossly out of date. I have not been able to use most of the doctors I have used for the past 13 years . If I had known to ask the right question (Do you accept this product line from XYZ insurance company?), I would have been able to replicate my coverage through another insurance vendor. Beware!

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Health insurance warning."