I recently quit a job and became self-employed (again). As such, my old group coverage ends at the end of April, and new crappy self-employed insurance starts May 1.
I recently decided to make an appointment to go to a dermatologist. I had wanted to get it sometime in May to preclude any insurance problems. They had two appointments open: a cancellation next week (in April), and one in August. Needless to say, I didn’t want to wait until August, so I took the one next week.
Is this going to cause any “existing conditions” problems with my new insurance? I’m not too worried about coverage, as the new shitty insurance won’t cover a damn thing until I reach the way high deductible. But in case this turns out to be something really bad, which I don’t think it will but there’s always a chance that it’s skin cancer or something, am I going to be screwed because of the insurance change?
For what it’s worth I’ve been approved and paid for the first month and all that.
I think you’re going to need to check the terms of your specific policy regarding pre-existing conditions. There is a federal law about this, HIPAA, that applies to group insurance, but it doesn’t sound like that is what your new insurance will be. If your individual policy has restrictions that will affect you negatively, you may want to check with your state dept. of insurance to make sure those restrictions are consistent with state law. Also, have you looked into whether COBRA insurance from your previous employer is an option, rather than individual insurance? Then you would not have pre-existing condition restrictions at this time. Also, if whatever is found is moderately or seriously bad (hopefully not, of course) get the dermatology community on the stick to provide whatever treatment ASAP while you’re still on the better insurance. Calling around, going out of town, etc. might turn out to be in your best interest. IME provider backlogs vary quite a bit by location.
Good advice. Also, when your current insurance expires, your insurance company should be sending you a “Certificate of Creditable Coverage” that documents the fact that you were insured. Do not ignore or lose this document. It will be your best defense in fighting potential pre-ex problems later on. Having said that, as HtheS notes, this doesn’t mean that your new coverage actually covers a given procedure for a given diagnosis.