Excess Medpay – Better To Burn Your Money. Whenever you purchase Excess Medpay on your automobile policy, it’s probably better to burn your money! To understand Excess Medpay, let’s talk about regular Medpay first. Regular Medpay or just, Medpay, is coverage on your policy that you purchased in case you’re in an auto accident and you incur medical bills. Any type of medical bills, chiropractic bills, hospital bills, ambulance bills, physical therapy bills, visits to your doctors or to a specialist. This coverage pays regardless of fault or pre-existing condition. You can submit it to your auto insurance and they will pay it up to the amount you purchased, which can be anywhere from $1,000.00, $2,000.00, or $5,000.00. This is pretty straight forward and there’s not much too it.
However, an alternative to regular medpay is “Excess Medpay.” Excess Medpay is a coverage that works in principle, like regular Medpay but has very complicated and confusing rules before you’re able to access it. That’s why it’s probably better to burn your money rather than purchasing Excess Medpay. It’s extremely difficult to access and before you do, you have to jump through plenty of hoops. At one point, you’ll probably just give up and then, you’re basically paying for coverage that you’ll never be able to access. So, go burn your money. Maybe you’ll get some warmth out of it!
Let me explain by going to into some more detail. The basic concept is that this Excess Medpay only pays when your health insurance doesn’t cover a medical bill in whole or in part. Health insurance like Medi-Cal, Medicare, Blue Cross, Kaiser, etc… is primary. Excess Medpay is secondary. Excess Medpay will pay anything that your health insurance doesn’t cover, like a deductible or a balance left over. For example, if the hospital billed you $1,000.00, your health insurance paid $900.00 and you have a balance of $100.00. The balance is the “excess” portion of your bill. This is covered by Excess Medpay.
This is simple, right? Yes, in theory and in principle. However, as we all know, dealing with an insurance company, even your own insurance company can be extremely frustrating. If you don’t know already, you will find out fast! Often, there are times when you will get denied access to this Excess Medpay coverage. The insurance company will give you plenty of reasons why you can’t access it. Here is one example. You go to the chiropractor, he doesn’t bill your health insurance because your health insurance doesn’t cover it. You know that. The chiropractor knows that. Shoot, even the insurance representative knows that! But in order to get your Excess Medpay to pay it, you will have to jump through countless hoops to provide evidence that chiropractic services are not covered by your health insurance. You will be required to send the bill to your health insurance company. You will have to find where to send it and who to send it to. If it’s a government agency like Medi-Cal, good luck! Once you find where to send and who to send it to, you have to wait for a denial of payment letter. Once again, if it is Medi-Cal, good luck! You could be waiting a very very long time for this letter and even then, you may get nothing. From a private entity, like Kaiser, it may take months for a denial letter. If and when you get the denial, then you can send it to the auto insurance adjuster for payment. This process can literally take 4-6 months at the earliest. So, you spend all this time, dealing with the headaches and general frustration now trying to access this coverage. At this point, you’re probably thinking that you should have burned your money, rather purchasing this coverage.
So, it’s been 4 months since your chiropractor billed you, and you still haven’t paid him or her. Luckily, the chiropractor agrees not to send your bill to collections. However, the hospital or ambulance will not agree to wait. They want payment immediately or else they will send it to collections. This happens often. So better to burn your money or use that money you are paying for Excess Medpay for a better health insurance plan. So, here is a scenario where just burning your money is better than purchasing Excess Medpay. Another scenario is that your Excess Medpay insurance carrier ask you, the injured party, to get your health insurance coverage policy. If you can prove that the chiropractic treatment or other treatment is not covered, then they will pay your bill. You tell them that it doesn’t because you’ve been told by your health insurance administrator that it doesn’t cover that type of treatment. Doesn’t matter, you still need to get the policy and show them where it says that it is not covered. Well, that’s great, now you have to prove a negative! That’s almost impossible. Getting your policy from a private entity like Kaiser is doable. It may be difficult, but it can be done. However, if you are a Medi-Cal, Medicare, or Tri-Care beneficiary, good luck. You’re never getting anything. So again, it’s better to burn your money than to purchase Excess Medpay Coverage! If you’re injured in a traffic jam, call R. Sam. We offer free consultations. If you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid. We serve Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, Merced, Fresno, and the surrounding areas.