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My husband was laid off in July 2009, we took COBRA and qualified for the Government Stimulus to assist with our COBRA payments. We paid the exact amount that we were billed initially and our COBRA was in force. Then Ceridian did some kind of "billing adjustment" that caused us to owe an additional .03 cents. I have yet to get an answer from them as to how they came up with this amount that we owed...Stamps cost .44 cents...I have never written a check for .03 before... When I called them to ask about this amount and as to why we owed it...they informed us that our COBRA had been cancelled due to not paying the .03 cents by the due date... But... we received our billing for the next month that billed us the .03 cents along with our next payment amount and had a due date of 11/30/09...? Still no written notification that our coverage was cancelled... But by law they say that it is because we are considered past due on the .03 cents... That as I said...we still do not know why we owe when it was not on the initital bill...? I smell a big fat scam here...in order to stay with in Government guidelines...but to get rid of people on COBRA who have the stimulus...or maybe its bigger than that. What ever it is...we are pursuing this and going to expose this practice. We want to ask anyone out there if this has happend to you to pls reply to this and let us know... we can expose this scam even better with big numbers of those out there this has happend to. Whether or not anyone responds...we are going to the media and anyone else who wants to help us investigate this company and this scam. I do not care at this point what happens with my coverage...all I want is to expose these crooks for what they are.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
This seems to be a common problem with Ceridian and Cobra. Here is a recent news video about someone losing their coverage over a few cents.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=6755538
Hi MariaZ:
I smell a rat here also.
I sent a payment on Nov. 18, 2009 for grace period ending 12/1/2009. I sent the payment using online banking (Citibank). Citi in turn sends out the check by normal US Postal Service. I sent the previous two payments in the same fashion and Ceridian received those without any problems. On Dec. 3rd, I received an alert from Citi that the payment had not cleared. I immediately called Ceridian customer service. They stated that the payment was not received. I immediately called Citi to reissue / resend the check but my coverage has since been canceled and Ceridian's compliance department is maintaining the canceled status.
I have also had trouble getting Ceridian to credit my account. Right now, I have bank records to show my September and October 2010 premiums clearing my account. Yet, today I was told by Ceridian that I have until the end of the month to make my September payment; the very check they have already cashed. Dealing with Ceridian might as well be a full time job.
I have just had the same problem. In fact, I made a mistake, and paid .02 less than I owed one month. I received a bill for .02 and considered paying it but decided to include the 2 cents in the next month's bill. I was terminated. I called Ceridian many times but was not able to learn more than that they were following federal law and the matter was out of their control. I called the insurance company, who told me the rules for COBRA were strict. I called the Department of Labor, which is the department that oversees implementation of COBRA laws. I was informed that in fact, federal law does require that participants be terminated for late or non payment, but that it was possible for me to be reinstated if my former employer, Ceridian's client, requested that I be reinstated. The idea is that the real customer is the one who is paying Ceridian to administer their accounts. For people who have been fired, contacting the former employer can be humiliating and fruitless. Dept of Labor informed me that given the fact that it was such a small amount, after I'd made reasonable attempts with my former employer, they could step in and remind them of their responsibilities, but they could not compel them to do anything. I did contact my former employer, and they were unaware that they could do this, and unaware that they were the only ones who had the power to reinstate me. They did this, but it took about a week of solid work and extreme stress on my part.
What I still don't know is why an amount like 2 cents should trigger such an extreme response. Although I do know that the law mandates cancellation, and it is also reasonable that Ceridian would not be willing to process partial payments, there should be some consideration given to what constitutes a partial payment. It is my impression that Ceridian does have discretion here, but they will not agree that they do. What a huge waste of tome for me, Ceridian, Dept of Labor and my former Employer -- not to mention the upcoming hassle I will have with the insurance company and healthcare providers. All over 2 cents! This is just the sort of waste that needs to be cut in order to lower costs. I am not sure I smell a rat or that this constitutes unethical billing practices, but I do know that this must have happened to thousands of people, and there should be some provision for handling mistakes, small underpayments for whatever reason, etc.,
I have never been able to resolve any issue by calling Ceridian. I elected coverage for my wife only and she did receive a BCBS card but BCBS claimed that the account was invalid. I must have called Ceridian three or four times and was assured that the problem would be corrected in three to five days. Finally I called the employer and threatened a law suit. The problem was corrected within 15 minutes. I believe that Ceridian will never do anything for you by phone request. The answers they give come out of thin air and will not act unless forced.
I believe that the IRS has ruled that COBRA coverage can not be canceled for insignificant underpayments. I don't know how this all works between the Treasure, Department of Labor, and the IRS but the IRS interprets COBRA law and imposes excise tax for non-compliance
very poor service.can't get anything resolved after waiting forever to talk to a person tired of hearing it will be 30 days before can be helped with problem didnt know to get cobra ins.was so hard. insurance companies are still treating people wrong. they still have power to do whatever they want to do to people. where and when does it end.people should treat others the way they would like to be treated.sad time when money is paid for cobra coverage, cant get to md for having no more moneydue to trying to purchase cobra coverage and cant get cobra started as no one their knows any thing about where paperwork is.some one please help
They did something similar to us as well. They did not send the bill, I call them and they say it was okay that I was still on the grace period. I send the check, and after a month and 10 days, Feb. 12. I received the check back along with a letter saying that our insurance was canceled back on December 31. I thought I had insurance and went to the doctor on January running a bill of $9, 000.00. hey refused to pay. I'm getting legal advised!
Frody