Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Consumer Health Benefits Association
Fort Ashby, West Virginia
United States

In October of 2008, my husband and I received a letter that our daughter will age out of his medical insurance through his place of employment and that she would be covered until December 1, 2008. So we started searching for an affordable insurance plan. Our daughter is a fulltime college student and works parttime and does have a pre-existing condition. I did some research on the internet. I never heard of Consumer Health Benefits Association. One evening we received a telephone call from Scott (their respresentative), and we discussed this issue of our daughter needing health insurance and prescription coverage. He explained that under their benefits, that she would only have to pay 20% of office visits, ER, etc. He further explained that she would have a prescription coverage and that it was tiered. And I repeated everything and wrote it all down. He also stated that this plan would include life insurance for $15, 000 and some other perks. I asked him if I could discuss it with my husband and give him a call back. He stated that that would be fine, but if we didn't signup that evening that he could not guarantee the $119.95 a month premium. So I said that I would call him back and give him a yes or no answer. So I discussed it with my husband and we decided that this would be a plan that she could afford the doctors office payments and her medicine. So I contacted Scott back and said that we would go ahead and get this coverage for our daughter. And I repeated the benefits that he related to me, he verified that yes this would be the benefit coverage. So we went ahead and paid for it via debit card. He said that she would be covered right away. The next week, our daughter ended up in the emergency room a couple of times and we still had not received the card and explanation of benefits. So I contacted Scott from the hospital and he said do not worry, that they would take care of her expenses that were not covered by my husbands insurance. ( She was double covered). He told me that when we received the bills that were not covered by my husbands insurance to contact him and he would let me know what to do next. In Novemeber when we received the unpaid portion of the bills, I tried calling him several times for several days. Finally about a week later I received a call from someone else in his office and they told me that Scott died unexpectedly. I thought okay and asked this guy what I needed to do, and he said that he would contact me in a few days. Have never heard from him. So a couple weeks ago in January 2009, my daughter went to get one of her prescriptions refilled and the pharmacy said that they could not fill it because she did not have a new card for 2009. Okay, so she contacts Consumer Health Benefits Association and YOU NEVER GET TO TALK TO ANYONE, leaves a message and to this date has not heard back. Yesterday, Feb. 2, 2009, she is in need to go see her doctor, (first time since she has this plan), they tell her that she has to pay $150 to see the doctor, they contacted Consumer Health Benefits Association and that is what they told the receptionist. Mind you, our daughter is 22 years old, is a fulltime college student and works parttime. Now what young person has that kind of money to see a doctor. I have tried contacting CHBA for 2 days now and have yet to talk to anyone. They have lied and no one ever answers the member services line. So now it is back to square one to try to find health coverage for our daughter with a pre-existing condition. When I do speak to CHBA, I will ask for a refund $479.80.