Is there a contestable period for Medigap policies as with life insurance?

[DonP]

I've seen it done. It is 100% correct for a Fully Underwritten Life Policy.

I 100% disagree with this and Newby is correct . In the old days 25-30 yrs ago possibly. 8 yrs ago I wrote a trans policy . Age 79 $25k . The guy died at 23 months . They said they found out he was smoker and the policy was ns . They denied claim and I got fat ass $4 k plus chargeback . You're acting like you get brownie pts for " saying sorry I forgot to tell you about this little thing I forgot about " . Theres no distinguishing between a honest I forgot and a little white lie . You're correct in the old days they'd possibly adjust the death benefit based on how much death benefit the premium would buy at the correct rating . If you saw this happen your client got miracle lucky . This is not the case anymore.

 

[axeman462]

Actually he is correct. But so are you.

And that's because he's talking about ordinary companies and you're talking FE companies. There's a difference.

Ordinary companies don't normally post underwrite nor rescind. Some FE companies do it every day.

A good example would be smoker status. Most ordinary companies would recalculate and deduct the difference from the proceeds. Some FE carriers would try to rescind the whole thing.

Out of curiosity, in your experience what would a medsupp company typically do in a smoker status situation like that? I've come across it quite a few times where a beneficiary is a smoker but is paying non-smoking rates

 

[DonP]

Out of curiosity, in your experience what would a medsupp company typically do in a smoker status situation like that? I've come across it quite a few times where a beneficiary is a smoker but is paying non-smoking rates

I think what Rmhaire is saying is the latitude to rescind a Medicare policy is much much tougher than a life as its gov't intertwined . Medicare accepted the claim so the carrier must also accept it .Also I'm willing to bet unless the claim is very big like cancer few carriers will even look to contest a Medicare claim

 

[scagnt83]

I 100% disagree with this and Newby is correct . In the old days 25-30 yrs ago possibly. 8 yrs ago I wrote a trans policy . Age 79 $25k . The guy died at 23 months . They said they found out he was smoker and the policy was ns . They denied claim and I got fat ass $4 k plus chargeback . You're acting like you get brownie pts for " saying sorry I forgot to tell you about this little thing I forgot about " . Theres no distinguishing between a honest I forgot and a little white lie . You're correct in the old days they'd possibly adjust the death benefit based on how much death benefit the premium would buy at the correct rating . If you saw this happen your client got miracle lucky . This is not the case anymore.

You are talking about an FE policy. Not fully UW.

For a fully UW life policy, it is true.

They deduct the difference, as long as it would not have been a decline.

Again, I've seen it happen. Multiple times. There is even contractual language about it in the policy with many carriers.

 

[rmhaire]

You are talking about an FE policy. Not fully UW.

For a fully UW life policy, it is true.

They deduct the difference, as long as it would not have been a decline.

Again, I've seen it happen. Multiple times. There is even contractual language about it in the policy.

Exactly. We're actually talking about two different worlds.

You're talking about fully underwritten policies. That means parameds, oral swaps (did those in the 90's) EKGs and APS's. No such thing in FE.

An FE policy, in it's basic form, is a table 7 or 8 whole life policy with an up or down application. No underwriting.

Two totally different worlds.

 

[scagnt83]

That means parameds, oral swaps (did those in the 90's) EKGs and APS's. No such thing in FE.

I was in high school, but I did a few oral swaps in the 90s as well.... never work related though! lol

---

In all seriousness, oral swabs have actually started to make a comeback, but its mailed to the client for them to do themselves. Cheaper than sending a nurse.

 

[rmhaire]

Out of curiosity, in your experience what would a medsupp company typically do in a smoker status situation like that? I've come across it quite a few times where a beneficiary is a smoker but is paying non-smoking rates

About the most one would do would be to go back and charge the extra premium. I've never seen on try to rescind coverage.

And next month will be 53 years for me and in all that time I've never seen it.

 

[MSLLC]

In 16 years, I have had 2 contested. One with Aetna, one with Cigna. The Cigna policyholder was diagnosed with cancer just one month after UW approval. We were fine. It is very stressful, though, as they stop paying claims during the review.

 

[rmhaire]

In 16 years, I have had 2 contested. One with Aetna, one with Cigna. The Cigna policyholder was diagnosed with cancer just one month after UW approval. We were fine. It is very stressful, though, as they stop paying claims during the review.

Why? For smoking?

 

[DonP]

You are talking about an FE policy. Not fully UW.

For a fully UW life policy, it is true.

They deduct the difference, as long as it would not have been a decline.

Again, I've seen it happen. Multiple times. There is even contractual language about it in the policy with many carriers.

So why would a carrier who sells both fully underwritten and fe(aka Transamerica) have different claims process on contestabilty? Trans sells a lot of simplified issue non med term they never pull aps's on . So why would anyone tell the truth if they smoke on a fully underwritten one ? The only penalty during the contestable period is adjustment of premium which you'd have paid the higher premium to begin with . Makes no sense