Re: Hello and thanks!

[Guest guest]

Hi Sierra,

I'm responding to your concern about having a 'pre-existing

condition' and what that does to your health insurance. As long as

you don't have a break between insurance coverages of more than 63

days, your new insurance has to give you 'credit' towards any pre-

existing condition exclusion. For example, if you've been covered by

your current insurance for 9 months, and your new policy has a 12

month pre-existing condition limit, they can only apply 3 months to

you, and then they have to start covering whatever your condition

is. There are also limits to how long a pre-existing condition

exclusion can be (I think it's 18 months), so if you've had your

current coverage for at least that long, you'll be set. This is

mandated by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act) -

the same law responsible for all the privacy notices that all the

doctors offices have been giving out.

Hope all goes well!

Beth

> I appreciated the responses to my post. It helped just to share my

> story " out loud. " The appointment's tomorrow morning. My biggest

> fear, I think, is that I'll get a diagnosis. I like the hopefulness

> of not having anything with a name (because then maybe

> it's " nothing " ). I also worry about acquiring what will eventually

> be " a pre-existing condition, " a curse when I switch jobs/insurers.

> Will a diagnosis lock me into the job I have now? (I like my job,

for

> the most part, but don't plan to stay with it forever.) What do you

> folks know about this issue?

>

> Sierra

>

> P.S. I liked the Web sites I was referred to; very high quality.