Mother confronts WA Healthplanfinder over payment issues
Elisa Hahn, KING 5 News
7:59 p.m. PST January 5, 2015
SEATTLE -- A young mother was so frustrated with the Washington Healthplanfinder, that she decided to take her children and her complaints to the Healthplanfinder's offices in Olympia.
Kelly Waterman of Lake Forest Park is one of thousands of customers who have dealt with payment problems with the state's insurance exchange.
On Monday, she came armed with a pile of doctor's bills, rejected by her insurance company.
"This is for three more visits that haven't been paid," Waterman said about one bill. "This bill is for over a thousand dollars."
Waterman enrolled her family for insurance with Premera through the Washington Healthplanfinder. Their family pays 12 hundred dollars a month to cover her husband, 2 year-old Luke, 4 year-old Shiloh, and they added baby Dylan to their plan when he was born in April.
Despite paying 8 months of premiums for Dylan, his doctor told her their insurance wouldn't cover him. Now Waterman faces thousands of dollars in bills.
"It's been the most frustrating experience of our entire life," Waterman said. "We've been through a lot but this, this is an injustice."
So after months of the run-around, Waterman and her three children marched into the Healthplanfinder's Olympia office refusing to leave until they found solution. In those upstairs offices, she sat talking to staff for three hours.
The Healthplanfinder spokesperson invited KING 5 in, and confirmed the problem was on their end. The Watermans paid their premiums to the Healthplanfinder, but some data hiccup, that money wasn't getting to Premera.
But during her Monday visit, they confirmed with the insurance carrier the problem was fixed.
"Any one person having a problem is one person too many," spokesperson Michael Marchand said. "We've worked very very hard with the carrier to make sure we're getting payments out in a timely fashion."
For Waterman, it's another promise she's not sure she can believe, until she sees her bills are paid.
"What happened, where did my money go? I feel like there is no resolution."
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