Personal Health Insurance?

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Specializes in cardiac/education.

My brother has no insurance and may have a nasty infection in his leg from an ingrown toenail. I have to take him to an urgent care tomorrow and pay for all of it since my bro has no $$ and no insurance.

I was wondering......long shot here........if I went online and purchased a health insurance policy for him, how fast does that go into effect? I was looking on Blue Cross Blue Shield and you could check June as an effective date. I was just thinking I could hurry up and sign him up and then take him to the doctor this coming week?

I know we should get him in now, I am just afraid they are going to want to run antibiotics IV or something, tetorifice shot....my simple cat bite ER visit was almost $900!!:stone

Any advice? He really can't qualify for ACCESS I don't think because he most likely makes too much. He had a one year waiting period at his new job before he could get insurance and never bothered to get any other insurance in the meantime. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

What is ACCESS?

I doubt that Blue Cross will sign him to a policy on line. A claim coming in for something as serious as an infection or cellulitis is going to raise red flags all over the claims office and he may end up responsible for the bill anyway--pre-existing condition. Not to mention that they might consider what you are attempting to do is defraud them.

It sounds like he may have a bad infection. Why not take him to the ER? I'm thinking that an urgent care won't let him see the doctor until they have some assurance of payment. A large ER will be a bit more forgiving, especially if they are accustomed to dealing with indigent patients. (I'm not labeling your brother an indigent, so don't get mad at me here.) I worked for a large city hospital that took great pride in treating all who came in their doors whether they could pay or not. They wrote off 45% of the patient accounts every year due to non-payment. Surely, there must be a facility close to where you live that does something like this also.

You didn't give much more information. . .but, I'm guessing that your brother is not employed at this time? There may be a way for Mediaid to help out with this. The larger hospitals will have social workers who can help you guys figure out this delemma. If I'm not mistaken Mediaid a lot of times makes accomodations for people who have no medical insurance but cannot pay the full amount of very expensive, but necessary medical care.

Maybe some of the ER nurses who are on line can respond to this and give you some advice on where you can get care in lieu of your brother's financial situation.

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Even if you could get insurance effective immediately for your brother, like Daytonite said, as a pre-exisiting this probably wouldn't be covered or could be considered insurance fraud down the line.

Since you say he's employed, I'm sure if you bring him to the ER the hospital will be more than happy to work out a payment plan with him.

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Even if you could get insurance effective immediately for your brother, like Daytonite said, as a pre-exisiting this probably wouldn't be covered or could be considered insurance fraud down the line.

Since you say he's employed, I'm sure if you bring him to the ER the hospital will be more than happy to work out a payment plan with him.

I agree, going on line is a bad idea. Any good insurance company will rule out pre-exisiting conditions. And the ER record will verify that your brother's infection is pre-existing. Take him to a big city ER. At best they will write it off, if he can't pay or qualify for some assistance. At worse, they will work out a repayment plan. Try to take him to a public or not for profit facility.

Grannynurse :balloons:

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