Employee Advocacy
Employer-sponsored health insurance and group benefits can be confusing. It is important to have trusted advisors available to assist plan participants in understanding their coverage and navigating the claims process. RMC’s employee advocacy team is a live resource available to assist plan participants with any questions or issues they may experience while using their coverage.
Below is a recent example of RMC’s employee advocacy team stepping in to quickly resolve an issue that a plan participant experienced while filing a claim.
The Accident
An employee fell at home and suffered a serious bone fracture. The employee received immediate medical attention, and their employer-sponsored health insurance covered the initial setting of the bone and all necessary rehabilitation. Due to the severity of the break, the employee was directed by their doctor not to return to work for approximately 90 days to avoid aggravating the injury. Luckily, the employee’s employer also provided Short-Term Disability and Accident Insurance to replace some of the income lost during the rehabilitation period.
Trouble Filing the Claim
Unfortunately, filing the Short-Term Disability and Accident claim was not as straight forward as the employee had hoped. First, the employee attempted to contact the insurance company to start the paperwork for the Short-Term Disability and Accident Insurance claim. After two weeks without success the employee contacted their Human Resources Manager for assistance. Over the next week the HR Manager was also unsuccessful in initiating the claim. Finally, the HR Manager contacted RMC to ask for assistance.
The Resolution
Within ten minutes RMC’s employee advocacy team determined that the employee and HR Manager had been contacting the wrong insurance company. Instead of the contacting their current carrier, they were attempting to file a claim with a carrier they used several years ago. RMC contacted the current carrier and received confirmation of benefits and the forms required to file a claim right away.
RMC’s employee advocacy team assisted the employee in completing the forms and submitting the claim. The team was also able to streamline the claims submittal process, eliminating several unnecessary and redundant steps that resulted from poor communication between the carrier and employee. On the day following the claim submittal, the carrier informed RMC’s team that the Accident funds would be sent to the employee the next day and the Short-Term Disability funds would follow within a week.
The employee was extremely thankful to have this claim resolved. Now that the burden of financial uncertainty had been removed, their attention could be focused on what matters most: recovery. RMC’s “human touch” approach made all the difference!
