Tonya Gullino recently wrote a letter to The Consumerist regarding her insurance company's handling of her miscarriage.

Here is her account:

Now, on Aug, 29 2007 my husband and I suffered a devastating miscarriage. Being near midnight we went to the ER. The hospital was very compassionate about our loss and was able to get us in quickly and expedited our treatment. The following day I called BCBS [Blue Cross Blue Shield] and informed them that we had made a visit to the ER, and was told it wasn't necessary to call them just for ER visits, but only when we are admitted. Believing that BCBS would never make the mistakes at they did the previous and only time we have used our insurance I thought everything would go smoothly. Boy was I wrong!

On, Sep, 21 2007 I received a statement for BCBS that they were denying all of the claim. I called them and asked why they were denying the entire claim, and was told by Jane, "We do not cover ELECTIVE abortions. If you chose to terminate your pregnancy for non-health threatening reasons, BCBS will not cover it."

What do you all think? Have you ever heard of this happening before?

Holy crap!  Insult added to injury!

Thats terrible! That poor woman!

As if they chose that!! Insurance companies suck!

Sounds to me like she needs to get lawyer.

guess I just had an "elective abortion"  i'd find those people and hunt them down   They'd never say the same thing to another woman after I was done with them!

You have got to be kidding! That is the most absured thing I have ever heard of !!!!! As if she hadn't gone through enough... then they tell her it was an elective abortion! I wonder if the hospital accidently coded the diagnosis wrong or if BCBS is just that ignorant and unsympathetic!

Its just sounds as if they mislabled the claim.  Could be a problem the hospital or the insurance company or anyone of the of dozens of people who handled the paperwork inbetween caused.  I would just call the insurance co. and even send them something in writing to let them know I did not have an abortion period and they need to correct the problem.  I mean what if they sent a letter saying they would deny the claim since they don't cover cosmetic surgery...I didn't have cosmetic surgery so I would need to bring the error to their attention. 

That was actually my first thought too - someone in the coding department transposed two numbers and submitted it to insurance incorrectly.

 

Uh, yeah.  Nobody is stupid enough to try and call a miscarriage an elective abortion.  It was probably a mistake from the hospital and can be easily rectified.  Who goes to the ER to have an abortion?  This woman is stupid if she hasn't called the hospital to correct the mistake.

When I went in for my D&C it was actually labeled as a "missed abortion" you have no idea how much that KILLED me to see that on my paperwork :( it wasn't like I went in for an abortion and they just missed the baby.. it was that my body actually didn't abort the baby that wasnt growing, had no heartbeat.. had NO chance of ever being born.. I still would hunt those people down and hurt them badly.. i'd blame it on my harmones

That has to be an incorrect code, it happens. " Elective Abortion" in no way correctly describes the situation. I would dig deeper into this and If it wasn't mislabeled, a lawyer would be a good idea. Insurance companies will do what ever they can get away with. Next time I'm at my dad's house I'll look it up. He has a medical claim's coding book. He's a doctor and I was thinking about getting into medical billing. Good stay-at-home-mom job.

I realize that this is an old post, but I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.  I have seen a miscarriage called a spontaneous abortion.  When I lost my Emma, I went to the State Health Department to get a certificate for her (it's not a birth or death certificate, but it's something else of her's that I could get) Well, on there are two seperate choices, elective and spontaneous abortion.  They blanket-term abortion for loss of baby, then specify whether it was chosen or not.  I'm agreeing with the other posters that they just made a mistake in the coding.  When I went to the ER for bleeding, I noticed on my insurance form that they called it "Threatened Miscarriage".  I also have BCBS and they covered that completely, minus my co-pay.

My first pregnancy was a miscarriage and at my dr's office they called it a "spontaneous abortion" and when i went for my D&C the paperwork said "missed abortion". on both i had to ask WHY it was called abortion. I wanted my daughter. But it does sound like a coding mistake.