The insurance company take back, one of the many ways that insurers, those i dotting t crossing operators who reserve the right to do just about anything to lowball or deny insurance claims, go back over their books and "decide" that the few payments they made were unjustified.
Several years after my father's death, his wife got a bill from a health provider documenting the money a health insurer had taken back, naturally leaving her with liability for the bill. Still unresolved, the case brings up an important issue...insurance company tactics in lowballing, denying or avoiding payment for coverage. The bills are settled, you think you're finally out of the soup and here comes the insurance company claiming they shouldn't have paid what they did.
It's actually sort of annoying that insurers get to compromise claims to the bare minimum and once "settled" consumers are left to take it or leave it and sue (provided they can and that they have a chance of success, remember ERISA) and on top of everything else, insurance companies come to them for refunds!
Insurance companies are the quintessential example of hypocrisy: Consumers must be responsible, but they must not. Consumers must make claims in timely fashions but they can go delving into past payments to try to "recover" payments already made, consumers must accommodate the increased expenses of covering defensive medicine, consumers must be 100% accurate in every thing they state or their entire policy can be voided (usually with a show of bad intent), but insurance companies can rely on stating, well, you accepted our deal. And, if you go to the government to report a problem under for example HIPAA, you are likely to get no response or a response in favor of the insurance company.
For those arguing against lawyer-involvement in the insurance business, this is your wake up call, litigation when possible is often the only recourse left to individuals in combatting the out and out fraud, deceit and manipulation of insurance company sponsored racketeering. Strong words, but look at the recent State Farm Insurance case involving a settlement with Hurricane Katrina victims. Better yet, read the story and substitute in GANG each time State Farm is mentioned and you'll see that today's insurers are thugs, all dressed up in corporate finery, strong arming consumers for their own profits.
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