Commissioner Mike Causey is joining us
on two wants to know today to talk about
what his department can do for you.
We're going to take your questions as well
to get your questions answered in real time.
You need to text them to us.
The number is 336-379-5775 all right.
First and foremost, let's talk about wins.
Folks have a dispute with their insurance
provider and that could be maybe if
they have a dispute with how much their
auto insurance is costing or how much.
Medical is actually going to pay
on something. What do they do?
Well, the first thing is to put the
Department of Insurance on speed dial.
We have a website in C DOI dot
giovi and we have a toll free
number that's on that website,
but that toll free number is 855-408-1212
and I could give you a couple of other
numbers that they can direct dial,
but people need to contact the
Department of Insurance Right? And So
what happens when they call that number?
They talked to who and what do
they need to have like prepared?
If you call Monday through Friday
from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, you'll talk
to a real person that can help you.
If you're calling after hours on weekends,
you leave a message or send us an
email and someone would get back
in touch with you all right now,
let's hop to like the
health insurance dispute because it's
the same number that folks can call,
but what they're going to do is
maybe a little bit different when
they talk to that person one on one.
Well, that's right.
If it's a health insurance
dispute that would be insurance.
Sometimes it's a dispute between
the doctors or hospitals,
and in that case we have a program
called smart in C and they get
involved and advocate for the
consumer and we've had situations
where a hospital says you owe
$54,000 and when we get through to
consumer owes nothing so it it pays.
Big time to contact the Department
of Insurance and tell us
your situation all right.
So
on the graphic that we're looking at
right now or we were just looking
at you guys have a peer to peer
review and that could be on anything
from a procedure to medication
that a doctor is prescribing.
That's right, I mean sometimes you'll
have a doctor that that would like for
you to take a certain type of medication.
Certain prescription drugs.
Sometimes the insurance
companies will say no.
We're not going to pay for that.
Will pay for this generic.
So if that doctor can justify that
through the peer to peer review,
then sometimes we can get the insurance
companies to pay for the original name brand.
Prescription that the
doctor had requests haha.
Because sometimes
they want to give you something else and
you want that name brand prescription
and they don't want to cover it.
OK got it all right.
So what about Medicare?
Because I know that this is one of
those things that Medicare should be
something that we can easily understand,
but it's so is not when you're
signing up for it.
You guys have some helps for that.
We do, we have experts on
Medicare on our staff.
We have a program called Seniors Health
Insurance Information Program or ship is
the short name and especially around open
enrollment between October and December.
We help seniors get the Best Buy in Medicare,
understand their benefits,
and we're not selling insurance to anybody.
So we we are a very neutral,
expert advisor.
So a call us for any questions
you have on Medicare,
prescription drugs or health
insurance in general.
Alright, and so that same number is the
number that has been up there before,
so if you didn't get it,
we're definitely going to put it in the
web story for you as well today all right?
So let's talk about life insurance policies.
So many folks are kind of like.
Do I need a life insurance policy?
What happens afterwards?
How do I know I'm covered in
the manner that I should be?
Well, I would suggest talk to
your local insurance agent.
Ask your insurance agent if you
have car insurance or homeowners
if you don't have life insurance.
Ask your agent to talk to
you about life insurance.
Many companies will do a financial
analysis to see the amount that you need.
Certainly if you have a
mortgage on your house,
you're going to need the life insurance to
cover that mortgage or mortgage insurance.
And sometimes we will have people that a
family member passes away and they don't
know if they have life insurance or not.
We have a program that's called
a loss life insurance locator,
where we will actually do a national
database search and last year we
found over $54 million for people
in North Carolina that didn't even
know they had life insurance.
And since we started this program
almost four years ago, we have.
Recovered over $191 million.
So this is a big deal.
It's a free service,
so contact the part.
The Department of Insurance and ask
about our lost life insurance locator,
lost life insurance locator
that is good to know,
especially when you
don't know who to call.
This is a good starting
spot right there and then.
They can kind of help you guide.