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Extended health benefit: can my plan and my spouse plan cover a device I bought twice

  • Last Updated:
  • Aug 15th, 2012 11:35 pm
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Deal Addict
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Apr 10, 2010
1398 posts
208 upvotes

Extended health benefit: can my plan and my spouse plan cover a device I bought twice

My company health benefit plan covers for a medical device every year, for one such device, up to $500 max. My spouse's company health plan covers for the same device, one for each year too.

I know how "Coordination of Benefits" works is that I have to submit my claim to my own plan first, and then the unpaid amount can be submitted to my spouse's plan. My question is, can I buy two such devices, and have the first one covered by my plan, and the other one covered by the spouse's plan?

The plan policy says they only cover "one" such device every year, so I'm wondering if I can buy two, submit the first one to my plan, have them cover this one; and then submit the second one also to my plan first (just to satisfy the "coordination of benefits" requirement, knowing it will be refused), and when they refuse to cover it, then I submit the receipt and the refusal letter to my spouse's plan. In this case, will my spouse's plan cover the second one?
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Deal Addict
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Apr 3, 2003
2882 posts
13 upvotes
They should. An example would be the optometrist. You could legitimately submit to both in the way you've described and be approved.

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