Two months ago, my mom sent in a payment to USAA for a policy we believed was cancelled in January. As we were going through the move with my parents from Independent into Assisted Living, we tried to make changes to their policy. When USAA refused to make the changes we requested, we decided to cancel the policy and purchased new insurance. That was the quickest and easiest way for us to resolve having the insurance company accept our calls to make adjustments to our parents insurance policies.
My initial call on 5/7/2013 to update the address and straighten out my parents insurance policy started off badly. The woman on the phone asked me for a lot of information about me and my husband — birth dates, employer, social security numbers — and I was a little put-off. I stopped her and asked her why she needed this and she admitted she was interested in updating the records she had on me since we were eligible for USAA.
I am sure my voice was not pleasant when I asked her to just help me resolve the issue that I called about. She continued to try to engage me and got an earful. At first she tried to suggest I complete the USAA version of the power of attorney. I explain that my parents no longer have the ability to sign over this power — and the durable power of attorney was done for this reason and should suffice. She finally provides me with the fax number and directions to get my request resolved. She tells me it will take about 2 weeks to have the durable power of attorney reviewed and I would hear back from USAA confirming their receipt of my request.
When three weeks passed and I had not received an acknowledgement, I called back. I’m told they don’t show receiving either of the two 11-page faxes I sent to the number provided. The gentleman promises that when they receive the documents, they will put it on the fast track and I should hear back within a few days.
I just resent both copies of my Durable Power of Attorney in today — I will let you know when I hear back and the outcome. Aggravated.
You have more patience than I do. You make, however, a truly critical point, that I hope all your readers note. That is that we are only able to hand-off responsibility (POA) while we are judged cognitively unimpaired. Families need to have these conversations and get trusts / durable POA appointments completed early. If not, it can be truly hell to pay, emotionally and financially.
Good post.
Bert Cave, President, Support For Home Health Care
I had similar problems with Medco and Blue Cross for many months and re-sent the forms multiple times. It was only resolved after I used dad’s online access and password to complete their forms online. They don’t keep paper and don’t want to work with a proxy. Good luck with this company!
I’ve had the same issue with them. Even worse a bad relative apparently sent in the usaa on a form forged, and because my mother can’t hear she can’t get them to communicate well enough to do anything. I told then just please send a copy of the forged document to my mother, not me, so that her attorney can contest it, but they won’t ‘unless she asked then directly’ which she can’t because she doesn’t understand what they have since she never signed one.
In the interim, while she was in the hospital, her usaa visa card disappeared from her AL room, and usaa won’t cancel the card because she can’t hear then well enough to verify her account with the 15 questions they kept asking her.
Sorry to hear. That is awful.
I have had similar problems with numerous other companies and agencies. I really thought we had done everything needed by having my father execute Durable PoA and Medical PoA documents while he was able. However at every turn I hear “that’s not sufficient, we need our version” or “that’s fine but we still need form blah blah blah.” We’ve actually had to get our lawyer to step in and in all cases except certain government agencies have found there is no legal basis to these claims, it’s just CYA policies.
Sorry to hear that Tom. So frustrating.