REDFORD, Mich. – A Redford woman is getting nearly $1,000 back from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan after she reached out to Local 4 for help.
It comes after her mom died, but healthcare premiums continued to get pulled from her account for months.
Carla Hamilton reached out to Local 4’s Kyla Russell after $958.44 was withdrawn from her mom’s account, and she waited over seven months for answers.
“I reached out to them this morning. What happened to you in the past couple of minutes?” Russell asked.
“Just before you arrived, a lady from Blue Cross called me and was wanting to give me the money,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton spoke to Hamilton inside the house her mom, Joyce, lived in for years.
“My mom passed away at the end of July,” Hamilton said.
Grief-ridden, Hamilton started making those dreaded calls.
“I was letting people know that she passed, all these companies, her credit cards, cancel everything, and Blue Cross was on that list,” Hamilton said.
She gave them a call, and they said she needed to fill out this paperwork.
Hamilton sent them the paperwork with a notarized copy of the death certificate.
“A few weeks later, I got a bank statement that they pulled out two days after she had passed and then a month later they pulled out again,” Hamilton said.
It was a $319.48 charge every time.
Still, she was getting letters saying she hadn’t paid on time.
“Then, I got a letter from the bank, saying they tried to pull money out again,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton closed her mom’s accounts.
Months had gone by, and she still had no reimbursement.
Hamilton kept calling. The company said there was a mistake on line seven of the form, where she had written “BCBS” for Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“What error? You didn’t include the ‘M’ for Michigan,” Hamilton said about what the company told her the error was.
“What’s your reaction to it taking you having to reach out to me, a reporter, in order to get some movement on this?” Russell asked.
“I shouldn’t have to do this,” Hamilton said. “For such a large company to be doing this to people, it’s just not right.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan responded Tuesday afternoon to Local 4’s request.
“We were able to connect with Joyce’s daughter and have scheduled time tomorrow to resolve this issue via phone call to ensure she gets the reimbursement,” the company said.