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Government Will Take Insurance Money

on February 9th, 2009 | Filed under Optoblog

I had misplaced a BlueCross insurance payment check at the bottom of a pile of papers. By the time I found it, I had missed the 90 day deadline to cash it.
Click here to see actual letter from BCBS
The other day I got a letter in the mail. They were wondering if I needed it reissued. What was very interesting to me is that if I didn’t respond, the law required BlueCross to pay the money to the state of Utah!

So, I wonder if patients should be forced to do the same thing? Or what about doctors who owe patients an overpayment refund? Should we be forced to pay the government if they never cash the check? I guess it won’t matter soon anyway because the way things are heading we’ll all be working for the government. Thanks for reading, comrade.

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2 Comments

2 Responses to “Government Will Take Insurance Money”

  1. OD AZ says:

    Doctors who owe patients an overpayment or refund ARE supposed to remit that money to the state in an annual unclaimed property return, just like any other business. In all states there is an office which collects unclaimed property (property which you may be holding but does not belong to you,….i.e. uncashed reimbursement or payroll checks, refunds, etc.). The state does not keep the property/money for their use but holds it for the owner to claim. Some states even attempt to track down the owners.

    Utah’s unclaimed property site:
    http://www.up.utah.gov/

    Or try checking business.gov to search for general requirements for other states.

  2. Well, I’m so glad the government takes care of these things. Sounds like any time there is “unclaimed property” the government has seen fit to take it. What a nice pot of money they must get. I’m sure they search far and wide, like OJ, to get that money to its rightful owner.

    If someone doesn’t want to cash my check, then how would the government ever know? (By the way, that’s never happened to me before so I guess that’s why I didn’t know about the whole government bureaucracy of “U.P.”)

    So who’s looking out for me? I have accounts receivable. I’m sending out statements. Are these patients sending me checks that get lost in the mail, so they send it to the state of Utah?

    Fat chance.