International Student Health Insurance - Duplicate Coverage?

My sister is International Student from Asia. She has Mega Health Insurance offered by her college. During the last year, she got sick. The insurance was effective at that time. However, she got married at the same time, and her name was also listed in her husband's insurance policy.
When claims were filed, her insurance declined. Reason was : "The student insurance is secondary (supplemental) insurance, therefore, the first (her husband's) insurance must pay for the claim first. " The doctors and hospital were not under her husband's, but listed under her insurance. Is this true that the secondary insurance doesn't pay, when primary insurance doesn't cover?

With health insurance - if you have dual or duplicate coverage the spouse's insurance becomes primary, then the Mega plan becomes secondary.

The claims have to be ran through the primary insurance first - then the balance is submitted to the secondary carrier. This is normally done by the physicians office.

So, go back to the physican - give the billing department both ID cards and explain which is primary and which is secondary. They will bill the primary carrier - once the explaination of benefits (EOB) comes back showing the physician is out of network the billing department needs to submit the primary carriers EOB along with thier bill to Mega (secondary coverage) - once this process is completed, you will pay any remaining balances.

Hope this helps! Source(s): http://www.KnoxAssociates.net