THORNTON, Colo. -- Two pennies. That's the difference between a potentially life-saving surgery, and a dropped insurance plan.
Those two cents could cost Vietnam veteran Ronald Flanagan everything.
"Everybody we talk to is very surprised that two cents is enough to do this," said Flanagan.
was an innocent enough mistake, according to Ron's wife, Frances Flanagan.
"If I only had just hit the nine instead of the seven," Frances said.
When she was paying their monthly health insurance premium online in November, Frances swapped a 7 for a 9, leaving their $328.69 payment two cents short.
"And now we're just pulling teeth and trying to figure out what's the next step," Frances said.
Their insurance company, Ceridian Cobra Services, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, promptly dropped the Flanagans for the two-cent shortage.
The couple only found out about losing their coverage at a doctor's appointment on Jan. 13. They found out about the problem while at the Exempla Rock Creek Medical Center in Broomfield.
As Ron was getting prepped to have a bone biopsy, Frances was on the phone with the insurance company.
"The nurses were just getting ready to do the biopsy when my wife popped into the office and told them, 'Stop. We don't have any insurance,'" said Ron.
"And that's when they let me know that we no longer had insurance on account of the two cents, and they canceled us," said Frances. "Since then, I've been depressed. I haven't been able to hardly do anything. As you can see, we still have our Christmas decorations up. So it's been hard on me."
Ron has been fighting cancer since September 2008. He has multiple myeloma -- cancer in the bone marrow. Doctors at St. Luke's have performed stem cell transplant surgery twice. He needs another transplant before the end of February, and they have a donor. But, because of the two-cent mistake, Ceridian Cobra Services will not pay for the procedure.
In a statement to 7NEWS the insurance company said, "We did not receive a full and timely payment and (Mrs. Flanagan) was provided several notices of the shortage and a grace period reminder notice on the last invoice, along with extended grace dates as provided for under COBRA regulations."
The statement goes on to say, "Since the payment was not full, it fit into the definition in the regulations of an 'insufficient payment' ... Ceridian understands nothing is more important than one’s health ... Unfortunately, we simply do not have the capacity to be able to personally call continuants and remind them of the status of their COBRA benefits."
Ron Flanagan believes Ceridian does not value human health, but rather -- the bottom line.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/26614998/detail.htmlI hope this sick insurance company loses a lot of customers over this.