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IMSS problem - late payment


bajandy

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I have had IMSS for the last 17 years.  I have never used their services except in 2015 I needed surgery for an intestinal malignancy.  I inquired to IMSS, reported my problem and diagnosis, and started the process  of having IMSS do the surgery.

IMSS gave me lengthy and delayed half assed schedule that made me nervous since I thought I had a serious problem.  I decided to use a private surgeon instead since the IMSS wait was so long.  The private surgeon did the surgery and I have not made any IMSS claims since.  I continued the IMSS coverage as a catastrophic backup.

This year, through negligence, I missed the cutoff date for my yearly payment (a month or less) .  Instead of the matter being treated as merely a late payment it seems IMSS is seeing my problem as a request for readmission to the program ostensibly as a new patient.  I was told to a get sheet filled out by the director in Chapala.  IMSS had my 2015 request for services in detail on the computer. It leaves the impression that now I was a very sick individual applying for IMSS.  This is the wrong picture.  I just want to renew my 17 years of coverage.

The director suggested I go to Guadalajara and made it sound as if there would be an evaluation for my readmission.  He sounded negative and I am concerned that I would be rejected and treated as a new patient because of missing the deadline for a payment.

Has anyone else been late on an IMSS payment and how did they handle it.  I welcome any and all suggestions.

 

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I can't answer your question. I'll just say consider you are lucky to be out of it. It will save you money and peace of mind. I had IMSS for 8 years. I never used it as I heard too many horror stories. But each year the fee to stay in IMSS went up. When it reached 6,000 I got out. I did sign up with Seguro Popular but I wonder if it is that much better. I will continue to use private doctors as many here do. If I need to spend a lot of money on private hospitals at some point I might or might not.

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A couple of friends also forgot to pay on time. They were both told they had to reapply as new clients and begin at year one again. Hope this doesn't happen to you, but it appears that it may. They both opted for Seguro Popular instead of attempting to enroll again in IMSS.

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You are out of luck.  The rules clearly state that your annual payment must be made in the month prior to your annual coverage date.  For example, we pay in August for annual coverage starting Sept 1.  And yes, if you miss that date, you are considered a totally new applicant and have to qualify under existing new terms and conditions, plus some service limitations for the first two years.

As it happens, altho' I have had a LOT of satisfactory service with several different specialists (and 2 hospital stays) with them, we have opted not to renew this year since my other half never  has used it, and at our ages the fees are pretty high.  So we will get Seguro Popular for the major event, and self-insure the rest of the time.

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So can folks please enlighten me as to the details of "self insure".   

I am assuming that you mean you will start putting monies aside for that fateful day and you are assuming that maybe 10/20 years ahead and you have potfulls of money to pay out of pocket expenses.

However if you get sick, real sick say in less than 6 months...where is the pot of gold you have saved for this tragedy? You have not had time to build up a rainy day pool of money

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Self-insure simply implies that you will personally take care of the bill.  Having or hoping to have "piles of money" is not part of that scenario.  Perhaps one has sufficient credit or maybe even a sugar daddy but in any case, none of our business.

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It's none of our business until someone who decides to "self insure" has a medical emergency and doesn't have the money to pay for it.  Then, they or friends of theirs are on the webboard or FB asking everyone for donations. This happens all too frequently.  

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I'm ignoring the tone of one of the previous posts, since obviously, "self insured" was not understood clearly.

I am in the same slot. I have health issues that prevent my obtaining either private insurance or IMSS acceptance.  I signed up for Seguro Popular so that a serious problem with long term expense could be taken care of.  I cancelled my Medicare Part B upon moving to Mexico in 2004 and established a medical savings account which became so substantial that I have be able to take care of all my medical costs out of pocket and have plenty left over.  Some call that "self insured". 

I prefer to use private hospitals when needed and would not be looking forward to the Seguro Popular option, but I don't expect to acquire great piles of money from here on, so f I run out of my own funds, I'll take the "Mash without incoming fire" facility...and be grateful that the Mexican government has provided it.

I, too, am appalled when someone who didn't avail themselves of either IMSS or Seguro Popular puts out a plea for his/her friends and neighbors to pay their medical expenses.  That's inexcusable, IMO.

 

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48 minutes ago, Wookie said:

It's none of our business until someone who decides to "self insure" has a medical emergency and doesn't have the money to pay for it.  Then, they or friends of theirs are on the webboard or FB asking everyone for donations. This happens all too frequently.  

Ah yes, I do remember those all too frequent "fund raisers" for medical bills.  The only one we ever gave to was for the young boy across the street from our BnB who had cancer.  We gave, our BnB guests gave, neighbors gave and my wife made sure the money went where it was supposed to go........ as she held it.  12 years later Jose is doing super, just in case anyone might remember and be curious.  The other pleas fell on deaf ears.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/23/2018 at 5:10 PM, bajandy said:

I have had IMSS for the last 17 years.  I have never used their services except in 2015 I needed surgery for an intestinal malignancy.  I inquired to IMSS, reported my problem and diagnosis, and started the process  of having IMSS do the surgery.

IMSS gave me lengthy and delayed half assed schedule that made me nervous since I thought I had a serious problem.  I decided to use a private surgeon instead since the IMSS wait was so long.  The private surgeon did the surgery and I have not made any IMSS claims since.  I continued the IMSS coverage as a catastrophic backup.

This year, through negligence, I missed the cutoff date for my yearly payment (a month or less) .  Instead of the matter being treated as merely a late payment it seems IMSS is seeing my problem as a request for readmission to the program ostensibly as a new patient.  I was told to a get sheet filled out by the director in Chapala.  IMSS had my 2015 request for services in detail on the computer. It leaves the impression that now I was a very sick individual applying for IMSS.  This is the wrong picture.  I just want to renew my 17 years of coverage.

The director suggested I go to Guadalajara and made it sound as if there would be an evaluation for my readmission.  He sounded negative and I am concerned that I would be rejected and treated as a new patient because of missing the deadline for a payment.

Has anyone else been late on an IMSS payment and how did they handle it.  I welcome any and all suggestions.

 

The only way you can renew is with a doctors letter stating that you were sick and physically unable to go to GDL for the entire month that you needed to renew in. Otherwise you start over with restrictions.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/24/2018 at 4:11 PM, Wookie said:

It's none of our business until someone who decides to "self insure" has a medical emergency and doesn't have the money to pay for it.  Then, they or friends of theirs are on the webboard or FB asking everyone for donations. This happens all too frequently.  

It is still none of our business. Those who want to donate can. Those who don’t want to don’t have to. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

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We were late by a couple of weeks and had to start all over again. We lost the years we had put in. We have since changed to private insurance.

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