Laya Laya letter - we've not been able to validate the details of your cover with your previous insurers

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1dave123

Registered User
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Hi

I was just wondering if anyone has had this experience. I just switched health insurance from Aviva to Laya. In my application I supplied my Aviva membership number.

Yesterday I received a letter from Laya containing the line “Unfortunately to date we've not been able to validate the details of your cover with your previous insurer(s)” .

The letter then requests me to contact my previous insurers and request membership confirmation details from them myself and then send on this information to Laya.

I phoned Laya and subsequently emailed them asking for a copy of what they sent Aviva – the rep on the phone call couldn't tell me what they had sent ...... and the subsequent request in the email was ignored.

I understood that there was an agreement between the providers to supply past cover details direct to each other as a matter of course. That's certainly what happened when I moved from VHI to Aviva in 2011 – Aviva contacted VHI and got the information direct themselves.

Anyway – more out of curiosity than anything else I was just wondering if anyone else had encountered this issue?

In the meantime I guess i'll have to get on to Aviva and perhaps VHI to get them to send me a letter with my past history with them

Thanks.
 
I've never encountered this... could it be something as simple as a typo in membership number? I thought the insurance companies also had your PPS number which is unique, but maybe they are not allowed to use that in communications with each other.
 
Hi Odyssey06 - it could be. I know the number I gave Laya was correct - but I don't know what ID they used in their communications with Aviva as so far Laya have been unable to supply me with a copy of that correspondence.
 
1dave123 said:
Hi Odyssey06 - it could be. I know the number I gave Laya was correct - but I don't know what ID they used in their communications with Aviva as so far Laya have been unable to supply me with a copy of that correspondence.
Click to expand...
I also got a letter from Laya requesting details of my health cover which I had with VHI, I just rang rang Laya this morning and they said under Government regulations they required me to confirm that there was no break in cover. I advised Laya that there is no break in policy which I had already confirmed to them when I switched over.
They said they need this confirmation in writing. I don't intend to contact VHI , Laya have my confirmation by phone and as all calls are recorded that should be sufficient. They should have asked me to get this from VHI when I was switching, not months later.
 
I sent another email to Laya this morning - again asking for a copy of the communication that they had sent to Aviva. Here's the Laya email reply of a few minutes ago

"Sorry my previous email to you may not have been clear, we have not contacted any provider for previous health insurance details. You will be required to contact Aviva and VHI who will provide you with a membership confirmation letter. This letter need to state your original date of joining, level of cover and cancellation date. Once you have this information you may forward to us directly."

Now some text from the original letter

“To ensure that our members are paying the correct premiums laya healthcare is required to confirm details of previous insurance coverage. Unfortunately to date we have not been able to validate the details of your cover with your previous insurers. To ensure that you are not affected by any additional premium, we need verification of your health insurance policy with them“

Anyway - just something to be aware of if you are switching to Laya.
 
It's not just Laya, all the insurers are and will be sending these letters. The Lifetime Community Rating regulations may result in an increase to premiums if previous cover is not validated.
 
You would think the otherwise efficient HIA could come up with procedure to sort this out. Claiming previous cover could give the new insurer the right to check some database that would show this. This type of hassle would be real impediment to changing provider.
 
Just to add a related experience with VHI when submitting a day to day expenses claim for a relative before Christmas.
What should have been a straight forward refund for a few visits, turned into a 2 month rigmarole.

All previous cover information was given at renewal time, but the first letter that arrived from VHI stated that no refund applied 'as the
expenses are not eligible for payment because the dependent waiting period had not expired'. Further down this letter, it suggests that if you
held insurance prior to 2014 please provide details and we would be happy to reassess this claim.
This person had continuous day to day similar cover for six years and if previous claims required clarification with another provider, this was always
done automatically.

All details were supplied a second time, by phone call and after a ten day wait, no reply.
Follow up call discovers that claim wasn't forwarded on to the relevant section.
All details given a third time and eventually refund issued.

My main concern was the first letter that issued, stating no refund applied. Some people could take that at face value and may not follow up,
not realising that a refund actually does apply but you have to go through hoops to get it. A person may not follow up, thinking I gave all this
information already so I mustn't be due a refund - no point in going any further.

Health insurance is complicated enough without adding more layers of confusion.

Finally, the Central Bank might be the one to deal with this issue of providers being able to check previous cover etc since they are the regulator
for all four providers, including VHI. Interesting articles as follows;
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irelan...ight-forward-with-their-customers-387033.html

[broken link removed]

Snowyb
 
ardmacha said:
You would think the otherwise efficient HIA could come up with procedure to sort this out. Claiming previous cover could give the new insurer the right to check some database that would show this. This type of hassle would be real impediment to changing provider.
Click to expand...

Database = potentially huge data protection issues
 
I had this issue switching from laya to vhi

It took at least 5 phone calls and several hours of my time before they sorted it

My experience with vhi was that they contacted laya and then had to wait for laya to reply ( very slow )

I put them under duress as I was due to go into hospital and they kept suggesting I wouldn't be covered

Eventually I said I wanted to lodge a complaint ( cue lots of documents sent to my email address for me to fill - I did not fill these but me digging my heels them eventually pushed them to get the info )

This was last year!
 
I also got a letter from Laya requesting details of my health cover which I had with VHI, I just rang rang Laya this morning and they said under Government regulations they required me to confirm that there was no break in cover. I advised Laya that there is no break in policy which I had already confirmed to them when I switched over.
They said they need this confirmation in writing. I don't intend to contact VHI , Laya have my confirmation by phone and as all calls are recorded that should be sufficient. They should have asked me to get this from VHI when I was switching, not months later.[/QUOTE]


And in the event of you having to make a claim, it probably will delay payment to hospital/doctors.

Confirmation from YOU to Laya is substantially different from confirmation from VHI to Laya. All they want to confirm is that you were previously insured and that the current level of cover is equal or less than what you previously had. If your current cover is higher than what you previously had, there still may be waiting periods for certain procedures.
 
1dave123 said:
Hi Odyssey06 - it could be. I know the number I gave Laya was correct - but I don't know what ID they used in their communications with Aviva as so far Laya have been unable to supply me with a copy of that correspondence.
Click to expand...

Dave, could you simply forward them the VHI renewal notice?
 
Mexicola said:
Database = potentially huge data protection issues
Click to expand...

An IT data sharing project has been undertaken between motor insurers and the insurance federation, to allow validation of no claims bonuses using a renewal PIN.
Something similar here would be do-able, with the same stringent levels of security.
 
odyssey06 said:
An IT data sharing project has been undertaken between motor insurers and the insurance federation, to allow validation of no claims bonuses using a renewal PIN.
Something similar here would be do-able, with the same stringent levels of security.
Click to expand...

It's very do-able, but as ever the health insurers are slow to do so. Not surprisingly. Hopefully the Central Bank quickly realise how many problems customers face and bring in some stringent regulation of the renewal process.
 
I just got one of these from Laya today regarding a day case claim (I switched to them from VHI this year). I presume once I send the form to VHI they will comply and complete it and send it back to me? Something tells me I will be chasing it so I think I will take a copy of it.

It seems like a lot of paperwork if everyone who switches will have to do this?
 
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