Government, Insurance Industry Offer Aid

By KEVIN FREKING

The Associated Press

Tuesday, September 13, 2005; 4:04 PM



WASHINGTON -- The insurance industry and the government reached out Tuesday to help thousands of hurricane evacuees who had to flee before they could retrieve important documents.



Health insurers established a call center for evacuees who have questions about their coverage or may not know how to contact their insurers. Full-page ads announcing the call center's toll-free number, 1-800-644-1818, will run Wednesday in newspapers throughout the Gulf Coast region and surrounding states.



Evacuees can apply for such federal programs as Medicaid, Head Start and child care subsidies without certain documents that would have previously been mandatory, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said.



Evacuees who have lost all identification and records should be able to give their address or other simple forms of identification to be eligible, Leavitt said.



"For those persons with evacuee status, we are stripping away many of the eligibility and enrollment requirements normally needed to apply for federal benefits," he said. "No one who has been a victim of this disaster should be prevented from getting benefits they need because of government red tape."



Many people have lost their insurance cards or have questions because the provider facilities to which they usually go for care are no longer operable, said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, the trade group that established the call center for evacuees.



Operators will answer calls 24 hours a day and will help locate a caller's insurer and will stay on the line until a customer service specialist is reached. Callers who may be uncertain about the names of their insurance plans will talk with specialists who will try to help them identity their insurer.