By Tom Lacock
Wyoming Medical Society
CHEYENNE – Wyoming physicians with reimbursement claims for WINhealth clients will soon be seeing checks. Wyoming Insurance Commissioner Tom Glause joined the Wyoming Medical Society’s Oct. 22 Board meeting and said those checks will be in the mail but the end of the month.
Glause said Wyoming District Court Judge Thomas Campbell approved an order to allow the Wyoming Life and Health Guaranty Association early access to cash owed to WINhealth by the federal government during a hearing on Oct. 19 in Cheyenne. The Wyoming Life and Health Guaranty Association – money paid into a fund by companies who write health insurance policies in Wyoming to guarantee payment of claims by its members – will approve a check run to pay for WINhealth claims, which will be audited by an independent firm before the checks are released. That cash will be used to pay roughly $2,083,000 in claims the WINhealth staff has processed.
“By the end of the month, those checks should be in the mail,” said Glause.
Glause added that he does not believe the audit process will slow the checks, as the independent audit firm has done checks on the previous 13 check runs by WINhealth with no concerns. Glause also asked to address a rumor about payment timing.
“I have heard the rumor that if you don’t get the payment by the end of the year, you won’t get paid,” Glause said. “That is not accurate. What is accurate is you have one year from the date of service to submit a claim.”