Insurance Company Pays $21,000 In Loose Change; Instantly Mocked Worldwide

Andres Carrasco says an insurance company paid the
$21,000 it owed him with loose change.  

Another day, another self inflicted PR disaster for one business.  

This time, it's the Adriana's Insurance Services Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

According to NBC Los Angeles, a man named Andres Carrasco, 73,  reached a settlement in a lawsuit against the insurance company.

Carrasio said he had been assaulted by one of Adriana's Insurance employees, sued, then settled.

So, recently, the insurance company ponied up $21,000 to Carrasco by delivering it as loose change -- quarter, nickels, dimes, pennies in buckets, says NBC Los Angeles.

Seems awfully juvenile for an insurance agency, doesn't it? Or maybe it's just me.

Already, Adriana's is being mercelessly mocked on Yelp and other social media and review sites, so their little game probably is costing them TONS of business.

This comes a day after news broke that a Hudson, N.Y. inn had a policy that said wedding parties whose guests stayed at the inn and then wrote a negative review faced a $500 fine from the inn. 

Amid a social media storm, the owners of the inn said the policy had been put on their Web site as a joke, they forgot to take it down, and some employees mistakenly enforced the policy if it were real.

The inn's policy is gone.

But we don't know what's going on with Adriana's yet. They told NBC they aren't commenting to the media. At least not yet.

The change came in five gallon buckets and it took eight Adriana's employees to deliver them. Carrasco said he can't even lift one of the buckets of change because of a recent hernia operation.

Another side question I have is, where the hell did the insurance agency get $21,000 in coins. And don't the employees there have anything better to do than collect all that change, put it in buckets and deliver it to Mr. Carrasco?

So, if you need an insurance agency, and you might have to get a settle with them, don't go with Adriana's. Unless you have a lot of room to store loose change. And are a frequent visitor to vending machines.

Man Denied Lifesaving Treatment Over 26 Cent Payment Error

A New Jersey man's life is apparently not worth 26 cents.

Especially if that life affects the bottom line of his former employer and an insurance company, it seems to me.

Sergio Branco in this image from
The New Jersey Star Ledger. Insurance
snafus almost killed him.  

According to the New Jersey Star Ledger, Sergio Branco came down with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. They found a good match for him, but it's an expensive treatment, costing maybe $500,000.

He took a leave from work, then was canned after Branco's illness left him unable to do his job. He could still get insurance through COBRA and the family was informed on how to make payments and for how much.

A May bill came to $518.26.  Branco's wife wrote a check for $518, accidentally leaving off the 26 cents.

For that mistake, the former employer and Paychex, a third party benefits administrator basically imposed the death penalty on Branco. They would not cover the transplant, according to the Star Ledger. 

You'd think the matter would be handled simply. Paychex, or whoever is running the show could have contacted the Brancos and said, "Hey Dufus! You forgot the 26 cents. Pay up now." If they wanted to be mean, they could have imposed some sort of $10 stupid charge on the Brancos or something.

I'm sure they would have gladly paid up. Nobody would let them, though.

Nope, despite the pleadings of the family, his doctors, it was no go. It was only after the New Jersey Department of Labor, the lawyers and media outlets like the Star Ledger began "meddling" in this situation did it appear Branco's transplant will be covered.

Yes, yes, the parties involved are blaming the whole thing on administrative errors, strict governance rules and that kind of thing.

To be honest, I don't buy it. I smell a big, fat rat.

I have no proof and I could well be wrong. (Please set me straight if I am missing some information here), but here's what my conspiracy-addled mind thinks what happened.  And to be fair, some of the parties might be innocent. Paychex might be under orders from an insurance carrier. Branco's former employer might have their hands tied by an insurance company. Or the employer might have mucked things up with the insurer.

But somebody's to blame.

And somebody would have had to pay for Branco's transplant. Maybe his former employer, or some insurance company thought the price was too steep, that it would cut into profits. Maybe piss off a shareholder or two.

If Branco had the common courtesy and just die of his leukemia and not make a big stink about it, everybody would be happy, goes the logic. Branco's family excepted, of course.

Once again, we have one of those cases where some bureaucrat trying to impress his or her boss with his budget consciousness to save the bottom line was willing to kill somebody with a pen or a stroke of a computer key to do it.

This seems to happen a lot. Often, the cases get media attention. Bad PR is even more expensive than high medical bills, or whatever, so once the journalists start to poke around, things get "resolved."

Have we come down to this? The only way to save an innocent man's life is to threaten somebody with bad press?