A Woman in Maine Says She Got 500 Letters From United Healthcare Within Five Days

Wire Service
By Wire Service
September 27, 2019US News
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A Woman in Maine Says She Got 500 Letters From United Healthcare Within Five Days
Maine woman gets 500 letters from United Healthcare. (Courtesy of Stephanie Lay)

A Maine woman has a message for United Healthcare after it sent her over 500 letters: Make it stop! Please!

Stephanie Lay said she found the piles of letters from the insurance company stashed in her mailbox between Thursday and Monday.

“A week ago Thursday was the first wave of letters, I got 46 letters,” she told CNN. “I immediately called United Healthcare insurance and told them I received 46 letters of the same letter.”

And the letters just kept coming, piling up to more than 500 by Monday.

Maine woman gets 500 letters from United Healthcare
Maine woman gets 500 letters from United Healthcare. (Courtesy of Stephanie Lay)
Stephanie-Lay-received-500-letters
Maine woman gets 500 letters from United Healthcare. (Courtesy of Stephanie Lay)

They were addressed to her son, who has autism and lives in a private care facility, she said. But instead of her son’s name inside when you opened them, the letters said Dear Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services—in Cincinnati, she told local media.

The letters were about a $54 or $0 healthcare claim that United Healthcare said is not covered, Lay said.

When she asked United Healthcare why she was receiving a mountain of letters, she was told it was a coding issue, she said.

In a statement, United Healthcare told CNN it’s working to resolve the issue but it cannot provide details due to privacy requirements.

“We have determined the cause of the problem. We are very sorry this occurred, and we have contacted the family to discuss the situation with them,” the health insurer said.

Lay said the letters all have a message at the bottom urging people to go paperless. ” I’m thinking they had to take down half of a forest just to send this,” she said.

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