[mama8]

I know with most companies you have 30 days to add a child to your health insurance.........we will not know our official adoption day until pick-up (which we might have to delay if you can even believe it!) When did you add your child to your policy?

Thanks!

[IG1995]

We did it when we were down there for our pick up. as soon she was in our arms we called.

[jlcoffey1274]

we put ours on as soon as she was born because it would cover emergencies in Guat... J

[jroandco]

we are not to that stage quite yet, but i have called our ins co (2x to see if i would get the same answer from 2 different people). we have 30 days to add a dependent, we send in a form, foreign adoption decree, and birth cert and coverage will be retroactive to the date of the adoption.

jessica

[debragm]

Our agency suggested that we use the PGN document. Since my DH's employer doesn't require a birth certificate, they took the PGN adoption decree as proof. Our son has been insured for two months, and he is not even home yet!

(However, with our HMO plan, he has almost no coverage outside the U.S. anyway.)

[kauai2k]

As I understand the process, when you exit PGN you are the child's "legal guardian". At that time, you can add a child to a policy. This is an example of a qualifying event. If our situation, we have 31 days from the day of the qualifying event to enroll the baby as a dependent. Legal guardian status is considered qualifying even though we may not physically have the child in our home.

diane

[Bexter]

They are officially yours at the exit of PGN. I didn't know we exited until several days later, so I just made it retroactive to that date. I hear that is pretty common for insurance companies to do in adoption cases.

[CLHsilent]

We just added our daughter to our insurance plan (she isn't home yet). Your agency should be able to provide you with a copy of the adoption decree (a translated copy) either by fax or mail. You can provide that to the insurance company even before the pick up trip.

Christie

[PattyR]

Yes, you should try to add them as quickly as possible once you know the final decree has been signed. I didn't know this and waited until after we were home. We arrived 31 days after the final decree and it almost caused a problem with the insurance company as you only have 30 days to add them. Anyway, my insurance company kindly decided that they would use the date of entry into the country as the date it was final and they did provide coverage retroactive to that date.

Patty

[Amykk]

We added him when we had the signed document from PGN. They have since asked for more documents and translations, but they still put him on our policy pending those additional documents. So, I would at least try it as soon as you get out of PGN.

[jerryscuba]

We added Josh to the insurance as soon as we knew that the case was out of PGN. Our contract with the agency basically stated that we are financially responsible for him from that point on.
It was good we added him that early...

[PackGirl]

We just went through this fiasco. We called our insurance after we exited PGN. However they would not add him until we had physical custody. We took physical custody 50+ days later and I called them from GC. They would not add until we faxed them our documents. When we got home we ended up faxing them his new BC, his PGN protocol, his Visa and a copy of my soc and drivers license.

After we faxed them our documents it only took 3 days for them to add our son to our insurance. He had his first dr's appointment last monday and we had a negative TB test today!!!!

I took 4 or 5 times to call my insurance until I found someone who knew what they were talking about. Once I found someone the process went very smooth.

Best of luck with your insurance company!