Name change and health insurance

I doubt you will even have your marriage certificate back by your appointment date, let alone have your name changed. Don't sweat it until after your appointment.

Thanks to you both. Well then I guess I have another question. If you only have 30 days to change your insurance after a qualifying event, aren't I going to be cutting it close? You're saying I might not be able to change my name over 2 weeks after the wedding. That's doesn't leave much time to get everything in order.

What is this health insurance thing you speak of? If you have an appointment, I'd wait. I have to make sure my own doctor will see me if needed since mine lapsed. :/

Yep. We have a benefits co-ordinator and everyone lets her know and then provides the certificate when it comes in. Takes a few minutes and you are good to go.

I changed my name immediately after getting married (like 2 days later) and I had to wait until my new SS card came in to change it through my employer which took about 2 weeks to receive in the mail. The HR department automatically changed it with the insurance company for me.

How did you get the certificate so fast, Keri?

@AlwaysMs where I live, you can go to the county Register of Deeds the next business day after it's filed and pick up a certified copy for $10.

It should be fine to start changing it before then, just don't change your insurance until after the appointment. Even after I changed my name, my health insurance still had my maiden name because I was still on my parents' insurance for a while, and my dad never changed my name on his insurance. My doctor just wanted me to fill everything out with my maiden name so that they could bill my insurance correctly.

Interesting, thanks!

I filed my certificate and got my copy that day... and immediately started changing my name. I would agree with Sarah above, just wait until after your appointment to start the process.

From experince, as well as working in drs office, you can start changing your name on everything, The dr will still go by whatever name is on your insurance, ( even if your DL has your new name) just so the insurance doesnt have any issues or reject the claim. It took my employer almost a year exactly to change my name, so everywhere else i was going by my married name, and whenever i went to drs, i still had to go by my madien name.

I'd wouldn't worry about the appointment. It will take a few weeks for your new SS card to arrive and then you can go update everything. It shouldn't affect your insurance at all right now. As for the time line for name change, I wouldn't be too concerned about that. It may depend on where you live but I was told (SC) that there isn't a time frame. I got married three months ago and haven't changed my name yet lol!

If you change your name with the insurance company then you'd have to change your name at the doctors to. If all your demographic information doesn't match the claim could be denied. However changing it with the dmv and ss wouldn't make a difference. Only thing that matters is that the insurance company and what your doctor has on file matches. And if you need to, you should be able to download a temporary insurance card online if the office really needs it.

Wait until after the doctors appointment. You can change your benefits but keep your maiden name.

For most insurances, you have 30 days to submit the life change, which is a marriage. You don't have to change your name at the same time. My new insurance went into effect starting the date of our marriage, even though I didn't submit the paperwork until three weeks after our marriage. Both FH and I had dental appointments during this transition period and there were no issues at all. The dental office accidentally submitted the claim under his old insurance, so we had to ask them to re-submit under the new insurance. This isn't a big deal at all.

I would start the name change process after you get married and also send in the paperwork for insurance. I'm guessing the effective date will be your marriage date (date of the life change) so you should be covered. Keep your OB/GYN appointment. Just know that you might need them to re-submit a claim.

I work in OBGYN and the way my company does it, is we will keep whatever name is on the insurance policy. Regardless what your license says. We run into this everyday. We just want the claim to go through.

So, to prevent any problems whichever insurance you are using go by the name they have you in their system as. And call them and see if they can email you a temporary card.

Also, you can just call the office and ask. Stuff like this is quite common.

Most likely if you change to your husband's insurance the effective date will go back to your marriage date. So I would just go to the appointment, use your old insurance with your maiden name, and then wait for your old insurance to reject the claim and re-file it under the new insurance with your new name.

Thank you all for your help, experience, and expertise. This has been immensely helpful!