What are primary and secondary insurance?
Primary insurance is your main plan. It is billed first and pays for your healthcare costs up to its limits.
Secondary insurance is a second health plan that helps pay for costs your primary insurance doesn’t fully cover. Depending on the benefits, it may cover some or all of the remaining balance. Not all plans include secondary insurance.
Do I have secondary insurance?
Most people in the U.S. have a single health insurance plan. However, some people have secondary insurance, for reasons such as:
Spouses or dependents covered under more than one family plan.
Individuals with Medicare and an additional private plan.
People who qualify for Medicaid as a secondary payer.
Those with military benefits in combination with other coverage.
If you don’t fall into one of these groups, you likely don’t have secondary insurance.
How to add secondary insurance to your Circle Medical profile
This article guides you through the steps to submit your secondary insurance information, allowing us to further coordinate your benefits and help ensure your claims are processed accurately.
Steps to submit secondary insurance
Currently, our mobile app and web portal only support storing a primary insurance. If you have multiple insurances, follow these steps:
Make sure your primary insurance is saved correctly in the mobile app or the web portal.
Start a chat with our Care Team through the mobile app or web portal, and let us know you have secondary coverage.
Share images of your insurance cards so the team can add them to your profile.
Alternatively, you can request an itemized bill after your appointment to submit directly to your secondary insurance.
What is Coordination of Benefits and how do my plans work together?
Your insurance uses a process called Coordination of Benefits (COB) to decide which plan pays first when you have more than one insurance policy. This process prevents duplicate payments and billing errors.
Letting your insurance know about any other coverage helps you in a few ways:
Prevents payment issues: Ensures your claims are processed correctly.
Reduces out-of-pocket costs: Allows your secondary insurance to help lower what you pay.
Speeds up processing: Resolves claims faster and prevents delays in your care.
Example scenario: If you get a medical bill for $500, your primary insurance pays first. If your primary insurance pays $400, your secondary insurance may help cover the remaining $100, depending on your plan.
Tips for managing multiple insurance plans
To ensure your claims process smoothly, here are a few best practices to help you manage your insurance plans:
Contact your insurance directly: Reach out to your primary and secondary insurance to understand how they handle claims with multiple coverages.
Save your documents: Keep all your insurance records, including Explanations of Benefits (EOBs), COBs, and invoices, to help resolve issues quickly.
Important note on Coordination of Benefits (COB): Your insurance company might ask you to update your COB on file, even if you only have one plan. If you receive a request to update your COB, it is your responsibility to contact your insurance directly to confirm your coverage status. It’s important to do so, as delaying or failing to update this can result in denied claims.