It is true that someone can have two plans which they are the primary subscriber for, but there are a substantial amount of laws and regulations and other considerations that apply. I researched it today, referencing only legitimate and reliable sources and only information from 2016 and found this information:
"When you have dual coverage, one of your health insurance plans is the primary plan, while the other is secondary. Coordination of benefits means the primary plan pays claims first, with all or a portion of the remaining costs paid by the secondary plan. Coordination of benefits helps you get the maximum financial benefit from the health insurance coverage. Your secondary plan pays costs that would ordinarily be out-of-pocket costs for you. The coordination also helps the insurance companies avoid overpayment of claims. Even with two health insurance plans, the amount paid for your claims won’t exceed 100 percent of the amount charged by the medical provider. Neither health insurance company will pay for expenses not covered under its plan."
"Double coverage often means you’re paying for redundant coverage.
- You must make your claim with your “primary” plan first. The other plan can pick up the tab for anything not covered, but it won’t pay anything toward the primary plan’s deductible.
- If both plans have deductibles, you’ll have to pay both before coverage kicks in.
- You don’t get to choose which health plan is primary, meaning the one that pays first.
- You don’t get to choose which insurer will pay a certain claim. However, if the first insurer doesn’t cover a certain treatment, or covers it only partially, you can then submit the remainder of the claim to your secondary insurer for payment, assuming the treatment is covered under the second plan."
There is also a incredibly lengthy judicial decision regarding a case in which a person had dual coverage but failed to provide [enough] information to each plan to allow them to COB - lying by omission so to speak. Coincidentally, each policy paid as primary and the provider this guy was seeing kept sending him the overpayments. Apparently he caught on and began frequenting the doc's office on a routine basis for minor procedures here and there. You can assume what happened to him because of this. One of his convictions had to do with the fact that he received money and kept it, knowing it was not owed to him. They racked up the total amount and he was well within a felony level charge.
Yes, dual coverage is legal and possible, but it's not a "two-primary" situation. I have yet to find anywhere that says the patient would be due any overpayments.