DEL CITY, Okla. - Roxanne Mattocks laughs, so she can keep living.
“You absolutely can't control life,” she said. “Life is going to happen regardless.”
This past June, life happened, again.
She received an eighth cancer diagnosis.
This time around she says her health insurer, Cigna, keeps putting off paying for her life-saving treatment.
“I don't have insurance that Cigna is taking care of, nothing,” Roxanne added.
That includes coverage for blood work and the cancer therapies and without this medical care.
Roxanne says she doesn’t believe she’ll be here this time next year.
She added, “Yeah and I'm not laughing about that, that's for sure.”
She’s not laughing about losing her home either.
Roxanne says the family's drained their savings trying to keep her alive, and now they can't pay their bills and have no idea where they’re going to go should they get kicked out of their home.
The tumors growing around Roxanne's spine are causing damage to her nerves, which makes it difficult for her to walk and breath.
She says Cigna initially pre-approved her for cancer therapies, but then changed their mind, and keep sending her the same notice in the mail, requesting information about her secondary insurance through Medicare.
Roxanne says she's done everything they've asked, including sending them verification for her Medicare coverage months ago.
Medicare is her secondary insurance, but because Cigna won't pay, Medicare tells her they won't foot the bill either.
We alerted the Oklahoma Insurance Department and asked Cigna to review Roxanne's case.
A Cigna spokesperson telling the In Your Corner team Roxanne has more than one insurance carrier, which makes it more complicated to pay claims. We're happy to share though, after we got involved, they were finally able to locate that missing information and now Roxanne's claims are already being reprocessed.
Cigna's Statement: “We are happy to have resolved this customer’s concern and a dedicated Nurse Case Manager will be working with her going forward to help her navigate her complex medical needs, assist with her health plan coverage and coordinate her benefits.
Coordination of Benefits happens when health plans need to determine how claims are paid when a person has more than one health insurance plan. That has now occurred, her claims are currently in the process of being paid, and we have alerted her providers to this as well.”
Roxanne is on the ropes, but not backing down.
She's got too much to live for.
“[Like] my husband, my kids and my grandkids,” she said. “I'm just blessed abundantly with the fact I'm still here.”
As soon as we alerted Cigna, they jumped into action.
Cigna's Spokesperson tells us Roxanne's claims are in the process of being paid.
Roxanne is moving forward with her treatment and anxiously waiting for that medical reimbursement from Cigna, so she and her husband can have a shot at staying in their home.
We'll check back.