By Linda Nguyen, PhD MBA
photography by Kyle Carreon
When I sat down to write another post on the biotech and pharma industry and trends, I had to pause. Although I have more than enough science related topics I’d saved in a document to write about and share with the world, now I feel compelled to share a vulnerable side of my life, of what has been going on and what I’ve learned. Let me know in the comments below what resonated with you or was most helpful.
Unemployment
My position at a biotech company was terminated in April, which was sad, but also gave way to a lot of different opportunities for me to explore what my next adventure could be. I’d already spent most of my life in school getting my PhD in cellular and molecular biology. I already got the dream job I wanted in NYC and negotiated huge billion dollar deals between academia, biotech and pharma companies.
I had also been wanting to spend more time creating and writing to find my voice and develop it further. So I started my own company, Life Sci PhD LLC, earlier this year, to start earning money and tracking it on my new ventures to do consulting work on biotech, pharma and lifestyle topics. Then I built out this website to share my experiences and what I’ve learned navigating my life in the personal life domain and professional science domain – hence Life Sci PhD.
My hope is to be able to grow the site and build out my social media following in lifestyle and science (more to come later in subsequent Parts), to monetize it, all while searching and applying for full time work that I enjoy and adds tremendous value to the world. So this period of funemployment and self-discovery was a gift and the knowledge that the world was open to me to discover its joys buoyed my spirits.
Negotiating Severance Packages
Severance packages are given out by employers to employees when they are laid off to help employees with transition periods and also to protect companies from things like non public information being released, disparagement and future lawsuits. Severance packages have a notice period and typically require more than one signature by law to give the severed party time between notice of the separation and the actual separation. The signatures themselves may need to be executed on or by a specific date. However, these deadlines may be arbitrary so consult with a lawyer to understand your rights and take the time to get the information you need to understand the document and your situation before signing. If you believe you were a victim of unfair discriminatory practices, consult a lawyer and document all interactions you’ve had with the company.
Having successfully negotiated 20+ deals at work and multiple raises and learned from the best lawyers and negotiators in the industry, there are levers you can pull with the severance package i.e.
- larger severance payments, including bonuses adjusted for the length of time you worked within the calendar year
- asking for more time to be covered by health insurance beyond what is offered
- accrued vacation days typically get paid out as part of the severance package (clarify this!) so adding other benefits like sick days and holidays that you would not be the beneficiary of if you weren’t at the company
- any promises the company has made to you personally, especially if taxes or insurance are involved
It can be stressful going through this process so speak to your lawyer and HR about questions and concerns you have so you get the best possible package for you. You may feel shame associated with having your position terminated too, but remember that everyone has or will be laid off at least once in their career. We’re all going through this together. The market is tough right now.
COBRA & Health Insurance Learnings
COBRA is the US Continuation of Healthcare Coverage law where employers with more than 20 employees have to extend health insurance for terminated employees and their families. It took a week or so after my health insurance coverage ended for me to get documentation from HR and through the mail on how to elect COBRA and pay my portion for continued health insurance (mandatory to purchase health insurance in the US). But once I did that and my health insurance company got the memo that the monthly fees had been paid through COBRA, my medical visits that had been denied during the no coverage period were then approved as my health care coverage was backdated to the beginning of the month.
During the waiting period, I did choose to continue care with doctors and therapists and had to pay out of pocket in some cases (in other cases, the providers later resubmitted any denied claims). However, once my health insurance was back on, I spoke to the providers’ billing offices and asked them to send claims to the health insurance company to be processed and paid out (my plan was not set up for me as a member to submit claims through the online portal). Once the explanation of benefits cleared with the provider, the providers could issue me a reimbursement. My experiences with the billing offices for a hospital system and other providers in New York City have been smoother than elsewhere.
Earlier this year in January and March, I also had gone to a chiropractor/PT office in Miami where I paid out of pocket for the visits upfront and then the office would submit claims to my out of network insurance company. This provider did not submit all of the claims until the end of March and when they were fully paid by my health insurance company in early April with explanations of benefits and electronic deposit numbers to prove it, they still have not yet fully reimbursed me for my out of pocket costs. So last month I disputed all the charges for the visits on my Chase credit card from that provider. While Chase is working on getting me my money back for my March visits, they told me that the January visits were beyond the 118 days they could dispute charges.
Currently, I am working with my health insurance company to remind them the Florida state law that covers both in network and out of network overpayment cases:
Upon written notification by an insured, an insurer shall investigate any claim of improper billing by a physician, hospital, or other health care provider. The insurer shall determine if the insured was properly billed for only those procedures and services that the insured actually received. If the insurer determines that the insured has been improperly billed, the insurer shall notify the insured and the provider of its findings and shall reduce the amount of payment to the provider by the amount determined to be improperly billed. If a reduction is made due to such notification by the insured, the insurer shall pay to the insured 20 percent of the amount of the reduction up to $500. – Florida Statutes on Insurance Rates and Contracts 627.6131.13
Learn from my mistakes: don’t give providers the benefit of the doubt, especially when they do not respond to multiple follow up emails, phone calls and texts. Dispute charges through your credit card company faster before the dispute windows close.
To be continued…
I didn’t anticipate this piece would already be so long so I’ll break up my learnings from my first month of funemployment into multiple parts. Be sure to subscribe and follow me for more tips and tricks on navigating unemployment, to hear more about how I prepared myself financially for it, and how I’m building out my business on social media so far! Thanks for reading and for all of your support. It means the world to me! Let me know what your experience has been with funemployment in the comments below.
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