Employer accidentally enrolled me in health insurance plan after I denied enrollment. Provider has been billing this policy for the past year without my knowledge.

Throwaway account since this situation regards my current employer, but I really need some advice.

So I (27) got married in 2023 and cancelled my insurance plan through my employer’s carrier (Cigna) in order to join my spouse’s plan (BCBS) through their employer. This process was very easy, and I pretty much put Cigna out of my mind after informing my healthcare provider that I had changed carriers. I declined coverage during my employer’s open enrollment in May of 2024 because I was remaining on my spouse’s plan.

Fast forward to this week, and I receive an email from Cigna saying that my claim was processed. Confused, I double checked my employer’s benefits portal, which confirmed that I was not enrolled in a Cigna health insurance plan. I checked my pay stubs as well, which had no record of a premium being deducted. My Cigna login still worked from when I did have a plan, and to my surprise, I saw that I apparently was enrolled in an active plan. Not only that, but there were six claims from my doctor’s office processed over the course of the past year.

Now, I don’t know a lot about how insurance works, but I assume this series of unfortunate events played out something like this: Someone at my company or their broker messed up and accidentally enrolled me in the plan despite me declining coverage. Neither they nor I noticed this, as the premium wasn’t deducted from my pay and the benefits portal said I was not covered. So for the past year, I have had an active health insurance policy that I didn’t know about or have any reason to suspect. My healthcare provider billed claims for my visits to BCBS, who denied them because they saw I had another provider and needed the primary carrier EOB. My provider then billed the claims to Cigna as primary, who paid them because from their perspective, I was legitimately enrolled in their plan. Then my provider billed BCBS as secondary insurance, who paid their share. All of this was happening unbeknownst to me, as I was under the impression that I only had one insurance policy.

I did a little bit of panicking and emailed my company’s insurance broker to inform them of this situation I’d uncovered. They let me know that they would be coordinating with Cigna to have my coverage cancelled effective 2023, and that Cigna would be retracting all the claims paid over the last year. They told me that my provider would likely bill the claims to BCBS, but I’m worried that BCBS will deny the claims because of how much time has passed (the claims were roughly every three months for the past year.)

Honestly, I don’t know what to do to here. I fear that I’m going to wind up on the hook for over $2k in medical bills because of a mistake made by my employer or their broker. Did I handle this correctly so far, or did I screw myself? Do I have any recourse if my provider bills the claims to BCBS and they’re denied? Is there anything I can do here? TIA for any advice, it’s direly needed.