BlueCross BlueShield

I purchased COBRA coverage between job changes for a month. BCBS rescinded all of my prior authorizations for medication, and then, they drug their feet approving the medications again so that I couldn’t get them on time and fill them the two times I should have been able to under my paid insurance plan. Really crappy thing to do when people need their medications and pay for insurance for that purpose. Worst part-I will still have the same coverage at my new job. BCBS jerks.

Specifically took an out of network eligible plan so that I could have a wide variety of doctors to choose from. They had a higher deductible and out of pocket. Both aspects I was aware of when i signed up. Found a out of network doctor who fit my needs. All good. Paid him up front and then went to BCBS for reimbursement. This is where things go downhill. BCBS has "approved" rates for each ICD code. They were half of what the doc actually charged. Their argument - "this is what we think this code should be charged at in your area". Now the kicker, they would only take half of what I paid even towards my deductible and out of pocket calculations. Now i am stuck with a massive bill while having chosen from the terms clearly laid out upfront. Was this "approved rate" mentioned upfront - NO Did they already compensate themselves with a higher deductible for going out of network - YES Was this in their fine print which you would find after 3 hours of looking at 8 levels deep on their site - YES So why are they double compensating their bottom line? If you have an approved rate, then just have an open network with no concept of in or out of network. It's the profit gouging practices like this which will make me hate each and every executive in BCBS. You lost a customer. Not that it matters to you. I really hope the BCBS executives experience being middle class and being hit with a surprise medical bill that is a result of profit gouging through shady practices.

This is an extremely lousy and deceptive insurance company that I would strongly not recommend. They sent me a letter offering greater coverage if I provided them data via a form. Once I did so, with zero mention in the letter, there was a surprise mandatory health clinic visit required where they wanted to take my blood and perform tests. When I told them I didn't want to proceed with the health clinic visit that was not at all mentioned in the letter, I requested that they delete my data I had provided them through the form and at first they refused to do so. It took several weeks of calls with Blue Cross, educating them on PIPEDA (our privacy laws) that they were knowingly and willingly violating to finally delete this data. Weeks later I became locked out of my account and had to call them and they let me know they "accidentally" deleted my account and had me re-create my account, wasting a lot of time because of their incompetency and unwillingness to follow our laws.

I am looking for an alternative at this point. The premiums are ridiculous, the out of pocket maximums are unbelievable, and the billing service people don't have a clue about billing. I pay over $1300 a month for 2 people in their 40's. Our family out of pocket is almost $16,000. In March, I happened to log in online to look at some claim information and just happened to notice that my policy showed cancelled. I panicked because my husband was in the middle of arm surgery / infection treatment, and this was no time to not have insurance. After talking with BCBS billing/customer service for a week, they could not find a single piece of documentation showing who requested or why our policy had been cancelled. If I had not happened to log in that day and bring the situation to their attention, chances are they would not have paid the upcoming claims from our doctors and hospitals. Then 3 months later, I get an email stating my monthly draft is changing from $1300 to $2157. Again, I've not requested any changes to my plan. After the billing person threw out 4 different reasons for this, none of which made any sense at all, she finally put me on hold for about 20 minutes, and then said there is some discrepancy from 2016 in which we owe $800. And now she has to escalate it because she can't do anything about it. Another week of dealing with incompetent people. Not to mention all the stuff that isn't covered even though I have their most expensive plan. I am going broke on just a couple of arm surgeries.

My 10 yo boy was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was informed by my insurance that his medication would be covered at 100% because it is a maintenance medication and he can't live without it. LIE. He is required to take shots before every meal, snack, too high, and a separate shot altogether at night to keep him somewhat balanced throughout the next day. not to mention the chaos of the BGL when he is sick. He is consistently having to stick himself to get a reading. We try to get a continues BGL monitor not just to help him but help my wife and I to keep our jobs when he is out for the summer from school (his school nurse is amazing). We got denied because they said that it is medically unnecessary. A unrelated surgery he had on his knees and had to get screws in place. They covered that surgery but then he had to get the screws removed and they wouldn't cover that surgery. My pregnant daughter 21 yo was having blood clotting issues in her lungs because we found out that she is protein C and S deficient. She had to continually take blood thinning shots in her belly. 3 times we had to admit her to the hospital because insurance would refuse to pay for her prescription. I have 3 other stories to add to this and this had all been in 2018-2019

They made a mistake and billed my old policy, and cancelled my new policy. I've been paying every month and didn't find this out until I was sick with a fever of 103 trying to get in to see a doctor. They made it impossible for me to see a doctor because the billing office was already closed. They couldn't help me that day, but said they would call back the following day to figure it out. Two days later they call me back to tell me that they can't help me with my request, and that I would have to jump through hoops to fix their mistake on my end before I would be able to see a doctor. I had to pay out of pocket for a doctor and my medication because they canceled my insurance even though I had been paying monthly. Also, it tells you that it covers one thing (example:birth control 100% cover) when you are enrolling, but after you sign up, your coverage magically changes.

Blue Cross Blue Shield overly scrutinize prescription coverage to the point of nickeling and diming it's customers. They are very inconsistent when it comes to what is covered. You can have a prescription that is covered one month and the next month it's not. Moreover, their automated phone handling service for incoming customer calls is confusing and wastes a lot of time for it's customers which results in unhappy and frustrating customer call. For the amount of money we pay, we deserve better prescription coverage and better first impression phone handling.

Worst of all they lie. I have been fighting them for 3 wks, my blood pressure med that I've been on for 12 yrs is no longer covered. They state, and this was on the form I received yesterday, that I have to have tried and failed 2 meds to get on the one I'm on. I DID! 12 yrs ago. When I called, they said that same thing, I said, I DID, well, then it turned into my doctor didn't send that info, THEY DID, then it turned into that I didn't try the ones THEY say I have to try, and it's not 2 but 3! I am sick and tired of the insurance companies deciding that they know more than the doctor. They will screw over and over, and when you point out what is in writing from them, THEY LIE! so now I have to start all over again, after 12 yrs. The fact that between myself and my employer pays over $800 a month, is robbery.

Horrible Company! Very inconsiderate of the members schedule when it comes to customer service hours! I've been paying over $565 every month since Oct 2018 and haven't been able to use my plan 1 time! I was never mail a packet! Never got my Member card! Never get a rep because my work schedule doesn't allow it! I cant register online for whatever reason i get errors and then tells you to call a number that closes at 4:30! But they sure do get their money from every check!!! Its a one sided relationship and they got their money and don't care of anyone's situation. If you can find another health insurance provider, do it.

This Health Insurance sucks! Last December 2018< I had an appointment with a Specialist for a follow up treatment. The day before my appointment, the Doctor called me to verify with my insurance because they claimed that I was inactive and changed on another group plan without my knowledge. When I received the two insurance cards for me and my wife, our family primary physician got changed without our knowledge. Blue Shield assigned us a doctor that we did not know and located quite a distance from us. We never called Blue Shield to change our Primary doctor and our plan, however, they went ahead and changed it without notifying us. I called Blue Shield on the day before my doctor appointment, the representative I talked to went to change back to our Primary doctor and said that I was on the same plan as before and would be receiving the new cards in 10 days. Guess what happened, the doctor had a problem with my insurance and I was inactive. I was very thankful that the specialist doctor treated me for free for that appointment. Additionally, the new cards arrived after 26 days compared to 10 days as I was told. My card was changed to my previous primary physician but not my wife. I called Blue Shield today, 1/15/19 to correct the issue and spoke with someone by the name of Alex and made me wait for so long hoping that he was correcting the issue. No, he was searching for the reason why it was changed. Later, he told me that my wife needed to call them herself. I told them that I am the Primary member, however, he insisted that she had to call them. I requested to speak to his supervisor and the supervisor told me the same way although I explained to them that this was an error on their part, not notifying me and they changed our Primary Physician and plan without our authorization and notification. Additionally, a prescription was given to me by the doctor and was not authorized by this Insurance although it was authorized before. BLUE SHIELD sucks and I will be switching to another health Provider. I SHOULD BE RATING THEM AS ZERO STAR, HOWEVER< THERE IS NO ZERO HERE.

Blue Cross Blue Shield federal employee insurance doesn't care about it's insured!! Mom has multiple sclerosis and ehlers danlos syndrome. With both of those diseases she is constantly in a lot of pain due to issues with her back. She has had a discectomy, an operation to fix a herniated disk, and was told that eventually she will need to have her entire spine fused. Well a pain specialist recently put a light at the end of the tunnel. He told mom about a device, a spinal cord stimulator, that would be implanted internally to her spine and would override the pain sensors in her brain with pleasurable sensations or even no feeling! It was perfect! Mom was told this would be beneficial for her by her primary care physician, her neurologist, and her surgeon. They were excited that she would finally receive relief from her unending back pain. The pain specialist, Zion Pain Management, went through all the paperwork and found that the insurance required no prior approval for this procedure. With that in mind the doctors went ahead with the trial. It worked wonderfully! Mom had energy and was able to walk, sit, sleep, move, live without pain! But then Blue Cross said that they had not given authorization for the surgery so they were not going to pay for it. Then they claimed that this surgery was not medically necessary. They told the surgeon that he would need to cover the cost for the trial himself and that they would not pay for the permanent procedure. Because of that the surgeons would not move forward with the permanent procedure. Mom and all of her doctors have worked to overturn their verdict for over two months. Today though, Blue cross told mom that this surgery was not medically necessary because she was not in enough pain to warrant this type of surgery. She had not been on opioids long enough and had not proven that surgeey was needed. Who do they think they are?! They are using their own quack of a "professional" who from looking at a sheet of paper on a desk has singlehandedly decided that he knows mom better then all four of her doctors and that their four opinions are wrong. Screw them! Mom was crying after hearing their verdict. That pissed me off! Please share this around so that the truth of Blue Cross Blue Shield will be shown. They would rather their insured members be addicted to opioids and other harmful drugs then receive the full help they require. Screw them!!

I lost my job and had to deal with the death of my mother-in-law all at once - during this process I enrolled in my state Medicaid. However, as I didn't physically call in during a 3-4 day window to alert Anthem of this, I was charged 6x more than usual. To clarify, my $100 bill turned into a $600 bill because I lost my job and was required to use state benefits. The state benefits canceled the tax credits that made my insurance reasonably priced and I was billed the full amount. This is an obvious mistake, and yet I was given no resolution other than the personal promise from an agent that it wouldn't be sent to collections. I was met with no compassion or attempt at understanding from any of Anthem's representatives - even basic empathy for my issue was lacking, dead-air was abundant as I sat and wait for answers from unseen supervisor chats. Thank you Anthem for adding another layer of grief and stress to my life, genuinely. Coping with the death of a dearly loved family member, the loss of my livelihood and handling the numerous affairs required after death - now I can have this black cloud of debt to Anthem hanging over my head, with the knowledge that I'll have no choice to pay it once I get employment and stop state benefits. I would also like to note a very important fact - I had not used it at all for the month I was billed, and the month isn't even over yet as of this writing. I was told it could not be canceled until the next month. The optimist in me says, great! This addition to my incredible stress will help strengthen me even further, but in reality I know I've just had my arm twisted by a giant company yet again, and any calls to reason or humanity will fall upon deaf ears. I hope that whoever reads this has it further reinforced that Anthem and the culture surrounding its representatives is more concerned with your money than your well-being, and this personal horror story will steer you towards a different provider.

Easy and efficient customer service. Reps are friendly and helpful. No long waiting time for rep to answer phone calls. Online service easy to access.

I have been with BC/BS for as long as I can remember. I have always had good medical care. Recently the company has changed. It's become more complicated and more expensive.

They have been pretty good until the ACA screwed up the ins system. Now we have multiple appeals for meds that were previously covered but now are not, but BS did not inform us of these changes for 6+ months.

BlueCross BlueShield was my primary health insurance provider both through my employer and as an individual policy for 6 years straight. At the end of that time, the company canceled all individual policy renewals for the next year because of possible legislation changes that they as a company did not want to deal with adjusting in their underwriting. Any time in the 6 years that I needed customer service and called, the wait time was horrendous, the agent was never properly trained to do their job, the supervisors and managers merely wanted me to go away and the touch tone system always sent me to the wrong state. AWFUL company to deal with!!

I had AMAZING coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield! My copay was close to nothing and i loved being one of their customers. I wish i still had them!

They are crooked and only care about their money. Even when a doctor repeatedly provides the medical necessity of a surgery for someone to regain any quality of life they deny coverage. Claiming not medically necessary. Why do I paid the high cost for coverage when it’s useless to me! When I need them to help me so I can walk and work they continue to deny coverage. This surgery is something I NEED to be able to walk and to hopefully be able to return to some sort of job to have a life again. No matter how many times they speak with my neurosurgeon through appeals or see all the tests that say this is my only option they say NO. Completely worthless. Worst insurance I’ve ever had and to expensive to not cover anything.

I am on MyBlue. It is very difficult to find a Primary Provider, but I did a lot of research and he is working out well. It all depends on your main doctor whether this is a good choice for you.

Offers good insurance that gives a wide variety of benefits. I miss the rewards from back in the day though. It was really easy to get in touch with customer service when I had questions about billing.

The best thing about Blue Cross Blue Shield is that they have such a large network. I've never had an issue with a provider being out of network. Even my college kids in another state generally have no problem with the provider they choose being in our network.

Very expensive compared to health insurance company that my employer used. Have also had some issues with the company's practices: telling us we need physical therapy before surgery that the doctor did not say was needed, and telling us that therapists at our local hospital were not covered by our insurance, only to find out later that they were.

BlueCross is an incredible insurance provider. The coverage state to state was amazing, which alway gave a sigh relief when traveling. The plan we were on was amazing and covered so much especially when we had our daughter.