Celtic
Is This Your Business?Author: Kaitlyn Short
Celtic Insurance was founded in 1978 and is a subsidiary of the more well-known Centene Corporation (based in St. Louis, Missouri). Celtic is based in Chicago, Illinois, and was created specifically to help uninsured and underinsured customers. Through Centene, the company has a few different types of health plans and a decent amount of experience in the industry thus far.
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The Good
- Member Portal
- Pharmacy Resources
In all honesty, it's somewhat difficult to highlight the benefits of Celtic's health plans because they make it hard to view any details about them without first becoming a member and logging into their online portal. However, the company does make several benefits clear up front:
Member Portal
Once you do become a Celtic member, you can log in to your account and use this to view your ID card and benefits, check a claim's status, find or change your provider, make a payment, and much more.
Pharmacy Resources
You can find a lot of helpful tools for looking up your medications, finding a pharmacy in Celtic's network (of 58,000 pharmacists, not to mention), and getting 24/7 help if needed through USScript, one of the partner companies.
The Bad
- Service Area
- Customer Service
- No Mobile App
Again, Celtic doesn't make it easy for customers-particularly potential customers, not members-to find out information about their health plans. Though the company has been around since the late '70s, they still have limited resources and, frustratingly, limited customer service help. You might find the following aspects frustrating:
Service Area
Celtic doesn't have health plans available in every state. It's hard to find a list of states they do serve online, but a phone call will tell you that they serve more eastern states but not ones like Tennessee, for example. This limits the company's customer base and potentially their network.
Customer Service
You can call or email a Celtic representative for questions, but there's not live chat feature and the company says they can take up to 10 days to respond to emails. That's way too long of a response time, especially if you need health insurance right away. Their website isn't all that informative either, which makes shopping for plans even more frustrating.
No Mobile App
Celtic has no mobile app, which makes them a bit behind the times compared to other health insurance providers. Mobile apps aren't the end-all, be-all of a positive member experience, but they can sure make accessing your account and managing your funds a lot easier.
The Bottom Line
Celtic Insurance is not a strongly recommended company for health insurance. They don't have insurance options in every state, which can be a deal breaker depending on where you live, and their customer service options are frustratingly limited. The company doesn't offer a terribly wide selection of plan types either, focusing mostly on PPOs, HMOs, and EPOs.
If these limitations aren't deal breakers for you, however, Celtic certainly has its positive points. It has a great online portal for members. With their rewards program, pharmacy resources, and convenient tools for finding a provider or viewing your benefits, they do take care of members that have committed to a plan and strive to be trustworthy insurance providers.
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