Just another middleperson in an industry that doesn't need another middleperson. The customer support is "did you try turning it off then on again?" phrased in a very enthusiastic way for most things, but without fixing it.
Sure, my employer gets cheaper administration of healthcare benefits but the actual insurance plan is gutted and to put it bluntly, trash.
I've had a great experience with Collective Health!
The office of an in-network doctor with whom I had a phone consultation, had charged me directly and had not gone through my insurance. After I reported this issue to Collective Health, they helped me by speaking to the doc office on my behalf, and asking them to return my deposit and instead going through the insurance. Appreciate all the help and meticulousness by the team.
Pluses and minuses.
TL;DR: technology is nice, interesting concept but the human factor not so much a lot of work and growth to get there.
On the plus side: concept of everything in one place, and one point of contact is very convenient. Their response turnaround time is good.
Minus: Very poor follow through. It took 8 months of multiple escalations and finally dealing with HR of the company providing the benefits package to resolve a coverage issue because Collective Health FAILED to confirm that my account with Blue was active. 8 months later, of benefit denial after denial (Collective Health claiming otherwise), it turns out my membership with Blue was never even activated, while my premium was being happily deducted by CH. This is lazy, dishonest, and I spent many hours resolving this issue personally had it not been for my professional knowledge of how insurance works, I could have been out a grand for a well visit. That borders on fraudulent.
Thank goodness for the HR department that heard me and investigated. Then CH actually moved a muscle.
I strongly discourage going with them until they are a bit more mature, experienced and hopefully can train and update their staff.
My husband's employer uses Collective Health to manage benefits, so we are forced to work with them for our medical claims. They are SO slow at getting anything done. We have to wait months to be reimbursed for medical expenses paid out of pocket. I would much rather work directly with the insurance company...and that says something. On a small positive, it is nice to have everything together on the website. The concept is fabulous, their processes are terrible though!
My experience with collective health was awful. Their representatives provide incorrect and inaccurate information and blame you afterwards, saying you didn't clarify or ask the question enough times. Apparently when inquiring about the expenses involved in a procedure (prior to having it), and discovering that one place is out of network, I need to SPECIFICALLY have the procedure and pricing rechecked when associate found another location in network. In network ended up MORE expensive the original place. When I called for explanation, supervisor blamed me. UNBELIEVABLE. Wish I could work with someone else.
If you want happy employees - don't hire them for your company. The good news is that their people are very friendly and are quick to retrieve information. The bad news is that their claims processing is either grossly inefficient or designed to hold payments as long as possible. To wit: I submit a claim on December 20. They send me a statement dated January 9 that says I "will be receiving a reimbursement check in the mail within 2-4 weeks." On February 19 I call and they say the check wasn't "released" until January 26 and that's when the 2-4 week period began to run. This is not the first time this happened - one time they sent my reimbursement check to the provider directly and despite acknowledging that it was their error they took ANOTHER 8 weeks to send me a replacement check. Their representatives are all very nice and agree that it's a slow system - but the company doesn't seem to care. I've encouraged my employer to go elsewhere when our contract with these people is up. I'll end where I started - if you want happy employees - stay away. I just wish zero stars was an option.
The hold times to speak with someone are ridiculous.
Totally USELESS. Their representative knows NOTHING!!!
Gorgeous office. Amazing company! Extremely friendly staff.
Very unhelpful. I have dealt with 5 different people on the phone. Always trying to work against you so you can t use the money in your fsa. They say that they need certain documentation and it s never good enough.
Collective Health is NOT DISRUPTING HEALTH INSURANCE
they are just a TPA (third party administrator) with some attractive technology on the front end. The fake it until you make it tech approach to HealthTech puts patients lives in danger.
If you just need a TPA with stop loss and administration why not but if you care about the advice guidance and expertise look elsewhere. Agreed, they have a nice front end interface but their staff are low wage recent college graduates learning as they go.
Staffed by few people with deep levels of actual health insurance experience I'd stay away from them. If you remember Zenefits you will know what I'm saying they hire young cheap labor. Would you put your health decisions in their hands?
I have overpaid my out of pocket by almost $2K for 2019!!! I still haven't see any of this back and collective health just gives me a run around. They do not care at all about the actual people getting sick. They only care about the company that you work for and saving them pennies. I would rather deal with the insurance company directly. At least I do not get LIED to that way.
Wonderful space thank you for hosting WWCode Connect 2019 After Party
Customer service was the worst I have ever experienced. I would give less than 1 star if that was possible.
I felt like there was no one that would earnestly work on my case and get things done.
Background:
I had to work with Collective Health to get a gap exception approved for an out of network surgeon, and also get reimbursed for a surgery that I paid up front (>$50k) out of pocket. The gap exception took 6 weeks to complete and only was completed after I spoke with a manager, the customer service rep's would only tell me that "we're working on it, not sure when it will be done."
After submitting the claim for my surgery, it was declined and they gave no reason nor contacted me about why. I re-submitted after including some trivial information and it was approved.
Generally the customer service rep's would not get back to me in a timely manner with meaningful answers/ meaningful work done, or get back to me at all.
I hope they can improve, but I would not choose to work with this company again.
collectivehealth.com