UHC as bad as everyone is saying?

[u/reddevine]

I own my own SMALL company. I had Humana and the health insurance policy was deleted and no longer offered. My insurance agent hooked me up with a plan from UHC. For six people it’s a little over $6,000. A month. With the event this morning I am reading terrible reviews of UHC that is completely freaking me out. Are they really that bad? Should I look elsewhere and if so where? What company is less on the evil side? I’m not looking for anyone to quote me pricing, I’m looking for those in the industry which companies they would want based on their dealings.

Thanks for any insight!

I wasn’t thrilled with Humana either, ER visit for a tick bite cost me $3,000. and I was never in a hospital bed or seen by an actual doctor.

Edit: Well I just noticed that Anthem BCBS is not going to cover anesthesia if the surgery goes into overtime basically in my state. Everything I’m reading since yesterday is just appalling.

[u/No_Frosting_5280]

I'm late to the game on this, as I've just been dealing with UHC's BS for a couple of weeks. I was recently diagnosed with Basal Cell Carcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. I had to wait months to get into the dermatologist, and by the time I finally got in an got all the biopsies done it was another month. It's not like I could go to any specialist for the biopsies, I had to go the one my doctor referred me to. All the surgeries were scheduled to start in January 7th of this year. I had them pushed into 2025 because there are 5 surgeries scheduled over 10 week, and I didn't want to end up paying $1200 deductible in 2024, then pay it again in 2025.

So two things happened while I was awaiting the surgeries. 1, United Healthcare notified me that my current PCP was no longer in network and I needed to select a new PCP, which I did, and it was set to start at the first the year. 2, Turns out, my referral expired January 5th, so United Healthcare denied the preauthorization for the surgery. No bid deal I thought. I'll just have my PCP send over the new referral. I called UHC to find out what I should do. I haven't seen this new PCP yet, so it would be weird to call them up and ask them to submit the referral. It was then that I was told that my prior PCP was still in network . So they went ahead and changed my original doctor back to my PCP, and it would be effective February 1st. I told them that wouldn't work, as I already had the surgeries scheduled to start January 23. So the "member advocate" was able to make the change be effective immediately. I went ahead and made an appointment with the doc and saw him January 9th. He processed the new referral and sent it over the the specialist. I'm on the Navigate plan, which requires the PCP to electronically file the referral. After waiting 72 hours for the UHC website to reflect the updated referral, I called UHC to find out what the hold up was. They said the doctor didn't send the referral. So I called the doctors office back and basically argued with them over 3 different phone calls that the referrals need to be entered electronically. They said that's not the way they do it and just downright refused to electronically file the referral. Well, at some point, somebody in the referral department did figure it out because the referral magically appeared on the UHC website the next day.

I called the specialist and told them to go ahead and send up the new prior approval, which they did, and UHC quickly denied for lack of referral. Huh? So I called UHC and they did not show that the PCP had been updated. They also did not pay the claim to see my PCP because he was not my PCP. So, frustrated, I did go to the new PCP and had my first visit, and she submitted the referral. Which could not be processed because she was not my PCP. Again huh? UHC paid the claim for the office visit, but then wouldn't accept the referral.

I am still fighting with UHC, and still getting different reasons from everyone I talk to about why the referral was denied...

So yeah, I've concluded that UHC is just trying to wear me down so I give up and either don't have the procedures, or pay for them myself, without insurance (we are talking tens of thousands of dollars). Holy crap.