blueshieldca.com

I have been with Blueshield since I was 62

I have been with Blue Shield since I was terminated from my employer back in 2018 when I got cancer. Another tale of corporate greed. I retired due to health issues at that point at age 62 and was able to get coverage through covered California. My coverage was great and affordable during that time. When I turned 65 I went over to Medicare. This is when things changed. I went over to a Medicare Advantage plan with Blue Shield. The first year was good. This past year not so. I have been billed more than a $1000.00 over and above what my insurance would pay? The previous year same Drs but no extra bills? When I call in the customer service is basically terrible. Always a call center from somewhere else in the world. Some speak great English, but some are hard to understand and converse with to get problems solved. I have spent at least four hours with these various representatives trying to get help. Sometimes repeating myself over and over so they can understand me because their English is so poor. How do they does Blue Shield feel this is okay to do to their insured members? This, not mention outsourcing jobs to foreign countries to increase their bottom line. Long story short I decided to switch to Kaiser. But after visiting a friend in the hospital at a local Kaiser ( another nightmare, my poor friend), I decided that I would stick with Blue Shield to remain in the Mercy Medical system. I canceled the Kaiser insurance before it took affect. But getting Blue Shield reactivated seems to take an act of Congress. I was told by the customer service folks that I would just revert back to Blue Shield. But more than a month has gone by and my premium has not been withdrawn. Calls to clarify the issue are useless. I get various customer service reps who speak broken English and simply do not seem to have access to anything on the Blue Shield server that would be required to help folks. I cannot access my online account as I forgot my password. I request a link to reset my password but it never arrives. So I call in for help, and guess what? They cannot help to reset a password. Was told they would complete a ticket for someone to call me. Never happened. Just a nightmare. And they cannot help me pay my account. The system says it is paid. But it isn't. So now I have a cancer exam coming up that I don't want to miss having survived the initial cancer a few years back. I need to have cystoscopic exams of my bladder every six months. I am going to assume I may get billed for the $1800.00 or more for the exam when the Dr. tries to bill my insurance. Calls to Blue Shield are totally in vain. The reps are not able to understand me half the time and when they do they cannot help. So I am going to have to go out and get other insurance to just be able to see the Dr. How Blue Shield stays in Business with such poor customer service is beyond me. The negative reviews on this platform speak loudly to the issues they do not want to deal with in terms of customer service. All I want is to pay my bill and know that I have insurance. I will add that I no longer go to the Dr. unless it is an absolute emergency or as is the case with the cancer I need to keep it in remission. I am on SS and cannot afford the bills I now get even for a Dr. office visit. When I call and asked about the bills coming in, I got a nice girl named Maria who spoke decent English. She was very pleasant. She was so nice initially until she put me on hold. When she came back on the line it was like a split personality. Her demeanor changed, she became combative. As if she was trained to undermine any questions about billing or why something was not covered. She was totally defensive. And I was not combative with her. Just wanted to understand why I was getting billed this year for services that I was not billed for last year? She told me that was how it was, any more questions? Goodbye pick up your consolation prize at the door! Just shameful customer service. I think greed in American corporations and insurance companies is at an all time high. I pay $80.00/month for this plus another $170.00 for my Medicare. But the coverage is terrible. So I suffer in pain most days and do not seek any help. I seriously doubt any or the other companies are any better. What has happened to our great country and the way of life we used to enjoy. My final years are now spent in isolation as I am in too much pain with arthritis to get out much. I cannot afford to see specialist even with my coverage. Blue Shield you and other Insurance companies should be ashamed of your greed. But instead you increase your profits by using foreign call centers and reducing your annual coverage, while increasing premiums. I feel sorry for young people and the world they will have to survive in any more. So much of it made worse by corporate greed and a total lack of humanity by companies like Blue Shield.

Date of experience: Oct 24, 2022