Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield

I was on hold for 1 hour and 29 minutes for a simple adjustment, I was unable to perform the task on the
web site because it is so poorly designed. I asked to speak to a supervisior (in Arkansas, I’m in Colorado) who only could say «we have no control over this situation». No offer to transfer me to someone who could have control over the situation. Horrible customer service for a company that takes hundreds of $$ from our family monthly.

I would give this ZERO stars if I could, their 800 number is no help you get transferred from one person to the next. Trying to talk to someone and get help is almost if not worse than Comcast. Awful company.

I have nothing but positive things to say about Anthem Insurance. Covered California (California’s Obama Care) on the other hand… well I’ll save that for a review for them. Every single time we’ve spoken with an actual Anthem rep and not a Covered California/​Anthem rep we’ve had nothing but incredible customer service and our problems have been resolved. They’ve been willing to help us find in network providers, helped us approve out of network providers… most reps from insurance companies brush you off and send you down the line. These guys have gone above and beyond for us and our battle with removing ourselves from state assistance (reasons because of mistakes from the Covered California people and poor medical care under both Medi-​Cal and Covered California). Although insurance plans anymore these days leave a lot to be desired, especially when you have to pay out of pocket and can only afford a certain level, we are happy and content with Anthem and will remain with them based on their suburb customer service. I do have to say, however, we are nice to them INITIALLY. I assume if you are a jerk to anyone in customer care they are less likely to be willing to help you with your problem… just sayin’.

I wish there was a way to rate 0 stars, but Unilocal does not let you.
I just called BCBS my health insurance, and for the 4^th time I was on hold for over 30min BEFORE anyone answered my call. On the wait there is now estimate time of hold.
Well, that is ALL before I complain about my actual health coverage which is an actual joke, they cover nothing. They have terrible customer service.
I am ALL for Obamacare. ALL insurances companies need to go away ! they take your money and give nothing back.

I went to a doctor in my network for a routine check up. After I switched insurance, one year later, they charged me a bunch of money claiming the doctor was not in their network. I never would have gone to that doctor if they weren’t in my network. This company is a scam.

sickening that all the EXECUTIVES of this company are paid enough before AND after retirement to be able to afford their own health insurance. Employees, who do the actual work, receive ABSOLUTELY nothing if they retire before age 65. And so, l worked hard for this company, 18 years. I retire early to take care of my Mother dying from lung cancer metastasized to the brain, I’ve exhausted Cobra and they offer me their retiree medical plan for $ 25k per year for my spouse and I??? I am facing 5 years of $ 25k+ health insurance costs, before Medicare. When I worked for a «premier» health care company for 18 years??? UNBELIEVABLE! Sad to think that wipes out my ENTIRE 401(k) by age 65, and then some. I guess I’m another baby boomer who will depend on social security for life. So much for «employee benefits» that matter.
Upsetting too that my older brother who worked for the state for 10 years, retired early with a full pension and full coverage health care he pays for at $ 500 per month for him and his spouse — locked at that rate — until age 65.
Don’t work for this company. Such a waste of loyalty!

If you can avoid having Anthem as your health care provider you should. We have to go through my husband’s company, but they are just the worst. We have a deductible plan, and we can not get cost estimates for ANYTHING. Even though some places will tell you what their office visit charge is, no one though Centura Health network (oh, believe me they are a whole other trip) can tell you what their fee would be if you don’t have insurance. Blue cross will not tell you anything as far as cost or coverage and refer you to their website, which is no more helpful. They expect that you just get the bill and pay it when it comes. This is a completely insane way to do business. This is not the way an insurance company should behave. When people are scared and in the ER, they should not be having to make decisions based on money. They should know that their insurance company is going to cover them and how.

I am thankfully not a member of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
I received a fax with personal information from Anthem by mistake. Since my (work) fax number was printed on this form I reached to this office to let them know that intended person did not receive the fax and they would need to update the contact information. After calling and waiting I tried to explain the above to the telephone operator, when I explained I was neither a provider or a member she hung up on me! I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor to re-​explain my whole story.
She apologized and said she would take some measures to secure their members privacy however they did not seemed real concerned. Side note I am in Oklahoma and the intended party lives in Kentucky!
I hope they give better customer service to their members.

My wife signed up for a high deductible plan with Anthem, effective Januarty 1, 2014. It took them about four months to get the billing properly coordinated with the down payment. Two really big issues: as with the other reviews, Anthem’s customer service is the worst we have ever seen. My wife simply cannot get through to anyone … one or two hour hold times … and then the party who answers can’t help at all. The second big problem is coverage. My wife’s doctor will prescribe treatments or medications that, in her judgement, my wife really needs, and Anthem will deny them on the grounds they are not a «medical necessity». In these cases, we don’t even have access to negotiates rates if we pay on our own … and they are prescribed by her doctor! I am convinced the so-​called «medical committee» at Anthem is rewarded by the amount of money they save the company by denying treatment for their customers. This smells like a scam, and we will do whatever it takes to switch to a reputable company in 2015.

I’ve been with Anthem for 2 years and they canceled my old plan, presumably because of the new laws («if you like your plan you can keep it… IF it hasn’t changed since the law’s passed»). What I thought would be an easy transition to a new plan, has become the biggest headache I have had to deal with.
Upon signing up with a new plan I had to complete an entirely new 20 page application, following which my insurance ID card did not arrive for 3 – 4 weeks when it was supposed to 7 – 10 days. Also, I had received no confirmation or bill indicating my application was approved. I had to call to find out, pay the bill, and then I was billed twice for the same premium payment. (they did reimburse me a few weeks later)
None of my online accounts were updated with my new plan information and since then I have spent hours and hours on the phone with them trying to get my online accounts (member and online bill pay) to show my new plan information instead of only showing my old plan information that had been canceled.
I’ve had to pay out of pocket b/​c of my lack of insurance card, and now I’m not being reimbursed the full amount b/​c it should have been billed at a lower rate.
I can’t begin to describe the headache that anthem has caused. The people have been helpful, but it’s been extremely time consuming, and the whole point of me staying with them was so I wouldn’t need to create new accounts. I ignorantly thought it was be easy as pie to just switch to a new plan. Was I sorely mistaken.
As soon as open enrollment arrives I will be choosing a different provider.

Not only did they loose my paperwork resulting in loss of policy but I was put on hold for 50 minutes when trying to cancel the new policy (they automatically put me on) and was then hung up me when I told them that the reason for cancellation was due to horrible customer service.

Anthem is abysmal.
Anthem shut down my family’s policy because of the Affordable Health Care Act. At first I thought this is terrible for us because the only other policies now available cost a few thousand $$ more per year. However, Anthem is so painfully difficult to work with, at this point I am hoping that at least the few thousand $$ per year I spend on a new plan will result in a company that does not eat up days of my life with things like trying to get my newborn on my plan, or trying to stop them from both billing me every month and doing automatic deduction.
Also, perhaps my new plan will actually cover things. For example, a healthy, quick, non-​medicated, no medical intervention, natural childbirth with less than 24 hours in the hospital cost me directly about $ 10,000, plus monthly premiums! After Anthem paid its paltry share! I begged to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, and managed to escape after about 18 hours, but it still cost me that much!

Disclaimer: I’ve never actually purchased health insurance coverage with them. I’ve just genuinely tried to. Twice.
The shiny one star goes to the REALLY nice customer service reps who initially answer the phone when you call.
But seriously Anthem, are you actively trying to scare off potential customers? If you can’t even work with potential customers who are trying their darnedest to give you the benefit of the doubt and truly learn about the company/​your services — potential customers that you should be trying to win over to bring new revenue in — how is your customer service for existing customers?
Two major problems with their customer service/​sales team:
1. Their sales team is COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL, and UNPROFESSIONAL. I called with specific questions, and felt like I had to PRY information out of my monosyllabic-​uttering agent. I’ve taught obstinate, uncooperative high schoolers in an underachieving urban public school who were easier to talk to than this guy. It was ridiculous for a potential customer to be doing the heavy-​lifting. Not only did he not provide the information I asked for, but he would also interrupt me with completely unhelpful utterances like, «Soo yeeaaah, give me a call and we’ll work out a nice plan for you. It’ll be reeeaaalll easy.» Um, I’M CALLING YOU RIGHT NOW, you oaf. That first call ended with the agent actually telling me it didn’t matter what coverage I got because everything was going to change due to the Affordable Care Act. In 7 months. Right. I should just not care about my health for the better part of a year.

Fast forward several months. For reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I just called again recently to see what options were out there before the 2014 changes take effect. I had to call 3 times because I kept getting disconnected (after being on hold for long periods of time). When I finally got a hold of an agent, the agent told me — get this — he couldn’t answer any of my questions b/​c the Affordable Care Act would change everything. None.
Really? Really?
Implementation of the Act’s next stages have already started, and you still can’t tell me anything? My current insurance company sent me material two months ago, and has a department dedicated to helping customers navigate the new plans, and you’re telling me you don’t know anything? Either BCBS needs to get its act together, or you aren’t doing your job as an agent.
2. The way their customer service is set up is frustrating. There is no way to get a simple, very general question answered quickly. Any question involves going through all your identifying information (name, address, birthday, phone number, whether you’re eligible for Medicaid, etc.) Every. Single. Time. This might be ok if it only took a couple seconds, but it takes longer, which can be annoying if you have to call several times. And you WILL probably have to make multiple calls due to dropped calls, being unable to reach anyone after several transfers (with long waits), etc.
I give up. I’m not even a customer and I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. There are other companies out there that instill greater faith and trust in their customers/​potential customers.

Like all health insurance Anthem seems to just barely cover anything you’d want, but coverage aside here’s my issue: their customer service sucks. I’ve never had such a hard and horrible time paying for anything. Their website was programmed by someone stuck in 1995 and nothing works. They no longer take automated credit card payments but will be happy to drop you in the blink of an eye for not paying. Want to call their automated phone system? take a prozac first. I’m not sure what kind of accent or language they’re looking for but I don’t have it. of course you can’t push numbers, you’ve got to speak and be prepared for «I’m sorry I don’t understand» after everything you say. Should you actually make it into the payment system it will hang up on you if you do anything but link your checking account.

I administrate the Medicare billing where I work for my bosses and trying to deal with the billing departments is a nightmare. I was on hold for 17 minutes then disconnected, hung up on, transferred 4 times. Told to call 9 other phone numbers. No one could help me. I was on the phone for over 4 hours and never got anywhere. The «pay your bill online» is a joke.
I had to laugh in the end because I swear someone was playing a joke on me. I could not believe the poor customer service I got. The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing. I’m currently looking for another carrier for my bosses because frankly anthem is a waste of my time.