WARNING Manulife patrons
by 416theflu on Sep 20, 2016
1 out of 5 stars
My daughter started a new job with a company whose benefit plan is provided by Manulife. During her first 3-month probation period she visited her doctor and received a prescription for anxiety. Six months after she started her job she required hospital care for a mental health disorder. Since she visited her doctor and received a prescription drug during her first 3 months of employment, Manulife denied her long-term disability benefits due to her having a "pre-existing condition". She lost 9 months of disability benefits. Manulife self-promotes itself as supporting mental health initiatives at the same time that they deny benefits to mental health patients. Public, corporate image is more important to Manulife than supporting its clients with the benefits that their clients' premiums are paying for. It would likely follow that if a cancer patient started a new job with a company whose benefit plan was provided by Manulife, they would have to stop their cancer treatments for their first 3 months of employment or they too would be deemed to have a "pre-existing condition" that would negate long-term disability benefits if the cancer required extensive hospital care. Manulife focuses on their profits first and caring about their clients last.
I was denied for STD from Manulife for mental health reasons. All supporting documents were provided, from psychologist and family doctor. They straight up lied on the reasons they provided for a denial. Saying it wasn't deemed severe enough. I was deemed very high risk by my doctor. That should have been a no brainer for any insurance company. Manulife denied it again and the appeal. Talking to my doctor, he said every time they have to deal with Manulife, they have nothing but problems. They said they are the absolute worst company to have to deal with. They failed to return any phone calls my doctor made to them. Refused to return my phone calls or even tell me the conclusion of their assessment of my case. It's simple, they provide the cheapest rates and deny as much as they possibly can. There is no customer service.
Applied for short term disability due to anxiety from work. I received a phone call from a Manulife rep and she asked me questions if I was ready to go back to work. I said no as my doctor said I was not ready yet. She then said I needed to have another form filled out to extend my benefits from the doctor. She then said you have to go back to work on a certain date. Which was a week later which did not give me time to talk to my doctor, so I had to tell her I couldn't go to work before seeing my doctor. They did not send me the form and I had to ask twice before I got it. I have been taking medication and it had horrible side effects for me so I could not take them, she says oh come on it's not that bad and was very rude. She then says did you go on vacation and I said no as I have not, and then she says I find that hard to believe. Where do they get off for being so rude and what gives them a right to decide that I am well enough to goto work. Long story short got the form filled out and sent it in. Received an email back saying we will decided if your STD will be extended.
with full medical through ManuLife . illness left me unable to work, letters from heart specialist, doctor, respiratory specialist and unknown kidney function and blood pressure, I am only 33 and 10 years in a management position. Manulife refused benefits immediately. Appeal process refused and now 2 years later a lawyer (who used to work for Manulife) has gotten it to the arbitration stage. He knows their mandate is to refuse legitimate claims because sick people cannot go through the hoops and they hope to drop them along the way. I have lost my income, unable to work, gone on welfare, and am homeless now. When it goes to arbitration, and not to court, there will be no public record or statistics as to their refusals. 2 years and still waiting to hear, has destroyed my overall health and career.
I got hit by a car and fractured 2 vertebrae in my spine. Doctor said it takes 3 months to heal and do not suggesting sitting longer than 30 mins at a time. Manulife forced me to gradually return to work 4 hrs a day or they will stop paying out and deny the rest of the claim? I hired a lawyer to resolve this. Fingers crossed.
If I could give zero stars I would. I have never been treated so disrespectfully in my life. And what I have heard from others, they treat everyone as if they lying, including the medical professionals. In my situation, specialists and my doctor have sent in their diagnosis reports and manulife is still questioning them. Even my license has been suspended for medical reasons with the info provided by the medical professionals. The MTO respects the medical professionals diagnosis as enough evidence to make a decision but Manulife doesn't. Manulife is is apparently above the medical professionals and does not trust them to make a diagnosis. I have feel like are just trying to catch one small thing and delay the process even more and deny it. It's not the roof over their head and they obviously don't care about mine.
A hassle from start to finish. I checked off all the right boxes for my insurance and trusted Manulife. Became disabled and it took 18 months, so much time and effort, three specialists for them to finally approve my claim. Then after paying it for a few years they cut it off because they said they neglected to take out the premiums in the first place. I have aged 20 years in the last 3 years of dealing with the company. They have made a terrible situation so much worse for me, and their reps, Mary L. and Kabir, were not helpful at all and had to be walked through the file on each phone call.
My fiance has a policy through her work. Last year she had hernia surgery because of her job. Her claim took a long time to process Manulife "didn't receive" the forms that were faxed/emailed to them even though there were confirmations of the forms being sent 2 or 3 times. After her surgery and some healing time, she was forced back to work to early. Her surgeon's and general practitioner's reports stated she was not ready to return to work. Manulife's docotor (who only read reports) overrode these reports stating he saw no reason for her to be off work so Manulife cut her benefits. As a result of all this, not even a year later she is once again off work and looking forward to another surgery for a repeated tare and additional tares to the same spot. As mentioned by others on this site, Manulife is not interested in their customers wellbeing. They are only interested in taking your money and paying out as little as possible. Bottom line: If you have a choice, look elsewhere. The only way you'll be happy with this company is if you never have to file a claim.
If you think they will be there to help you while you are not well that takes many Dr visits/tests to figure out what is going on with your health, good luck. When your symptoms are complicated Manulife does not care about you getting better. They only add to the already stressful medical issues you may be going through. Manulife insurance is a false sense of security until you actually need them.
My experience in particular had to do with fainting spells after having a child. At the time I worked in a paper mill on the production line and passing out on a catwalk over the stock pits and press machinery or near any of the winding machinery I worked in and on would cause severe injury and/or death. I went through many emergency room visits, Dr and specialist appts that couldn't pinpoint an exact cause but it was very real what was happening to me. In one episode, in particular, I was walking with my 6-Month-old baby in my arms to go change her and my vision went spotty then black and I lost control of my arms and legs, dropped my baby and collapsed on top of her. I could feel her under me but couldn't do anything about it. So thankful my husband was home to help us.
Manulife did not help us offset any percent of my 50% contribution to the family income while I was going to many appts to try and figure out why this was happening as we were led to believe Manulife would be there.
This is to anyone reading this who has this company as a group benefits provider, they will be great for dental and eye care needs like exam coverage etc and if you should have a health concern you can provide physical medical evidence for like a broken bone. If you have mental health issues or back issues or like me undiagnosable issues, please seek out and pay out of pocket for another company for another insurance company as it is not worth all the agony and frustration of fighting to prove you're unwell so you can pay your monthly bills all while trying to find out what is causing your unwellness.
I hope this review can help just 1 person make a better choice on getting an insurance provider that will be there for them if they ever need it. Or if you read my post this far as it sounds too familiar, I'm sorry that you are going through the same frustrating ordeal as I once did. Believe me, you are not alone. I hope you can share your experience with others as well.
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Was an RN working with teens in psych
-after filling out all required paperwork, I submitted before my mandatory disability ran out with the understanding that I would have piece of mind and begin picking up the pieces.
-a letter comes back a week after LTD deposit expected
-meet with your case worker over the phone (lets call her Poozan F.)
-First, the woman is on VACATION for a week
-I get her on the phone, she appears to be doing 5 other things while half listening to me on speaker phone
-I give her the same information my doctor and I had filled out.
-Another week passes, this woman calls me and starts asking me additional questions, to which I answer...no problem.
-this woman sends...get this...medical review to be assessed by a psychiatrist...addresses it to my gp
-I was never emailed these forms, doc had to copy for me
-because I am now weeks without an income, my anxiety increases, I have to borrow from all over, credit ruined, motorcycle on the way out
-I make a plea to Poozan's manager, who is equally useless, says they need my GP to fill out psych-specific paperwork for my claim
- I have a nervous breakdown, vomit, headache, catatonically depressed for 2 days
-my psych doctor doesn't fill the paperwork because it's not adressed to him
-Finally convince my gp to help me fill the paperwork, much to her frustration and we send it ALL
-Ive not had an income for a month and a half at this point, and resorted to pleading with these corporate, soulless, automatons
-"we understand your frustration{because it is our job to}, but we can't do anything about it {because our job is to make money - not concern ourselves with human impact}
-I can no longer pay for my antidepressants
-two weeks go by not hearing a damn thing
-call the manager, who tells me something about rush being put on it {if that is rush in 2016, we are in trouble] and says her underling Poozan will fill me in tomorrow
-CLAIM denied?
-Why? Because we actually sent your psych doc the paperwork, but because we failed to notify you, there was no reason for a doc who sees hundreds of patients a week to fill out forms without context.
-Why? because after sending your entire medical chart to us, there was a mention of past use of marijuana, Poozan kept asking me if it was addiction, and I said no, I am abstinent cause Im BROKE
-that didn't stop addiction being reason number two
-so Poozan gave me her corporate script after I yet again tried to deliver some human context in their system of manufactured delay
-surely I couldn't be the only one?
Apparently Manulife, Sun Life, DesJardin or any insurance company that has a high end solidified deal with a large corporation has no incentive to please it's individual members, and being a business, manufactured delay is more money quarterly, creates more time for more reasons for claims to be denied, and when all of this fails, evidenced instances of folk not getting what they are entitled to by appeal 3.
- my nursing flame has all but been extinguished by first the americanization of our beloved health system, second by an ambitious wolf paid to guard the veteran sheep of the unit, and an insurance company that delays you into ruined credit, loss of possessions, or in my case, having to move to a cheaper unit.
Manulife MANUFACTURES delay, to make YOU do all the paperwork and put together the appointments, because the creatures that work there earn their bonuses of the BACKS of nurses, who had no choice in which coverage their hospital subscribes to.
Manulife employees, you are the scourge of the earth and the opposite of what humanity is as understood in the art of nursing. May you never need to ironically use your own services in a time of need.
-with the last of my nursing flame, my best advice is to keep yourself healthy, and never subject yourself to this system unless absolutely necessary.
peace