Great-West Life Group Benefits Insurance Reviews

I have been working with Great-West for my insurance coverage for nine years, alongside them is another insurance company for my husband. There is absolutely no comparison. Great-West should be embarrassed and disgusted by their “service” to clients. They have always been very slow to process claims and question everything on top of their slowness, however, in the last three months, they have become even worse with me. They have a claim that they have not processed since June 8! They have emailed me four times about it, asking for different information, as well as called the service provider about it July 30th and questioned them. What’s more, is that it doesn’t even show up on their online system as being received and under review! So I called last week and inquired about that claim and she said she could see it and everything looks fine so it should be processed in a few days. I said fine and I still want to speak to a manager. Still, no claim has been processed and no one has called me back! I have many other problems with this company but the list is too long to type here so I just put my recent problem. I caution any employer or individual thinking of going with this provider, you’ll regret it! I have talked to several other people at my work place and they have said the same thing - NIGHTMARE! Unless you want to be on a constant audit DO NOT go with this company! I wouldn’t give this company even one star if it were not mandatory for posting!

I’m supposed to have group insurance for dental. However each year my out-of-pocket expenses go up and up while Great-West finds new ways to not pay for claims. Recently I had 2 fillings on 2 teeth that happened to have crowns on them. The crowns were not touched. The two teeth under the crowns had cavities where my gums receded. $430 was the cost and $0 was the benefit amount. They don’t cover fillings to teeth that have crowns on them. They consider this “crown repair” when the dentist never touched the crowns at all. This is just one of many ineligible claim excuses they come up with to render your dental plan with them practically useless. I’m going to be pushing our union to switch to a better provider. We have approximately 40,000 employees and many of us in my section are fed up with this company.

I applied for short term disability in June 2016 through my employer. The 1st case manager Logan M. lied to me over the phone that my claim was approved and just needed to finish the calculations, and I'd likely to see first payout by next Friday. About 2 weeks went by with me chasing her as to what's going on. After complaining to my employer about lack of response, Logan M. told me that my claim was declined because my employer said I shouldn't have stopped my medication years ago. My specialist doctor told me to wean off it and completely stop it, because there's bad long-term side effects. The wait to see the specialist doctor was months long to get my medication refilled. My employer said that they do not influence any claim decisions at all. I escalated at Great West Life and was assigned a 2nd case manager Sara S. After I got in to see the specialist doctor and was on my medication again, my claim was denied again - Sara S. said to me over the phone that I should have been taking Tylenol and working during the long wait for a specialist doctor. They denied my claim again, on basis that I wasn't severe. I told my family doctor that Great West Life was giving me the run around, she wrote a doctor's note and told me to apply for EI sick benefits. She was right, I had no problem getting my claim for EI sick benefits approved. Great West Life case managers will lie and manipulate your words over the phone. I consulted a disability lawyer because they take cases on contingency basis, he said there wasn't much money left for him to chase. EI sick benefits payments are deducted from short-term disability calculatons, so the crooked insurance company Great West Life won by declining you repeatedly until you give up. Unless you have something that's "definite", like surgery or being in the hospital... anything "subjective" or episodic disability will be repeatedly declined so they wear you down by forcing you to provide all kinds of evidence that you're "severe". Be warned, everything they ask you to get to back up your claim, they're actually using all of that to manipulate it so they build a case against you. Also, I'm in Calgary, they assigned Ontario reps that are off work at 1pm my time... adding to the difficulty of getting a hold of them. There's a reason why they only provide their first name and the first initial of their last names, they're unethical... after one phone call with each of the case managers, I refused to talk to them over the them, requiring everything via email... it helped stop some of their lying and manipulation over the phone with you. I wonder how these case managers sleep at night, they're incentized to decline as many cases as they can, it's how their performance bonus works.

My husband has GWL through his employer and needed dental work done. He did a "predetermination" through the dentist's office, and got a quote back regarding how much was covered. The day of the surgery, the dentist found other things wrong and had to add to the list of services done. Most of the services were covered 100% through our insurance. A week after the surgery, GWL informed us we needed more information via mail. The dentist's office quickly sent original copies as requested by the insurance company. It has now been 9 business days since providing them with the necessary information and we have hit a wall. When my husband contacted GWL he was met with an "I don't care attitude" by the representative and given no estimated time for the claim to go through as they are "back logged for 2 weeks". The representative was unapologetic and seemed annoyed that my husband was even asking about this claim that we have now been dealing with for almost a month. I do not recommend this company to anyone! If you have this insurance company, my best suggestion would be to make sure anywhere you go does direct billing. I will be happy to leave this company once we are finally done dealing with this first and last claim.

My husband has Great West Life insurance coverage through work and recently I had a root canal re done and needed reimbursement for a pricey procedure. My insurance plan through my work covered a portion of it and reimbursed me right away. Great West Life on the other hand just gave us the run around by asking to stupid information (which we provided again and again) but they still didn't provide any reimbursement. They were worse than useless so if you think you have dental or extended coverage through them think again because they seem like nothing but scam artists.

This is the worst of the worst. Was put on short term disability for heart issue, doctor would not renew my licence and I drive truck for a living. Had to wait 7 1/2 weeks for first pay cheque, and was about 1/4 of what I made. The Evil witch that looked after my claim could not give a care of my condition, she told me that I was running out of short term disability and if I applied for long term disability I probably would not get it, because not being able to drive is not covered, and I live 50 miles from work.
I had several claims with this company, because the company I work for goes with GWL, and every time just very negative. One time had dentist work done and was in the dentist chair, and dentist was doing work on my teeth, they tried submitting claim to see if I would be covered, and GWL wanted to talk to me to ask me a bunch of personal questions to verify it was me, I felt like 2 inches tall. The only people I would recommend this company to is my enemy's.

I had a group plan via my employer with Great-West Life. I was diagnosed with Diabetes, Hypertension and was advised by the doctor that I was at High-risk to suffer a Stroke. But these scammers did not approve my claim even for one day to be off work and their excuse was, “many people suffer from it and they did not see a reason why I should be off work”. I had to quit my job to take care of my health. But the funny part is, I reluctantly applied for EI Sickness Benefits and was approved by them after showing the same Medical Certificate and Notes that I had provided to GWL. This clearly proves them to be unethical scammers and hope they get treated the same and worse thousand times over!

My company uses them for our disability. I sent my forms in the day after my surgery. I have chased around and called multiple times and I'm not getting anywhere. They claim that they are waiting for information from an employer's side. And they have left messages. They won't return my calls and sound aggravated when you call to follow up and see if there is any new information... It is going to be 30 days since I filed in 5 more days... Luckily we are financially stable... I am horribly dissatisfied.

I've been insured with them through my work and have been paying into them for almost 2 years with no claims. I finally made a claim for orthopedic shoes and it has been a month since I sent them what they asked for - doctor's prescription and podiatrist's. They rejected my claim BY SENDING A LETTER THROUGH SNAIL MAIL!!! I can't even touch how bad an idea that is because it's slow and dated... ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY CAN CALL/EMAIL OR UPDATE MY FILE! I called to find out why, and I've had to wait on the phone for half an hour before a representative picks up and tells me the same things. They refuse to pay for my shoes because according to their system my condition requires orthotics, not ortho shoes. I asked them to cover my orthotic insoles and they said my plan doesn't cover those, only ortho shoes, but they won't pay for my shoes because my condition requires the insoles... I explained that my doctor told me to get both of them for my condition, but they are saying their system says otherwise and they don't cover insoles. Fast forward to a month and I've spoken to the supervisor twice and have only received the same runaround. This is literally the worst runaround in the history of runaround. It goes likes this: "Your doctor says you need these things but our system says you need only the insoles. We do not cover insoles for you but we do cover shoes for you. We can't give you shoes because according to our system you need insoles. We don't cover insoles for you." It is ridiculous! This is what I've had to hear for a month AFTER waiting on the phone for upwards of 20 minutes and up to a half-hour. Please! For the sake of your sanity, and your money, if your employer offers benefits through this company, don't waste your money because you can easily pay for your stuff without going through them if you choose to opt-out.

I sent them an email asking about one of my claims.

They responded back 20 days later with little to no information.

They do not care about their clients. Thankfully our workplace has switched to another provider.