Manulife Group Benefits Insurance Reviews

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.

Through my work group insurance I have dealt with many companies over the years...Blue Cross...you name it...but these guys are the absolute worst. They turn down claims based on a few dollars and expect the client to pay hundreds because they'll save 20. Not good enough when you are paying these people 40 or 50 dollars a week for coverage that you have no say in. It's just so unfair and disheartening to see a big company like this treat their clients like this. I would never recommend this company. Ever.

My employer switched from GWL to Manulife a few months ago for benefits coverage. Apparently Manulife was significantly cheaper for the employer and nothing would change in terms of our benefits. This has not been true. From my perspective and based on my terrible experiences thus far, the reason that they are cheaper is because the employees are now paying for the difference. For example, Manulife has disallowed registered massages because the massage therapist obtained their certification in BC instead of in AB where they practise. This was frustrating because Manulife and my employer did not document this absurd requirement anywhere and now. My employer indicated that they were not aware of this policy so they actually refunded me for the massage. They have told me to get all of the details regarding the Reg Massage Therapist before I book a massage which is such a pain and creates extra stress. In addition, Manulife's website is down on weekends. On Sat, you cannot submit claims after 8pm and Sun, after 5pm. As a parent that works fulltime, it is very difficult to make time to process these claims except on weekends after my young kids have gone to bed. For me, I have actually stopped using my benefits because the thought of trying to process the claim and what Manulife will come back with causes me instant anxiety. Ugh

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.

They have multiple layers of forms to fill out before they will process a claim.And if you miss any detail it is denied and sent back.
Enough to frustrate the most patient and organized accountants in the world....
I have coverage through my employer and every time I see an ad for them I hope people read these reviews as I would never deal with them if I had the option.
The only reason I continue to go through their processes is that I won't let them win.
I have co-workers who just don't bother anymore.

Our daughter has a heart murmur for which she has never received any treatment or medical intervention. Manulife has only recently allowed our her two siblings to be covered on our group insurance plan, after a full year of waiting. We have had to jump through all sorts of hoops and still our daughter, who doesn't even have to take antibiotics when she visits the dentist, is not a recipient of our family's benefits.

When I do contact Manulife they try to imply that they have no record of my husband's policy, because they never include his certificate number on any correspondence that we've received. I'm curious as to how they suppose that I'm receiving correspondence from them, because they certainly seem to have at least our address! I am very unimpressed with this company and their lack of desire to help.

He/she put me on hold for about 15 minutes and when they came to say they couldn't help me, the customer service representative, (admittedly I was angry by this point), pretended that he/she couldn't hear me. I demanded their name, and they simply continued to pretend that they couldn't hear me. I demanded to speak to a manager, and they continued the game of not being able to hear me....even fading their voice so that maybe I might think that the connection was fading out. I hung up and phoned back and guess what? The customer service rep that I got this time, could hear me just fine! And she was able to help me, quickly, I might add!

I get it, it's not fun to deal with an angry and frustrated customer and I was hopping mad, but just pass me off to management rather than implying that I don't know what I'm talking about or playing games with me!

Sadly the experiences that I've had when I've had to contact Manulife have more closely resembled my encounter with the fading out customer service rep rather than the lady who I later spoke with.

I just want our daughter, who is eight and as healthy as a horse to be taken care of! It's been over a year of waiting!