Great-West Life Health Insurance Reviews

Unfortunately, I have negative things to share about my experiences with GWL. Not only have they made me jump through hoops for both dental and medical coverage, they have not honoured a predetermination as they say they need “more information” which is clearly a stalling tactic. My doctor has appealed meds coverage twice, I’ve appealed twice and they only come back with “we just don’t cover that med.” Not even a generic. I hate to say but I am going to try and opt out of this coverage because it’s horrible. Very very disappointed and extremely dissatisfied.

This is about "Drug Insurance", which is not available in the Product type. The Ontario Pension Board's Ontario Public Service Pension Plan drug coverage is supposed to be 90% but Great-West Life Assurance has applied a $1,000/year limit on a specific drug. The information available from the Ontario Pension Board and from the Great-West Life Assurance's GroupNet websites state that the drug coverage is 90% without any exception. Great-West Life will not provide the insurance policy, only a sketchy self-excusing letter explaining the limit using Health Canada and other excuses to deny payment for copayment coverage for a drug I have been taking for at least 13 years at the same dosage. My doctor submitted a form requested by Great-West Life Assurance in which the reason for prescribing and the dosage was stated, which Great-West Life Assurance rejected. Great-West Life Assurance is dishonest. Ultimately, this will probably be settled in small claims court. It isn't just about the small amount of money involved, it is the principle that the information presented by the Ontario Pension Board and Great-West Life Assurance state specific coverage, which is not being honoured and, if there is an exception, that information is not provided, and the supposed exception to 90% coverage is for a different condition for the prescribed drug. The Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat is a party to the insurance policy agreement and will be named as a party in a small claims court lawsuit. If this is resolved in small claims court, it will cost Great-West Life Assurance and the taxpayer of Ontario a lot more money than the outstanding unreimbursed amount.

Calling in to their customer support will guarantee you to wait on the phone, as their call centre seems both understaffed and underqualified. Also the call centre agents are oblivious to my benefits and insisted I contact the HR of the company I am working for - what is their customer support centre's purpose then?

Website provides minimal information regarding group benefits plan to see what my coverage is. Coverage is pretty terrible for the money, some of the worst that I've seen from any group plans so far. Dental claims are often delayed or denied with no clear explanation. To give them credit, getting a pair of subscription glasses went moderately well, but even that somehow took longer than 4 weeks to process.

Once they discover that you have missing teeth on both sides of your mouth, the only coverage you will get from them is denture and for the following three years they will reject all claims for the part of the mouth. The only people who can benefit from their dental insurance are people with healthy teeth who don't need it.

Throughout the years I have had to deal with them for one claim or another. Filled out paperwork for coverage on glasses, my primary insurance company refunds the money no problem and I submit the remaining amount with receipt and paperwork. And they claim I need to fill out more. This is not the first time I've done this either, seems every time I've dealt with them they change information needed or claim they need more. Funny how it's only their company I have frustration with. I've had coverage throughout my 28 years of work and never had issues with any other companies. A company I worked for changed to to them for insurance and because I hate them so much I quit and found another job. I refuse to have them as my primary insurer, I cannot help who my wife's company has but I can sure prevent my pay to go towards them.

My company terminated the group insurance with GWL on January 31, 2016. All claims served and sent before this date were supposed to be accepted and paid.
My wife's eye glasses were bought on December 15, 2015 and after claim went through here insurance, it was submitter to GWL (sent on January 15). And they refused to pay it because they artificially delayed the claim processing up to February 9th! How ridiculous!
Beware of this bunch of scammers.

In 2012 I had my upper front teeth broken off at the roots when I was head-butted by a child, and due to root absorption, they were extracted in 2013. Great-West said they were diseased, so wouldn't pay my accidental coverage. I offered to have an independent test of the teeth as my surgeon and dentist said my teeth weren't diseased. I was also covered by my husband's insurance company Sun Life, who sent me letters that they would pay a large amount of accident insurance. I even called them just before my surgery for implants to make sure I was still covered and they assured me that I was. After my surgery, they said I was never covered by them. How could they have my name etc. and I am not covered by them? After surgery, my surgeon said he was unable to repair the damage to my upper pallet, so I am left with an uneven gum line that looks terrible. I am still reeling from all my costs and if Sun Life hadn't committed to paying, I would have chosen a less expensive route such as a bridge. I am still in shock and still having financial and health problems from all the surgeries and antibiotics.

I have Green Shield through my employer and GWL through husband's employer . My claims are processed and paid in a total of 3 days with Green Shield. GWL is a totally different story. It takes about 2 weeks for them to process the claim and another 3 weeks to send out the refund :( I pay for my services with a credit card expecting to have reimbursement before the credit card bill is due but with GWL that never happens. Terrible, terrible service. I wish employers would boycott them and use other insurance providers as there is absolutely no excuse for such lack of time limit when processing/refunding claims.

I unfortunately have Great West Life as my benefits provider through my company and have had a terrible experience with them. They are consistently slow at processing your claim, and often taking weeks at a time. They have also on numerous occasions screwed up my claims and have repeatedly contact me for information that I have already provided them. It is not easy to resubmit an entire claim if you have already sent them the original copies. I've also had to deal with 3 separate individuals on one claim only to have to re-explajn my claim to each of them. This is a waste of my time and money. My husband has Sun Life and I have never had issues with them. They are fast and efficient at all times and provide detailed information of your plan and claims on their website where great West life seems like an archaic website.

With direct billing for dental I had no problems. The problem occurred when I submitted an online claim for athletic therapy on September 10th, 15th, 17th. I received an email stating that my claim was being processed. I thought it was great, and I'd be reimbursed within a few days. After waiting, and checking online for my claim status I was locked out of the website. So I called to inquire about the delay. I was told that they were behind and it would be 7-10 days. Then I received a letter dated September 21st (on September 24th) stating that they couldn't find my provider registered with any of the appropriate governing bodies. So I did a search online with the appropriate associations, and easily found that she was a member. Why is the burden of proof placed on the patient? I called again and provided the information required. I got another email stating that my claim is being processed. In the meantime I had attended a total of 5 appointments at $68 a pop by this point with $0 reimbursed. I managed to regain online access and found out my claims had been denied for the same reason. So I called again today and was very angry and frustrated with the representative who I told this needed to be resolved today. I literally am out of money and had to borrow some cash to buy a little bit of food until payday. Why can't a big insurance company find proof of registration and certification of a service provider when its easily accessible to the general public? I told the representative to call my AT himself because I was done dealing with this situation. My other options? Rely on pain killers until I become addicted or damage my liver and become a burden on society.