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.

Give me a break! They put you on hold for hours and hours...they dropped my call 3 times in 1 hour...was on the phone for several hours to get one claim question answered. They do not reply to emails. It's a gimmick!!!

Absolutely pathetic Customer Service. They should be ashamed. Stay far away. Three months waiting for a claim. They say they will call you back and never do. They never let you speak to managers. They say a manager will call you back in two days and it never happens. They say they took care of everything yet when you call the dental office, they say they haven't heard from them in weeks. STAY FAR AWAY.

Great-West Life does not care if you are ill. My experience with them has been horrible. There is no credibility nor transparency. Their customer service is absolutely horrid.

Always a busy tone when calling customer service. Could not speak to anyone for over a month now, not even their switchboard could reach them, yet switchboard would say that they're experiencing high call volume, so then why isn't that message on their recording when calling in to make customers know what the heck is happening instead of a damn busy tone!!! This is all nonsense!!! 1.4 RATING FROM 133 REVIEWS!!! My husband claims are all selected for audit even though I've been submitting his claims via online, sent proof of the receipts, yet they would email countless times asking for proof, ARE YOUR EMPLOYEE INCOMPETENT??? CAN'T THEY OPEN RECENT ATTACHMENTS??!!! SO FRUSTRATED!!! LOOK at your rating, your service is crap and surprisingly there has been no significant changes even with the constant negative reviews. SHAME!!!

If you have a choice, stay away from this company. They will do anything to not pay your claims. i.e. multiple short-term disability claims of my colleagues have been delayed in payment for months after their disability period. Cancer medication claims have been ignored over and over again. One of my colleague's husband passed away more than 6 months ago and there are still no payments. You can imagine the financial stress this creates. For myself, basically, every claim in the region of 100 $ + (over one hundred) is "randomly" selected for audit half the time then ignored after successful completion of the audit. The customer support line phone always has a busy tone. You simply cannot reach them. The online written requests get no answer. If you escalate to your company administrator, they will make statements that they tried to call you three times to clarify. They will state that you as a customer ignored them and therefore they do not pay. I can go on and on with these stories... Overall, this is a full-on fraud company.

This is my first time writing a review but I feel it is necessary because of the horrible customer service and awful benefits provided by GWL. They require paper copies submitted for any expense claim over $400 and even if you provide everything they ask for, they require to jump through even more hoops and waste your time driving around the city trying to get doctors' notes to substantiate your claim. The phone number they provide is ALWAYS busy, so you can never get ahold of them. Typical insurance company that tries to get away with not reimbursing you for the expenses that your insurance is supposed to cover. I have had benefits with 3 other insurance companies and this one is by far the worst.

My experience with GWL was horrific right from day one. I wish I knew then what I know now. First of all, if they tell you something, it may or may not be the truth. Don’t trust them one bit. Keep your guard up. Protect yourself by printing out all your emails and record ALL phone conversations with them. Thankfully, I had a medical provider that gave me great advice at the start of my claim to journal and record everything as she was super frustrated and concerned how I was being treated right from the very beginning. It was not just concerns about one staff member, it was multiple and also multiple levels of management involved. GWL has admitted that my concerns are serious and have had negative consequences. I was told that after an investigation in June 2018 involving the director and regional manager that I would be provided the results of the investigation including what GWL has done to address the situation, any recommendations GWL has put forward and executed on, anything GWL has done to put in place such as policies and procedures to ensure this experience isn’t experienced by others, and answers to my questions. I did involve the ombudsman numerous times with no results. I found out the ombudsmen are paid by GWL. Despite my proof in the form of recordings, documentation and witnesses, they have yet provided me with any documentation that demonstrates they have taken this seriously by demonstrating to me that they did what they said they would do. It has been 5 months and still nothing.

GWL review: Absolute garbage customer service. I asked them questions and they continued to ignore me, giving me standard responses that would result in me throwing all my money away if that were not the correct choice of action. I clarified my questions point by point so that even a child would understand that I had more than one question and wasn't looking for a "Thank you for contacting us. Have a nice day!". And yet they still gave me the same standard response, this time shutting my customer service tag down completely as if they answered even one of my questions at all. I tried submitting an official complaint and even that was ignored. I didn't even get a reply from them at all. You'd get better service talking to a wall. At least you'd be able to lean on it for support.

I clicked on Life Insurance...because there isn't a drop-down option for Health & Dental. I had coverage with GWL with my previous employer. I accepted a buyout package and was eligible to enroll with GWL under the similar plan. I really had no issues with GWL when I was with group plan under the employer. However, when I signed up with GWL last week....it has been a "gong show" ever since. After signing up and being accepted...I was emailed copious documents and my policy # on August 30 - with noted commencement date for benefits starting September 1. There was no indication with paperwork when I would receive our drug cards. As I wanted to fill a prescription at Shoppers Drug Mart, I called GWL to find out if they could give me my client ID...and other info that Shoppers had requested. Well - GWL had no record of my policy # - it doesn't exist! Oh, for frig sake!! So, after several phone transfers to different departments passing the hot potato...approximately 45 minutes - still not resolved. I became apoplectic on the phone. How ironic that I had interviews for an executive assistant position with top big wigs at the London, Ontario office....and they spoke so eloquently on how customer service is "paramount" to their business...huh!