Great-West Life Health Insurance Reviews

Sadly through my workplace, we are forced to pay into this horrible company. They charge a fortune in monthly fees, yet cover nothing that other reputable insurance companies offer. A prime example is their pathetic mental health coverage. You can’t even get the cost of one appointment covered with a psychologist. Also, I’ve spoken to a few working moms who have coverage under their insurance policies for breast pumps. Big surprise, Great-West Life do not consider it essential. They do not care for their customers, they are simply out to gouge hard-working Canadians from their hard-earned money!

I recommend everyone to stay away from Great-West Life Group Dental Benefits! Twice I’ve had to get a crown on my teeth and both times they denied my claim stating that they determined that a filling was all that was needed! My dentist assured me that a filling would not work and this last tooth had a large chip to the point that my nerve was exposed! I’ve never had this many problems with any other Group Benefits Company!

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.

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.

Don’t advise anyone to get benefits through this company! They do anything in their power to not pay you any money. When you have more than enough doctor letting stating you can’t go back to work and Great-West Life doesn’t think that’s good enough 'cause apparently, they are doctors, not an insurance company!! It’s a joke

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.