I was with Anthem, and it was hard to communicate with the company. You would leave messages on voicemail, and no one would return your calls. I spent two weeks on and off trying to simply upgrade my Senior Advantage policy. Frustrated, I decided to switch carriers. After all, aren't they all competitive? I said to myself. Who to go with? All of the brochures always seem to be rose-colored. You never know if any of the sweet-smelling advertising is really true or what they conceal underneath.
I decided to switch to Humana, and I did so with very little effort. The service was great compared to Anthem. As soon as I received my new card about a week later, I went to my local pharmacy to fill a prescription. To my shock and dismay, my co-pay was more than double that of Anthem: $35 was now $84. I didn't wait to find out what the cost of my other prescriptions went up to. I immediately cancelled my account with Humana and went back to Anthem. I suffered through the phone games again and finally got re-signed up with Anthem. The pharmacy said that providers charge co-payments based on their negotiated wholesale cost, which are all different rates.
Humana did send me a bill for the first month some time ago. I assumed that it was invalid, based on the fact that I was only on the plan for part of January and they performed no services for me except the failed prescription that I refused to pay for.
Today, 3/20/10, I got a notice from RMS, a collection company, for the premium for January, which was $69. There was no previous billing or notice that I owed them any money over the past two months that I am aware of. I'm disgusted and offended that they turned me in for collection without any notice.
If you are switching carriers, I suggest that you try to get quotes on your most expensive prescriptions first. You will be surprised at the variation. So my beefs with Humana are: much higher premiums for far fewer benefits; collection without notice; if they were reputable, they never would have charged me for the first month, because it caused me a lot of grief and aggravation; I guess getting the money is far more important to them than having an irate customer. After all, there is a lot of money to be made by taking advantage of someone once, because there are so many new clients out there to be had. Also, I was without my medication for over a month, which was not a good thing. My glucose went out of control, and I'm still trying to get it back to normal.
I'd never recommend Humana to anyone.
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