Great West Health Insurance Company
Great West Health Insurance Company is properly known as Great-West Healthcare and is a national employee benefits provider. Great West Health Insurance Company is also a CIGNA company and as such also offers insurance to cover individual medical and pharmacy needs.
As part of CIGNA’s insurance company, Great West Health offers consumer-driven health care plans as well as traditional coverage with a network of over 4,275 hospitals and 645,000 providers.
Read through this Great West Health Insurance review, peruse the ratings and reviews of Great West Insurance at the bottom of the page, and then use the free health insurance quote comparison tool on the side of this page to find and compare quotes from many different health insurance providers online!
Great-West Healthcare Awards
Great-West Healthcare has received many awards, including the 2008 Leader in Disease Management, the 2008 J.A. “Jack” Ferguson Associate Company Award, the Gold Hermes Creative Award, eHealthcare Leadership Awards, Web Marketing awards, recognition from the Texas Diabetes Council, and program recognition from the Disease Management Association of America. Still, you should learn more about this or any other insurance provider before being covered by them.
Who is CIGNA?
The first insurance company to offer marine insurance, CIGNA started as the Insurance Company of North America (INA) in Philadelphia in 1792 (click here to read the CIGNA review). In 1865, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG) became incorporated in Connecticut. In 1981, CG changed its name to Connecticut General Corporation and the following year it merged with INA, giving birth to CIGNA with headquarters in Philadelphia. Currently CIGNA has sales offices in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Great West Health Insurance Plans
As a national employee benefits provider, also known as Group Insurance, Great-West Healthcare offers consumer-driven products such as a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), a Health Savings Account (HSA), and the Great-West Healthcare Consumer Advantage (SM). Traditional plans include Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), Point of Service (POS), Health Management Organization (HMO), and Open Access. Ancillary coverage includes pharmacy and dental and additional products and services are available for accidental death and dismemberment, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), group life insurance, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliance, long-term disability, and short-term disability. They also offer a Medical Outreach (SM) program as well as other wellness programs to promote healthy lifestyle maintenance for their members.
With more than 4,000 employers and 1.7 million members, CIGNA has an expanded series of products and services that include individual coverage as well as employer coverage. As part of CIGNA, plans include accident, behavioral care, dental, disability, international and expatriate, life, medical, pharmacy, and vision.
Accident coverage can be obtained for individuals (Personal Accident), as well as for Specialty Groups and Business Travel Accident. Behavioral Health is coverage for the mental wellness of employees. Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability are both available as well as disability products for Specialty Groups.
CIGNA International offers Life, Accident, and Supplemental Health insurance to individuals outside of the United States. With the Expatriate Benefits program, members that are working outside their home country are covered for a variety of services, including behavioral, dental, disability, medical, vision, and life insurance. Life insurance is also available as either Term Life or Universal Life. Universal Life is similar to Term Life but it accumulates cash value that can be borrowed or withdrawn at any time. For vision plans, there is the Network Vision Plan, which works with the HMO or the POS; the PPO, which allows the choice of in-network or out-of-network providers; or the Indemnity Vision Care, which is a comprehensive and flexible plan that does not use a network.
CIGNA’s dental plans include CIGNA Dental Care DHMO®, CIGNA Dental PPO, CIGNA Dental EPO, CIGNA Flex Advantage (SM), Dental Shared Administration for Health and Welfare Trust Funds, CIGNA Traditional (Dental Indemnity), and CIGNAPlus Savings®.
Several employer medical plans are available. Consumer Drive Health Plans encompass the CIGNA Choice Fund® Health Savings Account, the CIGNA Choice Fund® Health Reimbursement Account, and a Flexible Spending Account. The Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) and Network includes two choices, the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Network or the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Network with Open Access. CIGNA Open Access Plus In-Network, Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO), Indemnity, and Voluntary Limited-Benefit Health Plans are available as well. CIGNA also offers plans for Government Benefit Managers and Medicare Solutions. Individual and Family plans are also available.
Choosing A Plan
When deciding among the plans listed above, you will need to answer a number of questions:
How important is being able to choose your own doctor?
How much can you afford for premiums, co-pays and deductibles?
How frequently do you visit a doctor?
What is your family history regarding chronic diseases?
How important are tax savings?
Do you want dental and vision care?
Do you use any medications that are expensive or you can’t be without?
Your ability to answer these questions will help you determine what type of plan will best meet your health care needs. Since high prescription medication costs are a large concern for so many people, you will also want to look into cost saving and coverage options in this area.
Great West Prescription Drug Options
Pharmacy options include the following: Managed Pharmacy Program, Online and Phone Order (Tel-Drug), Medicare Solutions, Medicare Part D, Special Programs for Middle Market, Large Enterprises & Health & Wellness Trust Funds, as well as Individual and Family plans.
Mail order prescription drugs are a way of helping keep pharmacy costs low while ensuring your timely receipt of prescription maintenance drugs. Since lower overhead means bigger savings, oftentimes a mail order prescription will be significantly less expensive than a traditional retail pharmaceutical.
Mail order is also convenient, saving you time and money from having to go the pharmacy and wait for your prescription maintenance drugs to be filled. Common maintenance drugs are ones that are used for allergies, asthma, arthritis, birth control, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Compare Great West Health Insurance Quotes
Be sure to compare these policy and plan options with other providers in your area. Comparing Great West health insurance quotes with quotes from many other top companies is important because no one plan works for anyone, and only you can determine which is a good fit for you. If you are not covered by group insurance or you have questions, start shopping for health insurance today by entering your zip code above!
4 Comments to “Great West Health Insurance Company”
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Meghan says:
“This company is a joke!
I signed up two months ago and am battling to get out already. They have very few covered providers, and it is unclear who is even provided. Their new website doesn’t list providers and prompts you to sign up for an online account. After multiple attempts to do this, the system tells me to call for assistance and there is no number listed on their entire website!
I need to go to the doctor but can’t because I don’t want to pay for the entire visit out of pocket. The only actual “”benefits”” that I have received from Great West/Cigna are a major headache and high blood pressure!”
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Timothy Sandvik says:
“After my company switched to Great West/Cigna, I had a small reduction in premium (around $20 per month). but the bills that keep showing up in my mail more than offset this ridiculous savings.
So, in addition to my almost $400 per month premium, I get to pay another $100-$200 in unpaid, so-called, co-insurance and deductibles for me, wife and three children. WOW!”
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Dyanna Ramos says:
“My ex-husband’s worked for an employer who had Great West as their health plan, he added our 3 kids to his insurance and it was the worst thing he’s ever done. It’s been over 15 years and I am still not able to get them taken off.
I have to hardest time taking my kids to the doctor’s because they are unable to verify my kids are no longer covered and I can’t seem to get in contact with anyone at Great West to help me. One of my kids is already over 18 and they continue to issues when they go to their own doctor.
All I want is for Great West to remove them so I can finally take my kids to the doctor without having any billing issues. This is ridiculous.”
“I am a new customer of Great West and from the first time I have used this plan, I have had problems after problem getting my claims paid. First line customer service is poor and not well trained and even the supervisors don’t seem well versed in the program. The provider list is short in my area and the list is not up to date.
At this point, I am very dissatisfied and hope that my company finds another health care insurance provider. My feeling at this point is that this company is not one that you should use, perhaps things will get better – but hour after hour is spent fixing problems that should not take place and would not in a well-run company”