Humana Health Insurance Company
Humana Health Insurance Company is a major player in an industry that has gotten a lot of attention over the past several years. Reports by the media often tend to sway public opinion and cause misconceptions about the industry.
If you don’t have health insurance provided by your employer, you probably don’t think you can afford it. Thankfully, there are a lot of companies like Humana that offer individual health plans these days, and they need to grow their business. This gives you, the consumer, the benefit of a competitive market.
In fact, there are many top health insurance providers just like Humana that offer affordable health insurance plans so be sure and use our free quote finder to compare rates from top companies.
Humana Health Insurance: History
Humana Health Insurance Company was established in 1984. It was launched by Humana Inc., which got its start as Heritage House of America Inc. in 1961. Today their health insurance plans and other products are available in many states and Puerto Rico.
Humana Group Health Insurance Plans
Humana offers a range of products and services. They are probably most well-known for their group health plans and benefit packages including dental, vision, and life insurance options. The introduction of Medicare Part D in 2006 brought the company to the forefront again as a participating provider. However, many people aren’t aware that they also offer individual health insurance plans through Humana One with several options to fit your budget. There are some key terms and concepts that you should be familiar with before you begin shopping for health insurance with this or any insurance provider.
Common Health Insurance Terminology
The deductible is the dollar amount of medical expenses you are responsible for in a calendar year before the company begins paying their part. Once your deductible is met, the company begins to pay their percentage of any additional expenses for the year. This percentage is referred to as coinsurance. There is also an out-of-pocket (OOP) maximum on your coinsurance. Once the OOP maximum is met, the company will pay 100% of all covered expenses for the remainder of the calendar year.
Many deductible and coinsurance options are available to individuals. This is the concept of transferring risk and allows you to determine how much of your medical expenses you are willing to pay for and how much you expect the company to cover. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you choose a plan with a $1,000 deductible and 80/20 coinsurance with an OOP maximum of $2,000. Once you’ve incurred $1,000 in medical expenses, the company will pay for 80% of your remaining expenses for the calendar year. If the remainder of the expenses, your 20% coinsurance, exceeds $2,000, the company starts paying 100% and you pay nothing more.
Not factoring in premiums, the most you would pay out of pocket for covered medical expenses would be $3,000 per year. If you incurred a $10,000 hospital bill, the company would pay a total of $7,000 of the charges. However, if your total covered medical expenses for the year were only $1,500, the company would only end up paying $400 (80% of the $500 over your $1,000 deductible).
Some plans have a co-pay benefit for office visits and prescription drugs. If you choose a plan with an office visit co-pay option, you may use that benefit even before you meet your deductible. Some plans require that a separate deductible is met before you can start using the co-pay benefit for prescription drugs.
Referring to the previous example, if you also have a $35 office visit co-pay, you could go to the doctor and pay only $35 even if your deductible wasn’t met yet. However, if the doctor ordered any lab work or performed any special examinations, these amounts would be subject to your deductible and coinsurance. Dental and life insurance benefits are available but are not part of your health plan and must be purchased separately.
Another aspect of individual health insurance you should understand is in-network versus non-network providers. If you receive care from a physician or at a hospital that is not in the company’s provider network, you will have a greater coinsurance percentage and possibly a separate deductible. For instance instead of 80/20 for in-network, you may have coinsurance of 70/30 for non-network. This increases your out of pocket expenses for the year. Find out whether or not your family doctor and local hospital are in-network before you make a decision to go with any company.
Humana Individual Health Insurance Benefits
Humana has many different cheap individual health insurance options. Note that “individual health insurance” includes policies sold to families, not just one individual person. It is a phrase used to describe policies not sold as part of a group plan. This is commonly misunderstood by consumers.
Some people have group health insurance available through their employers and still purchase individual health insurance because they can tailor a plan to fit their individual needs and budget. Choosing higher deductibles and coinsurance will lower your premium. If you are a fairly healthy person who seldom has to go to the doctor or take medicine, you may choose a plan without the benefit of office visit and prescription drug co-pays, which would also result in a lower premium than a plan with these benefits.
Review Humana Health Insurance Quotes Online
If you don’t have any form of health insurance, don’t put it off until you have a medical emergency or are diagnosed with a serious condition. If you do, you may not be eligible for coverage at all or you may be offered coverage excluding your particular condition. Even if you already do have health insurance coverage it is important to make sure that you shop around and are not paying more than you need to.
The bottom-line is that there is a whole host of options available to you and your family from Humana Health Insurance Company and other providers. So why wait? Use the free quoting tool on this page to get rates from several insurers for a plan that’s tailor-made for you.
Get started comparing quotes from many different health insurance providers today!
18 Comments to “Humana Health Insurance Company”
-
Keith B says:
“I had health insurance with Humana in the past and was very satisfied with it.
They offer a wide variety of plans to fit your coverage and budget needs. I never ran into a doctor or healthcare facility that didn’t accept my insurance with no questions asked. Whenever I called I was able to get my questions answered in a knowledgeable and professional manner.
I would recommend taking a look at what Humana has to offer.”
-
Richard says:
“individuals are prohibited. Resume editing
My wife and I both had part D coverage last year through humana. When the 2011 update book came out it was next to impossible to figure out what if any changes would affect our prescription expenses.
So I called humana customer service. Went through all of our prescriptions one by one with the agent and was told only one of our perscriptions was changing. One of my wifes was moving from tier 1 to tier 2 changeing the cost of that prescription from $7.00 to $40.00. Come January What a surprise we got when we went to pick up our prescriptions.
The truth was the exact opposite of what we were told. For each of us only 1 prescription was staying the same. so in total 2 prescriptions stayed were they were on tier 1 they other 9 were moved from tier 1 to tier 2 meaning a $40.00 copay for each of those 7 medications.
Basically the Humana Agent out and out lied to keep us paying for insurance with them. now we pay them a total of 86.00 a month for prescription insurance and they cover about $70.00 of our prescription costs. When your on SSD income is limited enough without the people who are supposed to be helping you lying to you and adding to your cost of living expenses.
When I Filed a complaint with Medicare about this a Humana agent called us trying to tell us nothing had changed in the co-pays. Their only answer was to give us a phone number our Doctors could call an petition for a tier exemption. I think you all know pretty much were that one is going. Now the question we are facing is do we give up prescriptions and suffer the consequences or do we give up eating.”
-
Milan Kadlec says:
“When my doctor told me that the insurance companies are the main driver behind the ever increasing costs of prescriptions drugs, I did not believe him. I always thought it was the pharmaceutical companies, until most recent experience with Humana’s Medicare Part D insurance.
For example, Benicare all of the sudden costs something like $145 from $80 last year and, I believe, $40 the year before. Humana is selling like crazy so called generic equivalents.
Dorzolamide, a generic drug to Toprol (eye drops), cost last year $8, this year it is s $39, almost 400% more.
Come on insurance companies.”
-
tony valatkas says:
“I purchased the Humana medicare advantage program in Oct 2011. Shortly after, this plan implemented a large rate increase and-and even larger benefit reduction for 2012. Talk about bait and switch! I have since moved to another carrier for 2012.
My latest problem w/ humana is that in November 2011 I took advantage of the “”welcome to medicare”” free physical exam thru their provider. MY CLAIM FOR A PSA EXAM (PROSTATE SCREENING) WAS DENIED, EVEN THOUGH IT IS A COVERED BENEFIT BY BOTH MEDICARE AND HUMANA. I am still arguing w/ humana to reverse their decision.”
-
sara says:
“I am responding to Richard, as far as the price of your medications going up in price, because of the tier levels, sorry to bust your bubble, but humana does not control the price, Humana follows Medicare..
So with that being said you should be directing your anger at Medicare for what they are willing to pay..and far as a tier exception, it is a little more to it than just asking.”
-
lolo says:
Stay away from this Health Insurance. They love to deny the coverage of each new medication that your doctor prescribes. Does not matter if the medication costs a lot or not. Awful insurance! I switched to another plan last week.
-
JimHeston says:
The company can’t get my billing straightened out . Now there threatening to drop me even though I’m a month ahead.
-
Belinda says:
“Billing issues are still unresolved. Humana has deducted a little over 3 months of monthly premiums from my account due to a so-called billing error. I have been in a battle with Humana attempting to have my account refunded.
It has been over one week, still no refund. They are refusing to return my money in a timely manner. I have been denied every opportunity to speak with a supervisor which I find very strange. full moon;)”
-
Patricia Martin says:
“This is the worst company ever. They sent a denial letter on my RA medication. I called and asked about this and was told this was a formality and everything was fine and the medication be shipped as scheduled. Not true. The medication was not shipped and was told they needed more info from my Provider, which I immediately had faxed over.
Called 3 days later to make sure they had received everything and was transferred to the menu 3 times instead of a human. Finally found someone who actually could give me a reference number and was told to check back in 7 days. 10 minutes later someone else called to tell me my medication was denied. Asked her how old was the info she was giving me and was told it was dated 2 weeks prior. Gave her her the reference number and she was able to repeat the current info.
These people are the most incompetent bunch I’ve ever had to deal with.”
-
DS says:
“Terrible!!!! Major billing error on their part – I even have proof, that I printed from their website that I paid, and they said sorry, it was not paid. They said I would have to start all over and guess what the premium is 2 times higher now. Funny, how they could benefit from this.
There was only one rep who was even remotely nice and each time I called I had to wait on hold for 30 minutes before even speaking to a person. Then, today after a 2-hour ordeal on the phone – I am told they dropped my insurance and it can’t be reinstated.
I am just shocked!!! I even have the proof that I paid it from their website! CRAZY!!!!”
-
Virginia Welch says:
“Over my many years of health insurance, I have yet to find an insurance that tops this. Yes, I am a retired nurse who has worked in the medical field on the hospital floor and in an office. Because the hospitals changed insurance every few years, I was covered by whomever the hospitals went with.
My health has its ups and downs, and I have yet to complain about the cost of a procedure. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I have had no problem with them about the bills or leaving me with no or a very small percentage to pay.”
-
Kate Monroe says:
“Just got Humana a few months ago before all this health care reform kicked in. I was assured that the changes would not affect my membership or cause issue when I needed to use it. I had never received my insurance card in the mail, (though I had called 4 times and waited through menus to talk to a person every time) and was told it would be available online. It still wasn’t there, and though I continued to call, I wasn’t too worried until I discovered I needed it to consult a specialist about a health issue.
When I called to find out about my cards so I could go see the specialist about some nerve damage in my foot, they informed me I was not a member. Even though they have documentation on their website (and I from my checking account) that there was no issue withdrawing over a total of $1500 since I ‘joined’, I made sure they gave me my card and policy numbers/member numbers right then over the phone. It took a week and a half and two more phone calls for the cards to be posted on my portal that I had had access to for 4 months.
But it gets better; some of the doctors that are ‘approved’ in the network don’t exist or have never heard of Humana. I need to have surgery on a pre-existing condition due to an injury incurred over 8 years ago in my foot. I asked multiple Humana representatives if this could be an issue and they assured me would not and “”anything preexisting will be 100% covered.”” When it came down to it, they are refusing to pay for any of the surgery or recovery medications, even though it will meet the requirements of their deductible and I was assured it would not be a problem for them.
Just avoid this monstrosity of a company as a whole. I’ve never been compelled to write a review about bad service before, but I feel like the world should be warned. Don’t spend your precious money for insurance here…I assure you, they will try to take your money and leave you without the care they ‘guarantee’ or the peace of mind you desire when acquiring insurance.
Don’t do it.”
-
Rachel Reich says:
“The Humana one plan is junk. Do not give them your bank account information, they will keep pulling random charges out of your account. I would give this plan negative stars if possible.
I enrolled in this plan through e-health insurance and was not informed of some of the basics. First, I went to get my teeth cleaned at my regular dentist only to be informed after that Humana One would not cover the basic cost of cleaning my teeth because I was outside of the network area that they covered.
When talking to the insurance rep I had been assured that they would pay this cost or else I would not have selected them. After being charged an additional $54 enrollment fee on top of the $20 I had to pay monthly,I found that I could not cancel the contract because I had signed a one year agreement.
Upon attempting to terminate after one year because they had automatically re-enrolled me for another year without my permission, I was charged a $21 cancellation fee, of which I was not informed.
All in all one giant rip off.”
-
Wendy Robinson says:
“WHERE DO I BEGIN!!!! I am so frustrated with Humana, it’s not even funny!
This is my biggest beef with them…when we signed up with Humana, we added a rider called A Supplemental Accident Benefit. So for and extra $69 month, any accident related injury to any of my family, no limit on injuries…this benefit would pay up to $1000 of medical expenses. ANYTHING RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT…UP TO $1000.
Well, within the past year, I have noticed that this benefit has not been applied like it should have been! I’d been on the phone for hours with Humana, trying to straighten things out…mailing letters and documents proving their mistake!
They are very hard to work with, constantly on hold, constantly being transferred…and never getting a phone call back or letter! I’ve had multiple health insurance companies…and by far, this is the worst one!
We are switching insurance companies next week! DON’T SIGN UP WITH HUMANA! THEY NEED TO HAVE A MEETING AND EITHER GET IT TOGETHER OR CLOSE DOWN!”
-
Steve says:
Stay away from all Managed Care plans including Humana. They are designed to manage your money into their pockets. Many patients go from the Primary care office directly to Hospice care skipping the hospital or any much-needed test/procedures. Drs/Insurance companies profit from denying you medical care.
-
Roberto Martin (Tato) says:
“This happens to be one of the worst plans.
HUMANA promises to take care of patients’ needs until the time comes to do good on their promises. My wife needs urgent surgery and the doctors have ordered lab work and radiology tests, and HUMANA does not want to pay. What’s the sense of having insurance if you can’t use it?
Come on gentlemen, what happened to your reputation? Live up to your promises. I hope you respond positively. Otherwise, I would be forced to change plans.”
kan 
“It’s been often said that Health Insurance (or any type of insurance) is all the same UNTIL you actually have to use it. I personally have HumanaOne insurance in Florida and couldn’t be happier with it. Not only is it one of the cheaper companies as far as premiums go in Florida but it also seems to be one of the best.
I applied and was approved for my insurance the same day. And I know for a fact that they do offer coverage for certain minor pre-existing conditions.
Humana used to be known in the 90’s for have lower grade coverage in FL and I researched this before applying. It seems that back then there were only an HMO company and did not have a solid network. Now days, they are a full PPO company offering a huge network of Doctors and hospitals. I have been able to travel around the country and still find doctors that will cover me IN-NETWORK.
I was very happy with the application process and the communication from the underwriting department. I can honestly say that I am VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER!”