As a small business owner, I have no dental or extended health coverage. So a while ago, I decided to sign up for a Manulife CoverMe policy.Their policies appear to be priced well. The website is nicely done, and the sign up process is entirely online.
It gives you the feeling that they really have their stuff together.
The problem is that as soon as they get your money, the experience goes sharply downhill.
It looks like they invest all of their funds and effort into marketing and getting people to sign up, but as soon as you need service, you're SOL.
Their claims process is straight out of the 1980's, requiring you to snail mail or fax a sheet you need to fill out by hand. You would think they could have managed some sort of electronic method.
I was able to easily set up automatic payments from my credit card online, but when I needed to cancel these payments, I had to phone twice, send two different faxes, and they still deducted two extra payments after cancellation.
Manulife really needs to work on the overall customer experience before offering a direct, online insurance option. For the time being, I think you're probably better off buying a policy from a competitor, or through one of their resellers.
2 comments:
I suspect that your experience was the result of something odd about your claim. Here's what I got from Manulife directly (I'm a broker):
" Over 90% of all drug claims are electronic. Over 75% of all dental claims are electronic.
Paper submit claims take about 6 business days. "
Exceptions (where they need to review the claim) can mean paper submission.
As a small business owner, I would suggest you make sure of two things. First, ensure you're submitting your premiums to your accountant :). Secondly, if you have coverme, make sure you have their catastrophic coverage.
In fact, even if you don't have health and dental insurance, you should consider their catastrophic coverage as a stand alone plan. It covers no drug costs below $4500, and ALL drug costs above $4500.
Almost all drug plans - including the coverage many people have at work - have a cap. Go ahead, check it out. You'll find a maximum cap on your drug coverage, commonly $2000-$4000. It varies, but the cap is almost certainly there.
Discovering there's a cap by exceeding your drug maximums on your current plan is the wrong time to find out - so go check your policy now.
(I'll have more details on the catastrophic coverage on my website www.cccd.ca in the next month).
All of my dental and drug claims were electronic, but travel and eyewear claims both required paper forms.
Furthermore, there was no way to view any sort of claims history on their website.
As far as I'm concerned, they still have a ways to go to move into the electronic age.
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