Ascension Personalized Care

I signed up for Ascension Personalized Care health insurance for 2023, and I truly regret it. I showed up for a very routine, basic annual wellness visit with my OBGYN in January.

My OBGYN said they couldn't seem to get Ascension to respond to a request for authorization of services and that ALL of their patients who were insured by Ascension were having the exact same issue. Probably not a coincidence. Now, my neurosurgeon has requested that I get an MRI for my back. It's not a frivolous MRI - I haven't had one in a few years, and I've done years of PT, epidural injections, had many X rays, and had surgery in 2019.

This MRI was NOT flippantly ordered on a whim - I have a long-documented history of issues with a disc in my spine. I've had to reschedule this MRI 5 (FIVE) times because Ascension's authorization process is so convoluted. The MRI provider said, "Ascension is the worst. We have a ton of Ascension-insured patients in the same situation as you." I've wasted many, many hours, and I've taken time off work trying to sort out why it's so difficult to get them to authorize this MRI.

As I'm writing this, I've been on hold with Ascension for over two hours. I spoke with a customer service rep in the pre-authorizations department at Ascension about halfway through this phone call. I respectfully and kindly explained the situation to her, (it's not her fault the authorization process has gone to *** so there's no point in me getting angry with her.) Yet she deflected responsibility, made excuses, and kept saying things like "I just don't know, I don't have that information" - I'm thinking, 'you literally work in the authorizations department.

How can you not know?!' She acted like I was wasting her time. Considering I've had nothing but trouble with this company only a couple of months in, and considering all my medical providers have expressed major frustrations with them, I would never recommend Ascension Personalized Care to anyone.

I have had issues with auto pay on premium since my insurance kicked in Jan 2023. My premium was never withdrawn in Jan even though I had set up Auto Pay.

I got a message that my insurance will be cancelled due to premium not paid. I called but the wait time is always hours long and email response is not a response because they don't have anyone to check emails from customers. I regret selecting this insurance through the Marketplace. My CC was charged in March for 2 months and the Auto Pay was disabled without my knowledge on their online portal.

Now moving forward it's May 31st, I see I owe for the month of June but since no premium was withdrawn end of May I'm concerned the same thing will happen again.

I had to reset Auto Pay and will see when a premium will be charged to my CC.
Customer Service is incompetent to put it mildly. If Ascension cannot hire skilled workers then I wonder how they got in at The Healthcare Marketplace as an approved insurance.

My benefits for my plan say that I have a $30 coinsurance fee up to 20 visits a year for my physical therapy. On my 16th visit today I was charged $150 by the rehab.

Plus, there is a $510 outstanding balance. I have tried to get ahold of customer service but have had to hang up because I was on hold for over an hour. To add to the frustration they are only open between 7am and 5pm M-F. I work a full time job and cannot spend hours trying to get through on a phone.

They have no chat feature on the website. When purchasing this health insurance through the Marketplace I put in the prescriptions I currently take and was told that all of them would be covered. I never had a problem doing this before but when I go to the pharmacy a month later I'm told that this plan doesn't cover some of my prescriptions. I contact Ascension and am told that they have another company that handles the prescriptions for them.

And even though my prescription was on that list, and is supposedly covered, it's not covered until I meet my deductible of $2000! I have been to Ascension Seton Hospitals and my PCP is with Ascension Seton and they are great. I had great experiences with them so I thought this health insurance would be the same. I was WRONG.

It's been nothing but a hassle. If I wasn't locked in for a year I would go elsewhere.

When I call customer service, I hold for a minimum of 75 minutes before the call is answered. They told my pharmacy glucose test strips were not covered, although they covered my diabetes meds.

They later changed their minds. I have tried to find a doctor and behavioral health provider by both looking at their provider list and having them email me providers. These lists are moot. Many of the doctors were at urgent care clinics, which of course are not primary care doctors.

Many of the therapists were at a practice where you can only see a therapist if referred by your PCP at the practice, yet the PCPs are not on the provider list. One therapist called me back and told me she does not accept Ascension Personalized Care.

I think Ascension Personalized Care just grabs some names out of the ether to put on their provider lists. I actually suspect they are trying to discourage policyholders from using the insurance, especially in the case of behavioral health.