Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Reviews

I have had Blue Cross Community Medicaid plan for years now, they continue to cancel and change my eye drops. I have a condition that affects my vision, Uveitis. Every time I fill my prescription, it’s a problem with them, they stopped on to give me a cheaper one, and now they have stopped the cheapest one, I am so tired of them playing with my vision. I think I better do some research on other plans, I will keep searching until I am not just a number to subtract from, so disgusting and uncaring.

Anytime I have to reach out via phone, app, or website it is a marathon in frustration and wasted time. It really feels that all forms of contact are purposefully time consuming and ultimately useless to reach any clarity on most anything. Simply looking up a provider to determine if they are in/out of network, etc. is nearly impossible. Instead the query returns anything, but what one was seeking. Healthcare should not be a shell game for the insured.

I think this company is bad. Half of every test and procedure is denied. Even half the medicine is denied. My wife has a lot of problems and they keep denying her medication. They also keep denying any procedures that the doctor sends her to. I don't know what right they have to override a doctor. But my wife's condition is getting worse because of them. So I'm getting a lawyer. They better hope that no significant problems occur because they keep refusing her procedures and medication. This is the worst insurance company I've ever been through.

I’ve had BCBSIL for almost two decades. Over the last 10 years, this insurance company has paid less and less for coverage while charging more for premiums. All of this while their revenues soar. The general public is covering the costs as this insurance company is pulling in the money. In years past, if I had an emergency, I covered the deductible and copay. Now, they won’t pay for anything until you’ve hit the deductible. One ultrasound is costing me around $650, and I had to pay to ask the doctor questions at my annual appointment. It’s getting out of hand.

On March 27, 2025, my wife filled out a form advising Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois that as of April 1, 2025, she is switching her Medicare G supplement to another insurance company due to the high cost of the BCBS plan ($189.90 vs $128). On April 2, 2025, BCBS still withdrew $189.90 from my checking account for the month of April 2025 and have not returned the premium. Nor has BCBS responded to my complaints to the BBB, Illinois Insurance Commissioner, nor the Illinois Attorney General Consumer Affairs Division. BCBS has not even gotten back to me on this issue.

I have had this insurance for a few years now. I have to submit my own claims now because they do not cover specific doctors in my area. The in network doctors are a 45 minute drive away. In addition, they continually remove doctors from the network further isolating my location from good doctors. I've lost my dermatologist as well as my cardiologist. Both of these specialists now require me to drive 45 minutes for treatment. Filing claims is nightmarish. It is easy to do, but then random mistakes seem to be the norm. I spend a lot of time on phone calls resolving mistakes that should never be caught by me. The most recent issue is they charged me for having secondary insurance after 3 years of having them as my provider. They quoted my ex wife's insurance from 3 years prior when we were not divorced. The company is inept.

BC & BS of Illinois deserves less than one star. I have paid their full insurance fee on time, never late, for 25 years. Yes Twenty-five years. No major health problems or procedures, just routine check ups. Last two years they raised fee 4% and next 8% and then 30% for next year! I called to ask why so much. The first Customer Service hung up on me, no answer the next agent. The third call a lady was pleasant but basically told me to go look for another insurance company. I still don't know why a 30% increase in fee. But as a faithful senior I feel taken advantage of and abandoned with no respect or concern for their customer.

This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with Taylor from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois member services for Boeing. She was extremely pleasant. Took the time to talk to me. Explain everything in my benefits and was just a really kind person and I want to take the time to recognize her. I hope this gets back to her. Thank you so much.

THE WORST EVER! BCBC OF IL, but customer service people in place that intentionally give you the run around to discourage members from using their benefits. By asking you to repeat the spelling of your name x 4, and verification of DOB and ID # x's 4... Then some calls are dropped after being on long 20-min holds for cost estimate with billing code provided. Resulting in never getting the information needed. Moving forward, this will be my last year using BCBSIL as a group medical provider.

I have MyBlue Plus- any PCP they assign me is either 1. not taking this insurance 2. no longer at the practice or 3. nowhere near where I live. We are not 3 months into the year and my doctor I chose, is not listed with them according to their customer support people, so I am not stuck with $4k of medical bills. I do not have that money and I cannot see a doctor at all. My prescriptions are running out and that is it. Blue Cross Blue Shield refuses to take accountability. I will be dead shortly because of their inability to actually help. I am paying over $500 a month for insurance I cannot use at all because there are no doctors that accept it.

I am enrolled in the federal employee program. As of 1/1/25, FEP Blue "passively" enrolled all of their customers that had Medicare Part A & B coverage onto their Part D plan. The plan "seems" to cover the same drugs, but actually for the expensive ones, only covers one month. Then you are not covered for those drugs for the rest of the year, which is lousy, but helps them with the $2,000 annual out of pocket limit, which only applies to what is covered. If only a month is covered, the $20,000 for the rest of the year does not apply to the $2,000 cap. Very sneaky! It does not stop there. They did allow her to disenroll, which she did, but they laid a trap for her by not informing Medicare of the disenrollment. This allows them to claim she still has Part D coverage, even though they themselves disenrolled her. They can thus deny coverage of her drugs on the regular plan claiming Medicare Part D (which she no longer has) is the primary.

My Doctor wants me tested for Sleep Apnea. I have ALL of the symptoms and I KNOW I have sleep apnea, but Doctor wants me tested to ensure correct diagnosis and pressure. January 6th I was scheduled for a sleep apnea overnight sleep study. Appointment had been scheduled since November. Blue Cross Illinois calls that morning and denies the treatment plan as "Medically Unnecessary".

This a very incompetent company. They refused to process a payment made on time and cancelled my insurance. I thought I got it straightened out but then received a notice that they cancelled due to member request and not receiving a payment. This is after I paid three months of premiums in January alone. Every phone call with Custom Service was an attempt to divert blame and attention to the marketplace. Then when I had enough and requested to cancel, they claimed they couldn't because the Marketplace did not send them a termination notice every thought BCBS had already cancelled my policy once before.

Had BCBS of Illinois going on second year. Absolutely horrible. IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT CHOOSE INSURANCE THROUGH THIS COMPANY. Prescription coverage excludes many generic drugs in favor of higher cost name brands. Prescriptions are held for review without communication. Drugs recommended by multiple Dr's are denied when none other are available. Example: Reheumatologist and Nephrologist independently recommended and prescribed infusion but BCBS of Illinois denied coverage immediately and never provided specific reasons. Even used patient liaison and both Dr and the liaison all had never seen anything so blatantly denied for general reasons while they cited that they all imagined it was because the drug was expensive so insurance was denying it.

The customer service at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is abysmal. I have been put on hold for long periods of time, only to communicate with someone whose English is questionable at best. Obviously then, the company is trying to save money by outsourcing their call centers to foreign countries. In October of 2024 I received a letter to the effect that my insurance plan would be automatically renewed for 2025 unless I chose to unenroll. But then at the end of December I found out from a customer service agent and an independent insurance broker that my plan was not up for renewal. I had to apply all over again as if I was a brand new customer. My insurance broker submitted the incorrect date of birth, and getting BCBS to update my birthdate to reflect the correct date was a truly daunting task. I was told it had already been taken care of, but then received an email explaining that the update would not go into effect until the first of the next month!

Been a member for 2 months. Have not had 1 good experience. Customer service doesn't know what they're doing or listen (attitude!), often give wrong info. Hate to call them. Been trying to get an Rx approved (had been approved by former carrier & I've been taking) for 2 months. Too much bureaucracy, rules to help BC deny.

I give 1 star as I have to give at least one. Absolutely terrible insurance. My ER co pay is 150, my daughter had an ER visit in September for cough, wheezing and shortness of breath. I ended up having to pay 599 as insurance did not cover any lab work done for covid, flu and RSV. Unfortunately, they only think of how to increase their profit, no concern for doing the minimum to make sure their customers get the health care they deserve without having to pay so much out of pocket. I tried to reach them; they have done everything to make sure it's nearly impossible to get hold of the responsible party. Disgusting.

My plan has been being paid for for over a month and I still have not been mailed an ID card or even given a legitimate member ID at all. I am very sick right now and cannot see a doctor because the plan member ID I was given is not a valid ID.

We have had the Boeing PPO plan for years. There are 4 of us, 2 were kids much of the time. Any provider we’ve sought who participates in insurance panels has been in network. Everything ever denied has gone through once the provider submitted the needed documentation. Customer service is quickly accessed and very helpful.

This company was wonderful up until I had to switch from my employer group plan to COBRA and then it has been nothing but an absolute headache and nightmare. I have spend HOURS on the phone with this company and every single person I talk to tells me something different. I am going on 1 month of communicating with them and they have activated and terminated my insurance multiple times in that time frame claiming they never received the COBRA info. Then I give them the reference number citing the COBRA paperwork was received then they tell me oh you're active. Then I go to try to get a prescription filled, it fails and now they say I am not active and haven't been. Save yourself the headache and do not work with this company specifically if you are planning on utilizing COBRA at any time.

Quite honestly the WORST experience I have ever had. First of all, they call you for a screening and when you call back during business hours they don't bother to answer. And their mailbox is always full so no use there. They picked my primary care provider for me which was 3 hours away. No one in my area accepts this horrible insurance so I have not been able to go anywhere. I would rather have to pay out of pocket than have this horrible insurance. And they don't even bother communicating with you. 0/10 would NEVER recommend to anyone.

I have just been on hold at Blue Cross/Blue Shield for 63 minutes after being transferred twice. They just now came back on phone and said they were now closed for the day. I had already tried using my BC/BS app on my phone and they said my password was wrong after using the same password for the last 5 years. Changed it and still did not work. I called with a question. Tomorrow I will call to cancel with them. There are a lot of Ins companies out there. Great service Blue Cross!!!

For the last two years we have been trying to add GLP 1 coverage to our company so our employees that need it could receive the medication that their DOCTOR's prescribe to them, and BCBS does not even offer a plan for us to add it, Such a disgrace of a company and PRIME THERAPEUTICS is another joke of a company! Only in America does this happen. It's sad!

Do not ever ever get insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield. If you look at my pictures I was denied medication. Not only medication, a head x-ray and other things. If you get this insurance you will be denied everything.

Trash Insurance, we only take it because it's what the job offers. Doesn't cover a THING. And they take out so much SO much a month. Absolutely ridiculous because no one in Florida takes the stupid insurance but lo and behold the company uses your "Illinois" insurance. At least your receptionists and people who work the phone lines are quick. You yourself as an insurance just sucks. Do better. You want people to be healthy right?

Absolutely terrible they cover nothing even with referrals no one takes it. Piece of toilet paper having their insurance truly. It is not good for anything. I have wasted so much time because of them.

I was with Anthem Blue Cross of Illinois for over 12 years. I used to pay annual premiums of around $900. I now pay $1400 every other month, which equals $8400 a year with a $5,000 deductible. My credit card expiration date changed. With no written notice, Blue Cross terminated my insurance in the middle of the year. I tried for thirty minutes on July 5 to talk to a Blue Cross customer service advocate, and I tried to update my payment autocharge expiration date online. I could not get either to work. I went online for health insurance. I now have United Health Care short term insurance for only $800 for six months. Blue Cross overcharges their customers. I do not recommend this company for health insurance.

I cannot begin to express how freaked out I am with the denials I've received for my blood sugar medication and CGM. Because of my diagnosis, I have been denied medication. I've been told by one the reps that her husband passed away the prior year due to blood sugar issues and she can drop dead tomorrow, and has no idea what I'm worried about! Are you kidding me?!? My blood sugar spikes to 370ish in an hour of eating and within 15 minutes of that I'm in the low 30s. But hey I don't need medication nor do I need a monitoring system so I wake up if it drops too low. I can promise next year I will press my employer to avoid BCBS. I am HR...I have a huge pull. If something happens to me over this, I will consult with legal counsel. This is ridiculous and leaves me helpless.

Without going into to much detail if you can choose another Insurance I would don't choose BCBSIL.To begin Blue Cross has very few good doctors in their network and depending on where you live there might not be any. Their Customer Service will get you a lot of apologies, I am sorry you are going through this, I know the system is messed up and that about it, no results and no sense of urgency. If you are healthy and know you will not need any medical help this is the perfect company for you.

Signed up for BCBSIL my blue element plan in January. Seemed beneficial but it is NOT. They recommend that you use teledoc, but teledoc refused to prescribe my medication (not a controlled substance in MY state). Teledoc is also painfully unaware of BCBSIL policies on seeking in person care. Tried to call customer service, unhelpful. Nowhere left to turn but I’m paying for this policy biweekly. YOU SUCK!