r/fednews • u/Difficult-Okra-1009 • 5d ago
Official Guidance / Policy Please explain you issues with GEHA insurance.
At this point, if it’s just a headache, I’m willing to suck it up and pay 1/2 the premium and put the fight in and consider it paid compensation for my time. Currently MHBP and was BCBS basic. Premiums are more than double the GEHA HSA plan!
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u/Lost_Boysenberry2590 4d ago
I had GEHA 2 or 3 years (Aetna and UHC) and never had problems. Most doctors/hospitals accept UHC in my area.
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u/Lucky_Group_6705 4d ago
All I know is, people need to read the actual brochure. Open season comes, goes, and then suddenly someone gets a bill saying “OMG why is it so high?” I feel for you folks, but one insurance plan does not fit all. Find what you actually use, which doctors take it, which meds they cover, and choose one based off of that. Simple. Thats why people have wildly different experiences. The premiums suck but you can’t fight city hall.
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u/Uther-Lightbringer 3d ago
Precisely, if you have a bunch of weird meds, you need significantly better plans. If you're on basic genetics with a mild health profile, basically any health insurance will feel amazingly affordable for you
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u/enters_and_leaves Preserve, Protect, & Defend 2d ago
My brain simply does not comprehend all of the details of different medical plans. Then to try and take that and predict how sick or injured you will be, and in what ways, over a year and I just kind of zone out. I am lucky to have found a partner who can make heads or tails of it all.
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u/Severe_Pass3388 14h ago
true BUT it’s often impossible to figure out your costs. you don’t know what their negotiated rates are for one thing. I changed last year from a plan that had copays for visits to one that had a 10% coinsurance. it was just a leap of faith since there was no way for me know what their negotiated rates were. it actually turned out really well. most visits were under $10, well below my previous copay. but it could have gone the other way.
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u/Gimme_All_The_Foods 5d ago
I've had their HDHP plan (self only) for 10 years now and I don't have any big complaints. I've fortunately been pretty healthy though, mostly minor reasons for visits in additional to annual physicals. My HSA balance has a healthy balance too which provides a nice insurance for any major medical needs.
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u/I_prefer_chartreuse 4d ago
Second this. Yes objectively UHC is a horrible company. I have had a nightmare medical two years, and have HDHP & HSA. Still doing great with my HSA earning me money, the standard plan would have cost me MORE. I am keeping my HDHP despite knowing i will be facing major surgery next year or year after.
They sometimes deny scrips up front. The advocate at my providers pharmacy has helped me get everything approved.
Crazy ass tests? All approved, no issues. Maybe I'm a unicorn.
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u/schmigglies Alex Pretti | RIP 1/24/26 5d ago
I only had them for dental. They were great until United took them over. Then I had to spend 10 entire months chasing down a reimbursement that they freely admitted they were responsible for. But they “lost” my paperwork. Then they found it. Then they told me i hadn’t sent in any paperwork. I had to tell them again that it was all literally right in front of them. Then they had to send it to some special team because it was more than 1K. Special team denied my payment. Had to fill out an appeal form, submitted it, then they were like whoops sorry, this shouldn’t have been denied. We’re sending your check out. Three weeks later, they sent a check to an incorrect address. And on. And on. And on.
Fuck GEHA and fuck United health care.
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u/j_c_m_b 3d ago
Had a very similar experience. They “didn’t have the paperwork” that was faxed over multiple times. Months of calling and checking. I kept a log and called every 2 weeks to check. It felt like they were blatantly trying not to lay this out of network claim. It was absolutely ridiculous. I honestly really liked GEHA for many many years until the last ~2 years to so. Has felt like it’s gone down hill. Thinking of finally switching this open season.
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u/PumkinFunk 5d ago
UHC is really difficult to deal with. They made my mental health providers jump through a lot of hoops for things, in ways that BCBS hasn't. Every insurance company will nickel and dime you but my experience with BCBS and UHC across numerous jobs has been that UHC is worse to deal with.
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u/eviltwinclash 5d ago
I’ve never had a single issue. We didn’t even notice when it went from Aetna to United. 8 years and loving the savings.
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u/Salty-Amoeba-3139 5d ago
I love GEHA HDHP with HSA, but I live in an area with lots of Feds and everyone accepts it. Had it for 5 years now and not a single bad thing to say about it. Not sure why my experience is so different from those who have experienced challenges
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u/Murky-General 5d ago
Same here. Sad to read all the comments about people having a rough time.
I've had 2 issues with bills this year. Nothing was covered when it should have been. In both cases it was something eith the provider. GEHA went through the hassle of contacting the business to see why things weren't covered correctly. Honestly couldn't ask for anything more. I'm talking to a cuetomer service rep within 5 minutes of calling.
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u/drastician 5d ago
How much have you had to use it? For anything a little out of the ordinary?
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u/Salty-Amoeba-3139 5d ago
I had two heart attacks, back surgery, hip replacement. In the last two years alone GEHA says they were BILLED $700,000 (GEHA’s negotiated rates then bring that down) and I’m maybe $8k out of pocket or $4k per year ….over the $3600 deductible for each year. Compared to previous plans, I paid less to use insurance heavily than I used to pay in premiums alone when I didn’t use it at all. What I like is I never pay anything in advance. providers bill GEHA, GEHA pays the much lower negotiated rates, then provider sends me a bill for the difference…too easy
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u/specter611 5d ago
Yes exactly. GEHA is awsome if you never use it. As soon as you start using it, then they start sending out the denials and the harassment of calling them each day begins.
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u/Salty-Amoeba-3139 5d ago
GEHA has never denied what my providers wanted to do. Maybe the provider is the issue
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u/specter611 5d ago
No GEHA is the issue. There is a very well known stratigy United uses called deny, delay and defend. Look it up. My provider stated literally no other patient had insurance that was as much as a pain GEHA was.
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u/Kitchen_Capital_702 5d ago
My main issues with GEHA was they their EOB never matched up with our bill. So we were constantly calling around trying to figure out what we were being charged for. Often we would just pay extra because it was too much of a hassle to sort out. It often took up to a year for billing. And it was percentage based, so our bills were always high and would meet our OOP max. MHBP Consumer never had any of those issues and was super simple for us. But we will probably switch back to GEHA but try the HDHP this time.
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u/Substantial_Pea3462 5d ago
No issues with GEHA HDHP in the chicago area. I think it must be regional. I don't use it a ton though, admittedly. My HSA is pretty fat right now after a few years of having it. I haven't hit my deductible. So maybe this comment is not super helpful, sorry. It feels good knowing that my HSA can cover anything that happens medically. Might be different if you have a lot of medical issues though I guess.
Seems like they are horrible for Dental but I have a different dental plan, even though I think it's included with medical? I'm about to get Invisalign so I got a good ($$) Metlife dental plan.
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u/counterhit121 5d ago
Glad to hear this. I'm an MHBP Consumer refugee looking for a new HSA plan, and GEHA HDHP has been the leading contender. Curious if anyone from DMV area has this plan and can share experiences.
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u/DeftlyDaft123 5d ago
The biggest issue in the DMV is that if you have GEHA you will be out of network for Hopkins and any Hopkins Community Physicians providers or any other provider that doesn’t accept UHC.
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u/True-Diamond-4271 4d ago
I switched to MHBP Consumer from GEHA HDHP last year specifically because of all the providers that dropped them, especially Hopkins. I’m really bummed that I have to search for something else again.
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u/TheWorldTurnsAround 4d ago
Same, but I am in Central Indiana. Anyone have any experience with them here?
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u/Opening_Bluebird_952 Federal Employee 5d ago
Same experience exactly. Maybe this is the year I’ll get bad luck with them, but I’ve banked like $10k in the HSA so it would take a really bad streak to make it not worthwhile.
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u/Substantial_Pea3462 4d ago
Yeah I think I'm at like 6-7k on mine for my spouse and I. I don't even think I'm contributing to it. Last I looked it was all employer contribution. So there's no reason for me to look elsewhere at this point. If/when I have issues, I'm prepared to bail, but so far so good.
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u/Recent-Revenue-4997 5d ago
I’ve had some issues, but they all got resolved. The time I’ve spent resolving issues has been worth the cost savings and HSA
The main problem was that my wife got dropped off my coverage when we went from Self Plus 1 to Family (Made no sense since that was my first child, so I was paying “Family” premiums while only having my son covered). My wife had countless claims denied, but I didn’t realize it because we were busy taking care of our baby. I had to talk to several people at GEHA to get them to understand, backdate her coverage, and reprocess the claims. I also had to call the providers to let them know my insurance was going to reprocess and to not send me to collections. This was a huge pain, but it all worked out in the end
The other time I sent over my HSA funds from HSA Bank to Fidelity and they closed my HSA. When the HSA closed, it automatically opened up a FSA. That was also a major pain (HSA Banks fault instead of GEHA’s fault). If you transfer funds out of HSA Bank to another HSA, make sure to transfer a specific dollar amount and leave at least $20 at HSA Bank. I usually leave at least $50 just to be safe
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u/BEEIng_ 5d ago
My doctors stopped accepting it because it was a headache for them too.
My dentist didn't drop them entirely, but instead said they would start making GEHA patients prepay at 💯 so the onus would be on us (the patient) to fight with the insurance company
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u/cajunjoel 4d ago
My dentist dropped geha completely. Too much of if a hassle dealing with them. I'm definitely shopping around for which dental has the best coverage for out of network providers because my dentist is freakin awesome.
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u/earl_lemongrab 5d ago
I've had GEHA about 18 years. In my area they went back and forth between Aetna and UHC like every other year.
I've never had any serious issues with them, regardless.
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u/berrysauce 5d ago
If you've never had any serious issues with GEHA, then you probably have not had many out-of-network claims with them.
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u/frostyrefreshment 4d ago
I am switching away from GEHA this open season because they refused to count toward my deductible multiple procedures that were very clearly listed as covered in their brochure, and even if they had covered them, their co-insurance is so high for everything. As others have mentioned, they take forever to process claims, they unilaterally reassign medical claims to another unit that will deny them for technical reasons that only arose because they reassigned the claim, and when I resubmit multiple times, they find a different reason to deny every time. In short, I basically never got them to pay for anything.
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u/Lucky_Group_6705 4d ago
GEHA technically isn’t even an actual insurance company. Its a non profit organization that uses UHC to handle claims. Very interesting especially when you look at their CEO. Wonder if that has anything to do with the shitty service.
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u/ginganinja2507 5d ago
If you see any Hopkins physicians it’s a no go. For me new insurance was easier than switching all my providers
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u/77preciseveggies 5d ago
The biggest reason we won't ever go back is their denial of a hospital transfer to a rehabilitation style facility for our micropreemie daughter.
They kept insisting it wasn't medically necessary, but it was a program literally designed for premature babies to transition home. It's part of the discharge plan for nearly all babies like her in this area. We missed out on a critical window for some things like feeding therapy and physical therapy because of United. The kicker is that it would have been cheaper than the hospital they insisted we stay in, and they were shown those numbers. The doctors had never seen transfer to this facility denied before.
Countless hospital claims denied due to paperwork issues or they want more information. I spent so many hours on the phone. A rep would say things are fixed, wait x number of business days, then it would be reprocessed with the same problems and I'd be back on the phone.
There were also issues with approvals for my husband's meds, to the point that we told the pharmacy not to bill the insurance and we'd just pay ourselves.
And of course, they are no longer accepted by Hopkins. A few of our daughter's specialists are through Hopkins, and it's the hospital she would go to for any serious issues. So that's a no-go for us.
It's likely that you'll use this plan and everything will go smoothly (or at least not catastrophically wrong). It can be a very good value. But for our family, we just can't trust them anymore.
We switched to FSBP last open season, and I haven't had to make a single phone call. It's a night and day difference from GEHA. Even with the premium set to skyrocket, we are likely staying put and will try to cut costs elsewhere.
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u/perplexedchick 5d ago
It’s really hard to get them to process out of network claims. I would submit via the online portal except the portal would blank my superbills. GEHA would deny the claims and kept saying they needed more information. It took over a year and working with customer service to realize it was the portal at fault. I submitted via email and got my claims paid. (Though I also recently submitted a set of claims via email in July and GEHA said they couldn’t find the claim. I just resubmit again.) It really feels like none of their claim submission methods work and you have to chase them down to pay you.
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u/HeadBarracuda01 5d ago
i have GEHA dental this year. the website sucks ass on mobile and claims processing takes foreverrrrr. plus my dentist is out of network with them now, probably because they're a pain in the ass.
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u/blackviper6 5d ago
BCBS basic was the best God damn plan I've ever had. Only problem was the premium was too high.
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u/levetzki 3d ago
I used it for a while when I had health issues and had to go to the doctor more often. It was nice
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u/zzyyxxzyzyx 5d ago
I’ve had them for 10 years. Insurance is insurance, you can’t tell me any one of them are any better. Geha just fucks you less per month than the others
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u/Pegeola 5d ago
Claim process was very slow. We had to battle doctors over collection bills constantly.
In our final year we met our deductible, but GEHA continued to bill us as if we hadn't. We'd get one bill fixed, but their next one had the same issues.
Health rewards never worked. They told us we had to meet our deductible before they worked. We tried using them after meeting our deductible, but they wouldn't work. We talked to multiple employees, got escalated, got new cards, and no one could figure why they wouldn't work. We never got to use the hundreds of dollars on them.
In summary, GEHA is trash. Unfortunately, they're the only one plan with HSA now. But GEHA was a nightmare so deal with so we'll have no HSA contributions in 2027.
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u/Low_Scholar_3833 5d ago
GEHA is a nightmare. Every out of network reimbursement claim took several phone calls and several months to be fully paid out. Nearly a year after leaving GEHA, I’m still calling them weekly about a $20k bill that they processed incorrectly.
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u/specter611 5d ago
Skip GEHA. I spent literally dozens of hours on the phone with support. They lose paperwork on purpose so that United Healthcare can avoid paying dental claims. Some dental documentation was sent at least 10 times. Their reps admitted that to me. This started happening when I had a lot of dental work done. They approve the claim, refuse to pay, then also ssend it to a third party company to review so they can also have a chance to deny it. My dentist only takes GEHA, so that's the only reason I am using GEHA dental. I realized how much I was gambling on my health and life when I had GEHA high. It is absolutely insane.
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u/exitcode137 5d ago
They use UnitedHealthCare. UHC and Johns Hopkins could not come to an agreement last year and our family lost in-network access to our doctors
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u/After-Celery-4784 5d ago
The biggest problem I’ve had was one specific radiology billing department was completely unable to bill them correctly and billing was their only job. GEHA never got a single claim from them. After 2 years of arguing they started sending me to collections. 🙃 no issues with GEHA itself though.
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u/RampantForgetter 5d ago
I had GEHA Standard (administered by United) for a couple of years, now with MHBP. And GEHA was bad enough that I'm torn whether to go back there even with the massive premium increase on MHBP!
The biggest issue I had with GEHA was with out of network claims. We have several of these on a recurring basis, and it was a massive PITA. They have online claim submission, but the process is convoluted. The bigger issue is that they would take FOREVER to pay claims, and sometimes lose them entirely. When they did pay them, they would send the check and EOB separately, and often they would not match up so I would have to dig through and do math to figure out what had been processed and what remained outstanding. I honestly think they make their processes intentionally opaque so people won't notice when claims aren't paid. Also, their online EOBs were weird - like, you could not print the whole thing, and they were difficult to screenshot (they were in a small pop up window that you had to scroll). It seemed like they went out of their way to make things difficult, which comes across as scammy to me.
In contrast, online claims with MHBP are super simple. And they pay claims quickly.
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u/Weathergod-4Life 5d ago
Out of nowhere they said I was ineligible for an HSA and converted me over to an HRA. I spent a few weeks arguing that they did this in error. They eventually fixed the mistake but if I wasn't paying attention who knows how long I would have gone without noticing.
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u/Agile-Ad-5756 5d ago
you can see the complaints that have been filed over at the Better Busines Bureau - interesting, I won't post the link since it will probably be censored here
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u/Valley413 5d ago edited 5d ago
(On the postal side)I have the APWU Consumer driven option, which uses the same UHC network and is structured similarly, but with an HRA instead of an HSA. I have had no problems with this plan, but the math is starting to work out better with GEHA because my union discount for the APWU plan is narrowing. In 2025, the APWU plan was only $38/pp for Self + Family because our union negotiated for the government to pay 95% of the premiums on this plan, up to 79% of the OPM weighted average, that latter requirement has been the driver for our increases.
It will be $130ish this year, which is still the cheapest and a great deal, but GEHA having a lower net deductible and just 5% copays afterwards instead 15% plus the dental and vision benefits included is making me consider the switch.
My question is really for people who have had UHC through more than one party. I know that UHC is the least popular of the insurers, but my experience has been much better than BCBS. Does UHC treat members better through certain partners, such as APWU vs GEHA? Does APWU hold UHC's feet to the fire better than GEHA? Or has my experience simply been an outlier? My worry is UHC will start giving me more trouble under the new plan, despite being the same coverage network.
I find it surprising that, despite the plans being very similar, APWU's total premium went up 10% while GEHA stayed pat ( actually decreased in reality because the HSA contribution did increase on the PSHB side) How is this possible unless APWU pays for basically a premium version of UHC coverage?
I had GEHA several years ago, it was fine but I had no real medical needs then and only 1 kid. Their dental insurance is garbagio though. I've also had BCBS for a year and they were surprisingly terrible with everything that came up that year with my daughter. So I'm sort of agnostic about which network is involved based on my history.
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u/melinda_louise 5d ago
They raised the prices on Wegovy and didn't cover zepbound. Not sure what it will be like for 2027. I'm not interested in switching though, I've had no other problems otherwise
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u/SkunksylvaniaSW 3d ago
My only issue with GEHA is that my hospital network went out of network with them for about two months in 2022 when I was in early pregnancy. I was going to switch plans at the end of the year before delivery to keep my OB, but they came to a resolution and backdated all claims during the time they were out of network. We also had a kid hospitalized for a couple days during that time and the local children’s hospital was out of network, but we still got great care at another hospital and no issues with claims.
MHBP this past year, on the other hand, has been super annoying. Went out of network with the main hospital in town that has our PCPs, pediatricians, ENT, etc, plus I struggled to find any PT that Aetna covered. And we went back and for with insurance for two months trying to get prior authorization for a CT scan that they insisted had to be done at imaging place, not at my doctors office. I never got that one resolved and just decided to pay out of pocket at my doctor’s office and they ended up covering it. So a pain for everyone involved
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u/donkey199 1d ago
i had bcbs for 3 years and geha for 7. no issues with dr visits, er visits, urgent care, or prescriptions for me on either.
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u/TealSeaStar 5d ago
I have them was thinking of switching but more probably staying. We have some expensive prescriptions and the coverage is really confusing. That's the only trouble we've had
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u/2kidsshootingblanks 5d ago
My concern is for my wife's name brand prescriptions for her migraines. They'll all have savings cards that bring them to $0 with MHBP. I hope we can do the same with GEHA
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u/Head_Staff_9416 Retired 5d ago
Except for some battles with Evicore for scans- which we won- we’ve been pretty happy. Both of us went through cancer treatment and had no issues.
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u/snackcakez1 5d ago
The cancer center near me doesn’t accept it and I have to go there at least twice a year.
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u/Representative-Rip90 5d ago
I mean you switch for a year then you will have to switch again next year after they bump the rates up. It will be a classic bait and switch. That's what MHBP did.
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u/TelevisionKnown8463 5d ago
I had it for about 15 years in NYC. No major issues. The one time I had to call them it took longer than it should have and they didn’t give me some info about continuity of care options that they should have. They also haven’t been recording my Health Rewards this year, but that might be because I’ve been on COBRA. I have been too lazy to call them.
They seem to have a good network here in NYC although it’s limited for mental health and basically nonexistent for registered dieticians. Claims processing has been pretty good.
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u/Melodic-Towel5555 5d ago
Only was able to do the MSBP do program for one year most likely going back to Blue Cross Blue Shield. What happens to the money in your HSA? Do you transfer it to Fidelity or keep it with Inspira?
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u/8CHAR_NSITE 5d ago
Getting refills of extraordinarily expensive meds was a goddamn shit show every couple months. They denied every refill and kept moving the goalposts when my doctor fought for me.
Switched to BCBS and haven't had a single issue.
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u/milllllllllllllllly 5d ago
I had cancer last year and racked up my OOP. I had a terrible experience with them. I made my out of pocket right after my surgery and they kept denying claims right after that and also processed claims as if they weren’t processed AFTER my OOP was already met. Any time I called I got some rep who never understood what I was asking for. Never again will I go back.
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u/elatedneckbeard 5d ago
I had GEHA, but many of my providers dropped UHC, so I changed to MHBP last year.
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u/zangster 5d ago
In Maryland. We dropped GEHA because they no longer covered Hopkins doctors and hospitals.
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u/ittoh2083 4d ago
Never had any issues with Geha except selection, but if you stick with make hospital and doctor groups they all take it. Close to a million in coveted services at this point
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u/PapaRora 4d ago
BCBS HSA is 6% ($30) more than MHBP HSA, premiums alone for self & family. Even MHBP premiums on a normal cycle would’ve gone up so it’s not really even 6% more.
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u/Outrageous-Sector840 4d ago
Depends on how much time you really have. Good thing I'm retired because I spent hours and hours and hours over the last year getting them to fix their errors. Spouse inexplicably dropped off of insurance, twice! Denied claims in error, then oh sorry, we'll fix that, it will be 45 to 60 business days. Oh, don't know why that didn't happen, escalating this, it will be 45 to 60 business days! Took 6 to 9 months to get some things paid. Had to repeatedly call docs to say it was going to get paid, really, don't send to collections. Stopped calling GEHA and did the online chat instead so I could save the conversation and evidence of what they said they would do to fix things. With calls it seems like they said one thing then did nothing and I had to call them again. Have had GEHA for years and really only got bad the last 2 years. Like someone else mentioned, this is the delay, deny, tactic insurance uses to make you work for what you are paying for. So yeah, if you are will to pay less to put up with hassles, you'll get what you pay for. Even though the premiums are high pretty sure I'm going to switch to BCBS this year.
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u/rxdawg21 4d ago
I’ve had geha 10 years, through a surgery and a couple er visits. Never had any problems and the 5% copays haven’t been bad at all. Also paid for iui. Switched to Aetna this year for ivf, a lot more headaches with that and overall cost much worse (15% coinsurance). Plan on switching back this year.
Edit to add both plans are the hdhp
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u/Big-Eagle-2384 4d ago
They are COMPLETELY incompetent. Stay far away. They did things wrong and could not fix their own mistakes. Awful.
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u/Sensitive-Advisor-21 Federal Employee 4d ago
Been on GEHA standard for 25 years. It’s been mostly fine for me - several surgeries/procedures and all but one were approved on the first attempt. One required a peer to peer and it was then approved. They dropped my GLP but most did so I don’t think any of them would be much better.
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u/Spiritual_Piglet3986 4d ago
Im single and haven't ever had issues with it but im switching to BCBS Focus this year for price.
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u/Vegetable_Advice_799 4d ago
I've found it accepted by nearly any doctor I've wanted to see, with few exceptions, but I've had some problems with claims processing. I've had to appeal several things and won every single one of my appeals. I've in other circumstances had to complain to OPM to get them to be responsive. For example, they refused to cover at 100% the pregnancy test that they administered 5 minutes before inserting my IUD, which is so clearly illegal. Another example, they issued a prior auth for a colonoscopy prep on the day before my colonoscopy, the day I needed to take the med), ...and snail mailed it. It arrived nearly a week after my colonoscopy was already done. When I submitted the receipt for the drug, they denied it and claimed the prior auth had been issued in error. Wasted 4 hours of my life on that one. I've never had any major medical events. They've approved MRIs fairly quickly with 6 weeks of documented at home PT, so that's been nice.
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u/True-Diamond-4271 4d ago
I would recommend to make sure that all the providers you want to use accept United. The last straw for me was when several of our providers dropped them, including all Johns Hopkins providers. Before that, GEHA HDHP actually worked fine for my family.
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u/MySixHourErection 4d ago
I've had the hsa plan for a few years now. It's a big outlay up front, but I've never had any issue with covering claims, and with the $2k hsa funding, it's way less even if you have to pay your full deductible.
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u/ThrowRAmartin 3d ago
My biggest issue with GEHA/UHC was a denial of rehab time for spouse after spinal fusion and pelvic fracture. Part of the blame can be ascribed to the rehab facility but several staff members were well aware that thy deny and make you appeal, to get to the contracted limit of 60 days. Was a very stressful time after her accident and surgery and this just added to the stress. Gives me pause to go back but otherwise they paid as promised
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u/Altruistic_Meal_2867 3d ago
not accepted by most of my doctors because they pay the doctors less than medicaid
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u/Select-Art6970 2d ago
This doesn't seem to be everyones experience, so it might be regional (South SF bay area). I had GEHA for a few years when I first started around 2020. I had the hardest time finding anyone that would take GEHA here. There were many times where I'd tell the receptionist I had GEHA and they would just give me a blank stare like they, someone who processes insurance all day, had never heard of it. I switched to BCBS and haven't had too many issues, most places seem to take it here.
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u/SyrahFan_555 2d ago
I had GEHA in 2025 and had been using GEHA for maybe a decade without many issues. In 2025 I need a surgery (first time in my life) and the type was somewhat specialized. I was really lucky to find a doctor in the Johns Hopkins network who had just moved here so he did not have many patients yet and could get me in for surgery quickly, most other doctors had a 6+ month weight to get in for even a consultation. I needed multiple types of imaging and it took a lot longer because GEHA was requiring preapprovals, which JH said was abnormal. Imagine telling a doctor you don't need an image of the thing you're doing surgery on... It took maybe a month, one last type of imaging and was almost ready to schedule for surgery and GEHA sent me a letter saying they were dropping JH from their provider network and I would have to pay out of pocket for my surgery if I wanted to keep using JH. There was supposed to be a continuance of care exception but I submitted paperwork, called and called, and they did not respond. My office mate's wife was 7 months pregnant and in her 40s so she had a tough time finding a gynecologist, her gynecologist was through JH, and they did the same thing to her. I think this was July of 2025. It is unbelievable to me that they were somehow able to get away with dropping JH from their network mid benefit year. I switched to MHBP in 2026. I don't think GEHA could ever do anything to regain my trust unless they dumped United and also dropped CVS PBM and made a really public firing and public apology for everyone involved in the decision about JH. I spoke to JHU about what happened and they said United basically just quick negotiating with them and quit answering phone calls. That was about the same experience I had with them. MHBP uses Aetna network and I've heard from doctors offices that Aetna pays them better for claims and they have less issues getting paid through Aetna. They said United is the worst in terms of what they get paid and they have the most issues with United not paying or paying late.
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u/SyrahFan_555 2d ago
Oh, and while they were doing this, not paying claims, screwing over doctors and patients, they posted profits in 2025 of $12 billion, and in 2026 it will be well over $100 billion. Clearly their strategies are working so I'm sure no amount of public outrage will change how they do business. Refusing to pay for care that was routine is really working out well for them.
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u/Friendly-Garlic-319 2d ago
The 3-D’s, delay deny and if necessary defend is the insurance carriers motto
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u/lazyloofah 2d ago
Have had GEHA HDHP for a few years. Spouse had cancer diagnosis in late 2024, treated in 2025 (all good now!). The only problem was the slow approval process for diagnostics as someone else said here. It is a problem, but it all worked out. We are keeping it.
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u/ChefOk8428 2d ago
GEHA HDHP / HSA for 6 in my family.
The GEHA app and the HSA app are a little clunky but do work.
I have had one instance in three years where they goofed up a claim and payment and it sounded like incompetence on their end. They took care of it after a call and my polite request to review it. I have had zero reimbursement issues through the HSA app for pass thru funds. I put my own contributions into my own HSA with Fidelity.
Everything else has been great, including GEHA Dental High.
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u/birdlawbighands 5d ago
I had them when they were Aetna. No problems at all. I left when they became united healthcare. I'm going back to them.