Is anyone who has been on surest willing to share their experience? I am highly considering it given the increased costs for the other options
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Ive had it for several years. Billing is very inconsistent and I still haven't resolved billing issues from last year. Their customer service has no idea what they're doing, youre usually on the phone with them for hours at a time going from person to person. I still cant get them to respond to my inquiries from over 2 months ago.....
I have Surest and it's been interesting. If you're in reasonably good health, it's not too bad. But, read the fine print. The low premium may not cover all services or conditions. I had to have surgery this year and had to purchase additional coverage from them at $75 per paycheck on top of the original premium, so it was no savings. Even after buying the additional coverage, getting the surgery approved was an absolute nightmare. I spent the two weeks prior to surgery on the phone trying to get them to approve it. They claimed to escalate my case, but then assigned it to someone who was on vacation. When you call in, you get a different person every time, and none of them have access to the notes made in your previous call. My surgeon finally had to call them and set them straight on the morning of my surgery. It was horrible.
That being said, once the surgery was approved, they were good about paying the bills. They paid promptly, and I never had to deal with any mistakes or unpaid or late bills.
Personally, I wouldn't every use them again, but read through all the fine print, make sure you understand what will be covered and what will need extra coverage. You might also want to go online and check the reviews on them, and check into open complaints on the Better Business Bureau.
I had Bind a couple of years ago and it was a terrible choice for us. United Healthcare is not widely accepted in my area and none of our BCBS doctors were covered. Had to go to the hospital for things like a mammogram instead of the imaging center (which was easier to use). You really need to check your regular doctors and see if they accept it.
I had bind/surest when my kid was hospitalized with sepsis. Ended up in NICU for 15days and I don't think we paid more than a couple thousand total (max out of pocket maybe) on the $120k medical bills. Routine visits, common ailments like pink eye, ear infections or whatever were handled at urgent care usually and I think co-pay was around $20. I thought it was supposed to be higher so I don't know why it was so cheap. I would have stayed on it if I stayed at Medtronic.
It's fine as long as you don't get sick or get in a bad accident.
I had Bind/Surest when I worked at MDT. I’ve since left, but I had zero qualms with Surest. I never needed a surgery of any kind, but I have a chronic health issue and had no problem seeing my specialist every 6 months. If I needed something major like a surgery, it said you just call them and add that to the coverage and your premium price goes up a little bit. I liked the fact that I paid a lower premium until the time came that I would need something more.
Depending on your tax bracket and retirement goals, giving up the ability to use the tax advantaged space allowed to you with the HSA, is a huge downside to surest.
Your situation is going to vary, so read and understand the trade offs, don’t buy the marketing hype of any of the options and do the work to read the plan documents and understand the rules.
I’ve had a good experience with Bind/Surest. They have an app that shows a map with hospitals/clinics in network, and you can search whatever medical service you need and it will show the cost of that service at all the locations. Takes some of the guess work out of how much hospital and clinic visits cost. The only downside is you only have the option to enroll in an FSA instead of an HSA when you elect to go with Surest/Bind.
I bias to having a HSA. But Havnt heard anything bad from peers who signed up with bind.
These days it has became a standard to bash everything without even reading through the pages.
They are a UNH subsidiary and pretty good. Unless you have serious health issues and need Multiple surgeries every year
It was bind. I've had it since starting. Me, wife, three kids. Sick visits at minute clinic or regular doctor are 30-40 out of pocket, no deductible. Maybe if you have recurring medical needs it doesn't make sense but I don't have a single complaint with it.
It's cheap but when you actually need it, it's garbage. I think it's rebranded Bind which was garbage tier. They have a 2.7 star rating on Google review and the latest one from 4 weeks ago starts with "This is the WORST insurance company that I ever elected to have! "
If you care even remotely about your health, I would avoid this trash