Federal open season BCBS Basic vs. Geha Standard or HIgh

[Anonymous]

It seems like BCBS fees keep increasing every year. I have had them for the past 6 years. Do you think it's work switching to GEHA?
If you have Geha and are happy, your feedback is appreciated. or If you have switched from BCBS, were you satisfied..

[Anonymous]

We switched from BCBS to Carefirst (the Blue Cross "HMO") a couple years back because I got tired of paying so many out of pocket costs. Saving soooo much money now. All those lab fees and copays under BCBS? Most are just free now. And we see all the same doctors we saw under BCBS; they are all in-network.

The HMO label had always thrown me off, but it is no different than when we had the FFS/PPO plan....except it is cheaper!

Good luck to you, OP.

[Anonymous]

Last year I switched from Standard BCBS to Aetna high deductatable plan with HSA and love it- I stayed within the HSA limit (healthy no major heath incidents this past year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched from BCBS to Carefirst (the Blue Cross "HMO") a couple years back because I got tired of paying so many out of pocket costs. Saving soooo much money now. All those lab fees and copays under BCBS? Most are just free now. And we see all the same doctors we saw under BCBS; they are all in-network.

The HMO label had always thrown me off, but it is no different than when we had the FFS/PPO plan....except it is cheaper!

Good luck to you, OP.

Do you need a referral to see a specialist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from BCBS to Carefirst (the Blue Cross "HMO") a couple years back because I got tired of paying so many out of pocket costs. Saving soooo much money now. All those lab fees and copays under BCBS? Most are just free now. And we see all the same doctors we saw under BCBS; they are all in-network.

The HMO label had always thrown me off, but it is no different than when we had the FFS/PPO plan....except it is cheaper!

Good luck to you, OP.

Do you need a referral to see a specialist?

Nope. I was always very nervous about that at first, because my primary care physician has ridiculously few office hours. But apparently the CareFirst for feds (I think it's called Healthy Blue 2.0--there are too many damn names for this one plan!) does NOT require referrals, so long as the specialist is within the CareFirst plan. And our orthopedist and dermatologists were covered, so no referrals needed.

[Anonymous]

I learned yesterday that Caremark administers the Rx program for Carefirst. I called them yesterday to learn about coverage for certain drugs and their computers were down. They told me to call back in an hour. Thinking I will just skip this plan as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like BCBS fees keep increasing every year. I have had them for the past 6 years. Do you think it's work switching to GEHA?
If you have Geha and are happy, your feedback is appreciated. or If you have switched from BCBS, were you satisfied..

We switched from BCBS basic to GEHA standard a couple of years ago because we wanted to go with an out of network provider for childbirth. GEHA is cheaper for premiums and so far has paid more than BCBS basic used to. They are a pain though, I feel like they will pay almost anything, but you often have to call to complain and challenge their original denial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I learned yesterday that Caremark administers the Rx program for Carefirst. I called them yesterday to learn about coverage for certain drugs and their computers were down. They told me to call back in an hour. Thinking I will just skip this plan as a whole.

Caremark is terrible. They have screwed up many of my orders through the years and they never take responsibility. Their "customer service" is a joke. They could not care less.