Group Health Cooperative
Reviews and Complaints

First time I went to their wonderful clinic, after switching to these folks from Quartz, was after I went to Shopko optical after the exam I found out they arent a GHC provider like Quartz was. GHC does all that in house In otherwords inconveincing you to conveince themselves. So I ended up paying $75 out of pocket for my exam at Shopko which would of been free at GHC. So when checking into GHC their check in desk when there to pick out my frames, which by the way is an half an hour drive accross Madison, I told the people at the desk about it they laughed. Thought it was funny. So today I drove all the way across town again to the same clinic to look at a dark spot on my face that could be skin cancer. I was 10 minutes late because of construction traffic. They told me they have a 9 minute late policy and I needed to reschedule. My nerves were already shot because of the stress of traffic and trying to get there on time. I blew my stack because this place could of tried to work me in when just 10 minutes late. I left 50 minutes before my appointment and was still 10 minutes late. Why am I driving way over there to begin with. Why not an east side Madison location at least. These people are rude and not very well located if I have to drive that far especially for something that is important. I'm losing my healthcare in a month. Probably couldn't get in and probably wouldn't see me anyway after I lost it with these jerks.

As soon as I have a chance at a different insurance, I will jump on it. TERRIBLE MEDICAL BILLING, NURSING (PASSING THE BUCK) AND CUSTOMER SERVICE.
1. Made an appoint for physical, which is preventive services & falls under no co-pay. Doctor wanted to get labs, call in prescriptions, etc, which the billing department qualifies as an office visit, so a co-pay was charged. Disputed it. They revisited and kept the charge explaining all the preventive care topics were on their website (and so nice of billing to provide this AFTER the visit). This information SHOULD OF BEEN PROVIDED AT THE BEGINNING! SNEAKY & DEVIOUS. All for $35. I have to watch my money close & was doing that when the appointment was initially made. GHC MUST BE DESPERATE TO GET EVERY PENNY, EVEN $35, BY "HIDDEN" COSTS THAT THEY SAY ARE ON THE WEBSITE. BTW, you are suppose to ready every thing they put on the website.

2. Separate appointment for a sinus infection that was worse after 10 days. Saw the doctor on day 3 of beginning of unknown sinus infection. Got worse; on day 10, contact clinic via my chart and the nurse whom was taking the my chart messages, said the doctor was out and I needed to contact another doctor. THERE ISN'T ANOTHER DOCTOR COVERING FOR THE DOCTOR THAT IS OUT? ISN'T THAT NORMAL PRATICE AMOUNG MEDICAL DOCTORS? COVERING PATIENTS WHEN ONE DOCTOR IS OUT?

I am very disgusted by GHC and how they are conducting business. Had to switch to GHC, only option at work, but as soon as my partner has benefits, we are jumping ship. Medicare is a better insurance than GHC.

My experience with GHC and Overlake has been negative.

Overall rating: F and I challenge ANY MD and/or PhD to debate me, in a public forum, on my assessment.

Healthcare professionals being highlighted:

William Norris, ripoff
Michael Welsh, Jerk
Dr. Biryani, violated HIPPA
Overlake Mental Hospital, sadistic
Dr. Thom, was more concerned with retiring
Dan Johnson treated me with contempt, good luck in Chicago
Susan Miller, lazy
Dr. Ronald O. Powell PhD, incompetent, sadistic

Their new pharmacy system has people backlogged on their medications for well over a month. First refill took me 3 hours. Second time I ordered online they charged me right away but 3weeks later no medication. Since I'd run out I contacted my doctor and they said I could get it today. After signing in and sitting for over an hour they passed my number by. Finally got them to acknowledge me and now they have to go fill it ... why did my doctor call it in if they do nothing with it? Oh and they're going to charge me again. Then I have to go round and round with their financial department to get the first charged reversed. My doctor said they didn't even have a record of the first request. These people are beyond negligent. You get a new system that impacts thousands and thousands of people for weeks on end, people are running out of medications and still can't get what they need. Guess all the adverse side effects of lack of medication will lead to more doctors bills ...

Be aware of their lousy coverage!
As a COBRA alternative, I signed up for a GroupHealth plan. I then discovered that pharmacies are not accepting the insurance and I had to move prescriptions to a GroupHealth Pharmacy. This wasn't worst part, but when I went to pickup my medication, I was told that GroupHealth does not cover most medications. For my prescription, I was asked to pay ~$4, 000 out of pocket! And this would be every 30 days!
I reviewed my COBRA paperwork and was lucky to be within the grace period to activate my previous employer insurance plan through COBRA. So I cancelled the GroupHealth insurance and asked for the last month's payment back which was already sent. It's been 4 weeks now and still have not received a refund. Instead, they keep sending offers for health insurance.
What a pain in the a...

Group Health is the absolute worst. I went to Urgent care for severe abdominal pain that had me bent over and crying. After the Triage nurse saw me, she dismissed me like I was over reacting about my pain, told me the wait would be long because they were busy. 2 1/2 hours later, after many patients had been called before me, even patients who had arrived after me (and they said they see by urgency, not arrival order, and I was the only one in the room in tears) I still hadn't been called in to be seen by a doctor, and when I asked the receptionist how much longer the wait would be, I found out, the triage nurse forgot to move my name to the waitlist to be seen by a doctor.

When I finally was seen, the doctor ran multiple tests, one which came out positive for an infection a few days later, but I was never called by anyone at Group Health about this test result to be notified! I found out from public health who had called to make sure everything had been taken care of. When I told her Group Health never told me about the test result, she was pretty upset. And if public health never called me, I probably would have never found out!

When group health finally prescribed me antibiotics for the infection, they told me they wanted me to have a follow up appointment over the phone with a doctor and set me up with a telephone appointment. The doctor never called... As it turns out, they scheduled me for an in office visit after they specifically told me it would be over the phone... I called the doctors office, the receptionist, who notified me of this error, put me through to the doctors care team. They never answered the phone, the office ended up closing, and the call line hung up on me...
So I called the 24 hour phone number and the receptionist who answered told me I could not speak to anyone because it was not an urgent matter...

EVERYTHING that Group Health has done, they have messed up some how. I've been with Kaiser all my life and have not once had a problem. But every interaction Ive had with Group Health has been messed up in one way or another by them (and I've only started using them this month). Some doctors and nurses I have talked to have been wonderful and helpful, but overall, their system sucks, and at this point I am just pissed off.

On 11/5/16 I reordered my prescription refills online. I notice the price was $60, I am on Medicare & have medicare GHC Essential. I went online to my checking account and it reflected GHC debit hold $78. So I called the pharmacy and the tech said she would cancel my order and reorder it. Then on 11/10/16 $17.86 was taken from my checking account. Today, 11/15/16 my checking account reflected that $17.86 was redeposited into my account. So now I am wondering if I am going to get my 2 prescription refills. This situation has made my anxiety go sky high. I have 3 days of my high cholesterol and high blood pressure medication left.
My complaint is that the pharmacy is messing with my money and I don't know if I am getting my refills

I went to GH 4/2014, healthy, with a question on a mammogram. I am leaving, with huge medical problems. They stated I had fake cancer, and started to treat me for the fake cancer. First three surgeries, they could not get it all supposedly even though the cancer was half the size of a pea. They medically restrained me by taken away my guide dog and my cane and then lied and said they put wires in me, which was false. They preformed two surgeries on me, with consent forms, that I wrote across them, I am legally blind and can not read, and no one read these to me, yet they did surgery anyway. I then started chemo, got really sick but no doctor would return a phone call. I ended up in hospital where they said I had pnuemonia, which was a misdiagnosis, I had blood clots in my lungs, from the chemo for the fake cancer I did not have. They then started radiation on me, which caused radiation poison, which in turn caused 4 pnuemonias, lung infections, asthma, dermatitis, breast infections, I was put on Walfrin which they refused to monitor and steriods, which caused more infections, demititis, and a breast infection. As well as diabetis and 40 pounds. Finally, Jan 2016 I thought I had turned the round, with no help from group health, I started to lose the 40 pounds, my ac1 went from8.7 to 7.1. Not even a good job from the doctors who could not tell me how to do this and wanted me on insulin instead. Which I don't even need. Anyway, my seizure meds that for 50 years have been stable, they changed them, to newer once. Causing many symptoms, hallucinations, uncontrolled behaviors, suicidal ideation, tightness in chest, red and purple marks, hives and other things, which was all ignored my two doctors who refused to put that this means allergic to meds. While this was going on one of the doctors told me a lie that her emails where private and to write to her about how I was feeling, which I did, anyone and everyone in GH can read these emails they are not private and become part of my chart. To make it worse, the chart, my chart now has notes from the doctor, including where her daughter goes to school Charles wright academy, that she is 14 years old, that she has a son, who is 28 and bipolar, and her 84 year old husband has dementia. Yes in my chart is all ther names. I also know when and where she is going when she goes away, even what airport, what city and what time, all writing in my chart. Also that she is atheiest and she nursed her daughter until age 5, during kindergarten. Do you want this much about your daughter written in someone else's supposedly private chart that everyone I. GH can read. This is group death and I don't want it anymore.

Suddenly our family doctor of more than 20 years is not receiving payment for his services to us from group health - His referrals for other care we may need are not being approved - The prescriptions he writes for us( with the exception of wound care supplies, urology supplies, ostomy supplies and incontinence products thru Byram Healthcare ) are no longer covered !
What the Heck is up with this ?

My name is Cheryl Dickerson I am the wife of Thomas Garnett we are patients of Dr. Seth Scott, I have been repeated brought to his attention that I am not allowed to discuss or give information in regards to his welfare.
Just a month ago Dr.Scott was refusing to allow a pain med for Mr. Garnett of hydrocond for his arthritic spine and lower back that he only get's once every 30 days.
When the request for refill was done through the Olympia Group Health pharmacy I went to pick up was informed he could have it do too the fact he had no notations of see the Olympia Orthopedic referral that was order some months ago. With the holidays and we were hit with a horrible medical issue our granddaughter fell ill at school was rush to hospital were she need to have heart surgery as soon as possible, now is private information I had to give to Dr.Scott nurse.
Under the situation with the Olympia Orthopedic we had time to get the appointment but it had lapsed so this refusal by Dr.Scott made me rush a appointment for the Orthopedic Dr. Haplin in order for him to release his med's. Now this is just stressing me more because I cannot take of my own health issue with having these stumbling blocks all the time.
So on Monday 3-14-16 Mr. Garnett has two MRI's to be done because on the day of his appointment Dr. Halpin found that he has arthritis in his neck and the lower disc in his back is causing numbness all down his left leg. When we started with Group Health I had submit the Power of Attorney to give me credence over his welfare, I call for a refill of his Ned's yesterday and stayed on hold for 20 minutes to get a nurse in his office to and the phone. Finally the systems advise no one is answer call back later! I sent a email to Dr. Scott and I do not know if he will respond or order the refill till tomorrow when I contact the pharmacy.
Sincerely yours,
Cheryl Dickerson ID [protected] Group Health
Thomas William Garnett ID [protected]
email:[protected]@yahoo.com
[protected] home

PLEASE SAVE YOUR MONEY! I was in a car accident and suffer from post concussion symptoms. I have had staff constantly minimize my symptoms and play crazy making mind games regarding the expectations of test results and treatment plan. I recently had an MRI and the machine was vibrating so intensely at one point of the test I began to get nauseated and felt as if I was going to vomit. I called for the radiologist and he came over and said "you are not feeling any vibrations" you cant feel the test, if there was vibration the images would be inaccurate. I disagreed and showed him with my hand how there was in fact vibration of my head and making me ill. Now I question question the validity of their test result since he put it that way, and who knows when their machine was serviced and how old it is. I in fact googled it after the appointment and MRI machines can and do vibrate! They will not give me a referral outside of Group health, even at my expense to get a second opinion despite me asking several times.They constantly say they have never heard of my symptoms.. for instance silent migraines with or without pain. This was news to them! Unfortunately I cant unenroll until March because its through my employer.

I also had two family members with late diagnosis of cancer ending in stage 4. They constantly reported symptoms, but Group Health dismissed them and kept saying it was psychological. I will be leaving and getting retested and receiving proper treatment. Run, fast with your health...

Don't ever go to Group Health if you value your life or your families. I have never encountered a more disorganized unprofessional group of people in my life. My husband went in to see them and they ordered all kinds of tests. Came up with some bolonga about how sick he was. They then reordered the same tests again and came back with totally different results. The lines are always long even if you have an appointment. The Doctors are inexperienced. My doctor recently finished her internship. The staff says many changes are occurring do to cut costs. They seem like highly stressed health care workers, like when you finish up a long shift and can't wait to get out of there. The billing department can't get anything correct. My friend Rosie was build for a surgery that she did not have. I would not like to go under anesthesia and hope they get everything right. Truly a scary place to have to go. We are changing back to our original provider as soon as we can.

My wife obtained Group Health via her work several months ago, but only recently used it because I carry her under my insurance. She's in the middle of passing a kidney stone, which everyone knows is quite painful. Yesterday her urologist orders a CT scan to determine where the stone is. Since she now has Group Health, they listed that as the primary and told her she must use it. They won't cover the procedure. She actually got an email from her urologist essentially firing her as a patient . . . just because she has Group Health. And our internist is out of their network as well. Livid doesn't even come close to describing how we feel.

Group Health Cooperative is unethical in that they post a list of physicians who have restricted status. In reality they offer junior physicians who are dangerous because of their lack of experience. Group Health does not let you know about the restricted status until it's too late. Group Health list of restricted physicians will include an asterisk by their names, and the asterisk refers to a statement that says: “Providers and care sites designated with an asterisk have restrictions on their services and may only be used under limited circumstances […]” Apparently, then, these providers are in-network but still restricted. This is unethical. The State of Washington Insurance Commissioner is reviewing this practice.

Group Health Cooperative is unethical in that they post a list of physicians who have restricted status. In reality they offer junior physicians who are dangerous because of their lack of experience. Group Health does not let you know about the restricted status until it's too late. Group Health list of restricted physicians will include an asterisk by their names, and the asterisk refers to a statement that says: “Providers and care sites designated with an asterisk have restrictions on their services and may only be used under limited circumstances […]” Apparently, then, these providers are in-network but still restricted. This is unethical.

group health gives poor health care. complanied multiple times goes no ware.. i have sleep apnea which is life threating and i still havent talked to a doctor yet and its been 9 months but they say a physican asst. is as good as a doctor and they havent followed up with me sense my sleep study... which was 6 months ago... i get the impression they are trying to kill me off instead of helping me...

My father just recently passed away at Swedith Cherry Hill from a massive stroke. Afterward, my mother paid all the insurance bills, but realized after about 2 months that she had met her insurance top end and had overpaid by 1200.00. Calling Group Health, they accepted the mistake, but never apologized and never did any sort of audit to make sure they were billing correctly. In other words, Group Health would have kept 1200.00 of my mother's money if she had not discovered this by herself. This is unforgivable.

I've had Group Health coverage for about 6 months. I went in recently and was recommended a liver ultrasound by my doctor, who promised that the cost would only be my $30 co-pay. I asked twice to make sure that was the case. I got a bill recently for nearly $400. I have called, contested and filed compliants with the WA Insurance Commission. It hasn't gotten me anywhere. I'm stuck with a bill I was promised didn't exist. They are completely unwilling to work with me, rather they see me as a dollar sign only. Do not trust them, even their doctors lie. Check and recheck, then get everything they say in writing. If you have a choice, DO NOT chose them as your provider. You will not be happy.