MVP Health Care

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Category: Lifestyle

Contact Information
Schenectady, New York, United States

MVP Health Care Reviews

integerless MVP August 12, 2009

MVP has not integrity

I've worked for many large corporations over the years. I would have to rank MVP Health care in Schenectady, NY as one of the worst employers I've ever worked for. They want their employees to work with integrity however they can not follow their own advice.

They have 'employee advocates' who only advocate covering the supervisor's behind while throwing the average worker under the bus.

MVP does offer health insurance benefits to their employees starting on day one of employment, however upon termination they continue to deduct health care premiums from your last pay check even after your health care has been terminated. Payroll will state that they do not prorate the premiums however they do prorate premiums when electing Cobra coverage, meaning you will end up paying twice for the same coverage from the day you terminated until the following month.

Additionally MVP offers a Flex Spending Accounts to their employees. This is a pre-tax deduction from your paycheck into a special account to pay for medical expenses not covered by insurance, such as co-payments, prescription drugs, etc. What MVP does not inform you is that any money left in your Flex Spending Account will be forfeited upon your termination date EVEN if you elect to continue coverage via Cobra AND even though they continue to add YOUR money to their FSA. Additionally MVP will continue deducting YOUR money from your last paycheck into this terminated Flex Spending Account, knowing full well that all monies in the account if forfeited. That amount to a legal term called illegal conversion.

MVP does not provide their employees with ANY sick days separate from vacation days. Vacation and sick days are rolled together into what they call PTO (Personal Time Off) for a total of 16 PTO days if you start at the beginning of the calendar year. The payroll department (upon termination) will tell you that they will subtract any PTO not accrued from your last paycheck. In reality they do not, instead they mail you your last paycheck minus health care premiums, Flex Spending Account deductions, and 401k deductions. Then about a month later from your termination date they send you a nasty letter from the legal department informing you that they want you to reimburse them from the personal time off you used but did not accrue.

When it is all said and done you end up giving your previous employer your hard earned money either through double premiums (if you elect Cobra coverage), through forfeiting monies in your Flex Spending Account AND they have the never to threaten legal action for not reimbursing them for PTO just at a time when you have very little resources and find your self looking for a new job.

NoMVP May 26, 2009

Terrible Service

I have worked for several HMOs, but it was not until I worked at a hospital and got MVP coverage that I found something to dislike about managed care.

MVP is, frankly, the worst run health plan I have ever encountered. Their customer service reps are pretty bad. They are unable to do basic things like run authorizations for visits without there being a problem. They are also underinformed about their products. I would say that 50% of the information they've given me on a call turned out to be wrong. I've been transferred to three different people, each contradicting the last. My tip is to keep getting transferred until you find someone who will give you the truth. I've encountered a couple of these old-timers who will get the problem solved, and usually bash the other reps. It's not that the other reps want to mislead you. It's simply that they have no clue about the answers.

The MVP network is incredibly small. Even the very large hospital network near me balked at it. The providers who do take it are often very wary to process your claim. They almost always want to bill CIGNA instead of MVP because MVP has a reputation for stalling on claims. Providers also don't appreciate the run-around they get on simple questions when calling MVP. I saw a specialist once who was told that he was covered. I got an authorization from MVP and then they called the specialist to say that they screwed up and that my appointment wouldn't be covered. MVP never called me, so I showed up to the appointment and had to pay a $100 cancellation fee rather than the $400 out-of-pocket fee. The provider had never heard of a health plan cancelling an authorization after approving it. That also never happened at HMO worked at over the years. But that's MVP: incomprehensible.

The MVP online provider directory asks you for your Subscriber ID. If you punch it in, it says that you've entered an invalid number. The only option is to manually select your health plan, which has its own problems. My plan is called "PPO Preferred" on my card, but you have choices between MVP PPO Preferred and plain PPO Preferred. Well, it's on an MVP card, so which is it? I called up MVP and they told me that the online directory never actually accepts your subscriber ID (the feature is under development). But they keep it up there. So probably thousands of people type and retype their subscriber ID until they just give up. Solid.

The provider directory also has a tendency to return zero results on the first search. You might go, "What, no pulmonologists in New York City?" Just hit "refresh" a couple times on your browswer. Eventually the hamsters within the MVP web site will return some results for you. Make sure you call them to confirm coverage. Some of the people listed as providers have been dead for a couple years, others have moved, and others have decided to give up on taking MVP.

Also, don't get fooled by the CIGNA logo on your card. It does not cover behavioral health or optometrists. You're not crazy, right, so what''s the big deal? Well, if you have migraines, you'll likely get sent to see a psychiatrist at least once to rule a serotonin deficiency. If there's not an MVP provider (and there's few in their thin directory) near year, you'll be paying out-of-pocket. The same would go if your kid needed counseling or your spouse wanted you to go to marital counseling.