Oscar health insurance?

[kitty_37]

Hi all,
My Cobra will be ending soon, I am 60 and I am in NY state. I am struggling to find an insurer that will allow me to use the hospital near me, I don't mind switching dr. but feel strongly about the hospital. I can choose a reasonably priced OSCAR plan (covers my hospital and current dr) or United Healthcare (very expensive).
I am a little nervous about OSCAR as it is new and I see some poor reviews on reviewer sites, but since it is in NY, NJ, Texas, and California, I wondered if anybody here has customer service or payment issues that would cause them to leave OSCAR>

thanks, i'll need to decide next week.

 

[MBSC]

OSCAR is cutting their NY provider network in half for 2017. You may want to verify your favorite hospital will still be included before renewing next year.

Oscar will cut its network in half for 2017 and will no longer cover many of New York City’s largest health care providers.

The move signals a shift in corporate strategy to focus on a few large health systems, after initially using MagnaCare’s network and offering its customers a broad array of hospitals and doctors.

In 2017, the health plan will cover 20,000 providers, about half as many as it does this year, according to the blog post by Mario Schlosser, Oscar’s co-founder and chief executive. It will include 31 hospitals in its network, down from 77 in 2016. It has agreed to work with Mount Sinai Health System, Montefiore Health System and the Long Island Health Network, which includes 10 hospitals.

Reference: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/articl...-insurer-oscar-to-halve-its-network-next-year

 

[kitty_37]

Ah, thank you for the Crain's article. I am aware of the network changes and will still have two of my three regular drs., and the hospital network that I am happy with. (Long Island). They have let go of some very overblown and over-expanded networks, and retained some excellent ones in NYC and the boros.
I can't go too far wrong as there is another open enrollment in January and I could re-evaluate then. Just curious if anybody has another opinion, especially about their clinical approval process, billing, access etc.

Thanks MBSC

 

[scrabbler1]

I switched to OSCAR at the start of 2016 and have been very happy with them. I had a health issue in 2015 which required a hospital stay in 2015 and I have been seeing 3 specialists along with my PCP, all of whom are in the OSCAR plan.

OSCAR's drug plan has been good, as all of my drugs have had no copay. Their customer service has been good, too. Their monthly premium was lower than BCBS (my previous insurer), even with the big increase slated for 2017. I live on Long Island, like kitty_37.

 

[kitty_37]

Hi scrabbler1
In a site search, I found your comments about Oscar on another thread, and your comments here are helpful as well as experience in the Long Island market.

I am unclear though, was your hospitalization in 2015 under your BCBS? Or after 2016 when you were insured under OSCAR? Or are you saying that they continued your previous providers?

In any case, thanks for the help...I don't know anyone else to ask!

kitty

 

[scrabbler1]

Hi scrabbler1
In a site search, I found your comments about Oscar on another thread, and your comments here are helpful as well as experience in the Long Island market.

I am unclear though, was your hospitalization in 2015 under your BCBS? Or after 2016 when you were insured under OSCAR? Or are you saying that they continued your previous providers?

In any case, thanks for the help...I don't know anyone else to ask!

kitty

My hospitalization in 2015 was while I was insured with BCBS. I changed to OSCAR at the start of 2016, mainly due to BCBS's insistence that I use their mail-order Express Scripts for my prescription drugs and the headache that using ExpressScripts had caused me. OSCAR has no such requirement as long as I use CVS which has a convenient location near where I live, and I have used them before with no problems.

I didn't have to change any doctors I had already when I switched to OSCAR, another huge plus.

 

[kitty_37]

Thanks Scrabbler1, I went ahead and pulled the trigger, that deductible is crazy, but I guess that's they way the business runs these days.

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences! And I hope you are well now and have a healthy year ahead!

Kitty