Viabenefits Reviews 212

If you wonder why your company chose Via Benefits with all its problems, it's because your company wanted to get out of this part of the benefits business. Via comes in with a low bid and they get a lot of business that way. But you get what you pay for. It's not the fault of the customer service people who are poorly trained, Via is looking to spend the least money so they can make the highest profit.

Via Benefits handles Chevron retirees Enrollment in Medicare plans. I went to the website to view the plans and there are no plan. G listed. I went to medicare.gov and there are plan G’s for Texas. I called Via Benefits and was put on hold for 90 minutes+ waiting to speak to a licensed agent. I gave up and tried to signup online as the telephone voice suggests, but no Plan G. There was no email or chat except virtual Assistant to allow me to notify Via Benefits that the website omitted Plan G.

This level of incompetence and inconsideration cannot be accidental. One can almost believe that ViaBenefits’ total inability to meet the needs of its claimants is somehow intentional—perhaps hoping that if they leave us on hold long enough; stonewall our claims for reimbursement; tell us they have no idea who we are after we’ve registered in their system, filled out their forms and scheduled appointments with them—we will go away and they will save their actual customers (i.e. the big companies that hire them) tons of money.

My employer recently discontinued the retiree healthcare benefits they had promised us for life, and outsourced everything to ViaBenefits. I tried to sign up for a new Medicare Advantage Plan with ViaBenefits; I was drawn in by the promise of a $1900/year Health Reimbursement Account, which ViaBenefits said I could use to reimburse myself for my Medicare Part B premiums. I was somewhat dismayed by the negative reviews of ViaBenefits I saw online. I honestly never thought it was possible for one company to accumulate so many one-star reviews on so many websites!

As I learned, Via Benefits’ negative reputation is totally warranted. The literature I received from ViaBenefits and my employer said I had to make a decision by October 15, and then ViaBenefits scheduled my appointment to sign up for October 31! They said to ignore the deadline they had previously given me. They told me to fill out their forms online and then we would have a Zoom meeting on October 31. I painstakingly filled out every form to list every doctor, every prescription…and waited for them to send me the Zoom link. Then they said it would be a phone call, not a Zoom meeting. So I called the number at the appointed time, entered the requested information…and was told they had no idea who I was. Then I waited on hold for 34 minutes. Finally a rep came on, asked me a few questions, and, when I said I was calling to sign up for a plan, said she’d have to transfer me to someone else. I then waited on hold for another 30 minutes.
I gave up. I could really use the $1900/year—who couldn’t? That’s a lot of money for a retiree. But if the stress of trying to get the money they promised me is going to chip away at the number of years I’ll be alive to claim that $1900, I have to ask myself if my health and sanity is worth their abysmal performance. Multiply that $1900/year (and in some cases, more than that) by the number of people they’ve screwed, and perhaps my theory of intent rather than incompetence starts to look pretty accurate. Can’t you do something to intervene on behalf of all of us who have been taken advantage of?

They handle my Health Reimbursement Account for USAA from which I retired. The nit picking of receipts and their acceptance is ridiculous.

It is hard to speak a licensed agent. They give 80 mintutes wait time to call back. When you get the back you won't be connected. It happend 3 days in a row, two time a day. I gave up.
After my negative review a got a call from them saying I will be connected faster. But the same story.

160 minute wait times to talk to an agent to discuss Medicare supplement plans. 2 days in a row. I opted for a callback yesterday but they never called back

Terrible customer service. Their “Benefits Experts” are dumb as doorknobs! They provide DIFFERENT WRONG ANSWERS to simple questions but brag about how much training they’ve had. I don’t understand how my former employer would allow these folks to handle retiree benefits. COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT! TOTALLY USELESS!

Their FSA is a scam. Things that are clearly allowed (and some they have even approved in the past) will come back as needing a receipt later just to try and make it as difficult as possible to actually use your money so that they can pocket anything left at the end of the year.

Terrible customer service. Long hold times. The appointment system is a joke. You are not treated any differently if you have an appointment. Hold times greater than 20 minutes for "customer service". Would not recomend. I have to use this company because my company picked it.

I am a GE retiree . When it comes to dealing with VIA , forget it . Every time I send in a claim it is rejected for a reason that is a "bunch of baloney". I do everything right away , as soon as I get my paper work , which doesn't take long . They will tell me that I am too late ! Please , all of the companies that rely on VIA , need to know the truth about them .

I don't even know where to begin before this turns into a long rant which no one will read anyway. So I'll get to the highlights. I moved from Florida to Georgia. That necessitated dropping my old Medicare Part B Plan (which they did right away) and enrolling in a new one which is valid for Georgia. Simple, right? Nope, a month later and the application to United Health Care is still in "Application Submitted" status. UNC claims they have not received an application from Via Benefits. I've been trying to resolve this over the phone for weeks now. In the meantime, I'm without Medicare Part B - which of course means I may now be faced with a reoccurring lifetime penalty for coverage gap. Cherry on Top? I get a letter from Via Benefits today saying I am no longer eligible for HRA contributions from my employer (I'm retired Lockheed Martin) because I no longer have an account with Via Benefits. How does this even deserve a one star? If it weren't for the fact that Lockheed Martin uses Via Benefits to disperse retiree subsidies to pay for Part B I would have nothing to do with this company. THEY ARE AWFUL!

Honestly, I was going to rate VIA benefits 1-star and the first thing I looked at on the reviews is the 1-star rate. I wasn’t wrong because 91% of us rated them 1-star and most of the complaints are about how the customer service sucks. I have nothing bad to say about the customer service team. My experience was fair, I had a short conversation with one of them and I would say she did a good job taking care of me and my request for help with my HSA. I would have rated her 5 stars for her part. The 1-star is for how VIA benefits imposed large fees to HSA once they turned into an individual account and they are no longer under the terms of the employer. The first thing I noticed on my individual HSA account in its first week was the $3 monthly maintenance fee no matter what the running balance on the account, it’s an HSA, so it should have been free. So I decided to transfer my VIA HSA to my Fidelity Investments HSA which is the best HSA trustee as of now that has not even once charged me a maintenance fee and when they charge fees they only charge by cents. Now the transfer is complete, the first thing I checked is how much the fee VIA benefits took off. They took $25 and called it a transfer fee. What is the use of individual IRA, HSA, and other individual retirement accounts if they’re going to treat it the same way as a normal bank account, we might as well just pay taxes and open a savings account and forget about individual retirement accounts. But hey, there are also plenty of trusted investment banks that don’t charge that much fees or no fees at all, such as Vanguard, Fidelity, Cash App, and more.

I have almost $20,000 in my account. I never attempted to get reimbursed for out of pocket medical or dental expenses until recently so I thought this should be a piece of cake. Not so. After reviewing the process, I obtained the required information from my dentist and submitted my requests, via downloading, and was denied for several. What??? So I reviewed the submissions and resubmitted. Again denied so I sent a letter of explanation and the receipts with the required information. DENIED AGAIN! What the heck??? This is MY MONEY and I should have access to it when substantiating the righteousness of the reimbursement. I see I am one of many who have had the same problem and will report this to UC Retirement Board.

I feel I am being hassled about my money. I provided a detailed receipt of the Dr. Office visit and treatment I had done. The doctor provides a separate detailed receipt for both office visit and treatment and then a overall printout of the total of both. All of the necessary information was provided between those 2 receipts, however, they were not both on one paper, which is supposedly what is being asked of me eventhough I don't have control over this. This is what the doctor office provides and should be sufficient. Let me add they are also short staffed and cannot tailor their receipts to viabenefits every need. At this point if viabenefits has an issue with this, they can be the ones to reach out to the company to verify- not waste my time while I also have a full time job myself trying to do this in-between my own work. This is my money that I put into these treatments, let's not forget that. I do not need to be hassled like this about pettiness, especially when I already uploaded detailed receipts months ago. Just stop.

Horrible company for consumers. They changed my method for reimbursement of health insurance premiums from automatic to "unknown." Representatives LIE constantly when trying to get reimbursements that are legally due to me.
This company needs to be investigated by the SEC, Justice Department, and State AG offices for fraud, deception, and lies.
NO ONE should ever use this firm for HSA.

This is the worst customer service I have ever encountered. I have been trying to get my Health Reimbursement Account activated since it came on line on Jan 1, and five months and eight phone calls later nothing has happened. You cannot contact an expert directly, they promise you activation deadlines that they do not meet, and no one calls you back. I tried to talk to someone in their elevations department for an hour today, only to be told that I would have to call them back again, returning to square one. When I complained they simply cut me off. The University of California needs to find a competent company

I have been trying to get my 2024 payments for premiums for a UHC Medicare Supplement plan for 4 months. They continue to say my policy was denied when it is in effect and my monthly premiums are being deducted. Both my spouse and I are covered as I am a retiree of Alcoa (Arconic). I have never had such a bad experience in my life. Phone calls are like Groundhog Day, you start out with a new person and go over it all over again and nothing ever happens. Emails to their support are forwarded to a parent company - either WTW or Extend Health. You may get a "we see your email" but nothing happens there either. I think this is nothing but a delaying tactic to keep them from paying.

USAA switched to this company in Jan 2024 from Connect. What a PITA. Even when I upload receipts to verify just like I did with Connect, I get automated email saying claim denied or no supporting documentation when the receipts are attached to their receipts section as well as the request for reimbursement. I really hope USAA cancels this contract sooner than later. Lots of unhappy USAA employees.

Terrible service. Send them 'Plain as day' copies of your medical payments and they always deny them until you send them 3 or 4 times. PITA company and I wish 3M would drop them

website has been loading with a pretty picture and nothing else for 25 minutes after i logged in
One of many failure issues terrible for the 5 years i have had to use them
awful awful