Sidecar HealthReviews of sidecarhealth.com

They randomly change benefit amounts without notice. Making it hard to properly plan care. My medicine changed randomly despite being the same cost for first 8 months of the year. Losing trust in this insurer. Hoping to be proven wrong but this among other changes and premium increases, hard to seek to stay with them. They simply reply “they review their benefit amounts and make changes based on their costs”. But still can’t explain why they feel no need to warn insurers.

This is horrible coverage. They will low ball every procedure and appointment. They will review a good faith estimate, which takes 5-30 business days. In my case, I was told to cancel a procedure because it was outside of their budget. They promised to supply a list of options that would be more cost effective, however at the last minute claimed they could not find any options. I was directed to stick with the appointment they told me to cancel. Which delayed the appointment by almost a month. If your company goes with this coverage, decline it or find another job. I’d rather have no coverage than have this scam.

In theory it is great, but that is only in theory. Just make sure to do all the work for them, obtain itemized receipts and upload said receipts. Then they will deny you even when their literature says it is covered. Once you call them out and submit said literature from their company saying it is approved, they will still deny you. But at least they said sorry. Not the fault of the employees. Just more business majors making medical decisions to line their pockets.

I’m not understanding why I haven’t received my reimbursement from Sidecar now that I no longer work for the company I was insured through

This is not traditional insurance, it's really not insurance at all. It's a matter of wether they decide to cover an expense or not. Usually not. The only thing you can count on with them is taking your payment every month. Poor communication, payment and service. Worst insurance I've had in over 50 years

I’ve had several other insurance before this is by far the worst one I have ever had by all means stay away from them even if you have to pay more money for other insurance, they are useless

Sidecar health should be clown car health. Also I would give it 0 stars if possible. It is a high deductible plan that tries to operate in a new way in an old system that doesn’t work. First if you need anything beyond a normal doctors visit or prescription be prepared to start getting frustrated. One great example - they actually told me paying my deductible was a benefit - also the maximum out of pocket cost has a big * next to it. Why - because if your provider charges more than the benefit amount that is an excess charge and does not count toward your deductible. So excess charges are much greater than the maximum out of pocket so be prepared. Next up good luck trying to explain Sidecar to anyone in the healthcare industry 1- they’ve never heard of it and when you explain that you don’t have an insurance card to give them because you are paying cash. Here is the response you get - oh so you don’t have insurance and your self pay. We’ll sorta, by they way they don’t have networks, but do have networks. They have certain providers that are direct billers kinds like traditional insurance. So you have this constant back and forth with providers like you have insurance or don’t have insurance. It’s mind numbing to say the least. Also be prepared to shuttle results back and forth between their preferred providers and your doctor. The lab or imaging benefits they provide mean you most likely won’t be going to the same place to those done. Why does this matter I’ve had to set up accounts with multiple healthcare systems so I could get a test at one and see my doctor at the other. All this takes a lot of time on your part to set up and maintain the information sharing between the two different systems. Then they want you to shop for care. Most providers aren’t set up for you to shop for care to immediately provide you with itemized receipts (with codes) immediately after seeing someone. Those receipts may not be available till the provider puts in their visit summary. That might not even happen that day. Then you have to load all that stuff up to the app - basically doing all the admin stuff for a plan that is a pain to work with and is high deductible low benefit. For example - get an imaging test done- I can’t tell you how many medical codes might be included with one test. There could be a facility fee, a readout fee, the test fee, the technician fee and oh by the way which test. You might use the app the find your proposed test and realize sidecar has six different benefit amounts associated with that test if you search by name. Also you may find there are no providers in your area under the benefit amount. Don’t worry they’ll direct you to the provider 2 hours away. Just for reference I live in an urban area not in rural no where. Also, at least in my area the benefit amounts don’t match any reality as to what the tests actually cost. Ask for the data that they use to give you a benefit amount, which should be publicly available and they refuse to. They talk about transparency and when you try to make them accountable to show how they got their numbers they obfuscate with mumbo jumble. I also found out that one data point can change your benefit amount. I used one doctor in a physicians group. That doctor was $10 under the proposed benefit amounts. I went to use another doctor from a different specialty in that same group, the benefit amount was now lower for the group. Specially I got two cost estimates for some imaging tests. Sidecars app and the customer care team gave me wildly lower costs and benefit amounts for the tests. After I gave them actual cash estimates from the providers. For another test with a preferred provider ( providers they supposedly have data on costs with from previous interactions) they couldn’t provide an estimate on the benefits or costs of the tests. I was finally able to get an estimate from the provider, sent it to Sidecar to see if it was accurate. After waiting three weeks they gave me an answer on the benefits and deductible cost by basically copying and pasting the estimate I gave them. Yet they didn’t break down the actual cost of the test and the benefits they’re providing. Finally, this is quite possibly the worst insurance I’ve ever had. Emergency room visits are your whole deductible how crazy is that! Another people need to be aware of- You are paying up front for everything. It’s true they give you a visa to pay for things, but the way they do payment you could end up owing Sidecar for the care you received. If you don’t pay them on time they cut off your insurance and won’t make payment on services until you settle up with them. Which basically means you don’t have insurance when you go to receive care that you may need at stressful critical times. I don’t know what Sidecar is but it ain’t insurance and it doesn’t relieve the stress of making sure your covered.

Probably the worst service I’ve ever had to use. My job has us use this platform which has been such a mistake on their end. For those who frequent the dermatologist, Sidecar’s whole process is a pain. Their customer service lacks tools to solve any issue and will mark the case as resolved when it’s not. They tell you what you have available to spend on the app but no way to put it towards appointments because no doctor has ever even heard of sidecar. On top of that I’m now getting billed out of pocket to pay the same amount my appointments would be without insurance at all. It’s really a pointless organization. Update to response: It’s amazing to me that you have the time to respond to reviews but not your actual customers on the app. In regards to “guaranteed price” that is untrue and I have screenshots of when I booked a service with a urgent care that stated I’d pay a certain price, when it came time to swipe the card, guess what? The amount was not that amount on the app… there were still more fees. Almost every healthcare facility has no idea what sidecar is and agrees it is a mess of a company.