AccoladeReviews 

Site is so unresponsive

Accolade is inefficient, ineffective and incompetent as a third party advocate. I had a simple billing issue and it’s been dragged on for over 2 months. I have BCBS of Illinois and subscribers have to go through Accolade for everything. Problem is they don’t know anything so I end up having to advocate for myself. Provider followed instructions on back of my insurance card and billed to the local plan, which is BCBS of California which is not right because they said my coverage lapsed. Accolade was unable to give me the address for them to bill it. They instead said they’d email the address to my Accolade account so I have to download their App and setup an account which didn’t work. So frustrating!!! What a waste of money for the insurance provider to hire Accolade.

- First tried their advice nurse. What a contrast to the knowledgable Anthem Blue Cross advice nurses I had previously been allowed by U of California to use. Person was clearly clueless so I had to go to the doctor instead.
- Needed to find out if I needed a preapproval. Was on hold for 45 minutes. Listened to an endless loop of one song. Clearly trying to get you to hang up. Once I got through to the right person they wanted to read me a commercial about their services. Strange.

I called Accolade to find out if there was a tier one wound care clinic within 50 mile radius of our house. The Accolade representative placed me on hold. She checked for 5 minutes and could not find a clinic. Then she told me she needed to send the request to the request team. She also told me that the research team was running behind and requests were taking 5 days to process.

A week later the representative leaves a voicemail message apologizing and saying that the research team needs another week.

The next week she leaves a voicemail message saying that the research team was unsuccessful. (I live in the Bay Area not a remote place.)

Why the University of California chose spend money on this company needs to be investigated.
Wound care is something that needs immediate attention and I did not wait for a second week for Accolade to sort it out and ended up paying more out of pocket to go to a local wound clinic so I could stay out of the hospital. Thanks for nothing, Accolade.

I could not get a person that could assist me on the phone. I was transferred multiuple times and sat on hold for a total of over 3 hours. Absolutely HORRIBLE customer service experience!

Working for my health insurance company they are using Accolade and they suck for lack of a better word. I’m currently on the phone with a representative now who has no clue what an appeal is and is asking so many questions only to put me on a long hold because she doesn’t see the appeal. They are not medically trained either and it’s basically like they are gatekeepers BEFORE I am actually able to speak to BCBS.

Been with BCBS for over 10 years. This is the first year we had to use Accolade Health and it's been the worst experience EVER. Had better customer service prior to this program. Long wait times and extra unnecessary steps to move authorization from one in network vendor to another.

This Monday I had a phone appointment with an Accolade Care Doctor. He looked like he just got out of bed. The call was a complete waste of time. I asked for a Lab Order for blood work. He agreed and stated it would be coded to minimize my cost out of pocket. When I received the Lab Order it read Diagnosis Code Z1389 (rather than a preventative code). The diagnosis code he wrote would entail I could be charged for the full amount, well over two thousand dollars for the blood work as the order noted. If he had coded it correctly as preventative, it probably would have been covered by insurance and I would have been charged nothing (or very little). The person I spoke with today was very rude and hung up the phone without addressing the error/problem. However, she did confirm I was correct, that the Code Z1389 would have caused me to be responsible for the full cost of the blood work.

I unfortunately had the experience of working here for short period. I had to clean up so many mistakes from other health assistants at Accolade. This company operates as an insurance company, but they are not an insurance company. Many of the health assistants have no clue about complexities of healthcare. There is no internal auditors at Accolade,so it's basically like the wild wild West.

Accolade is a useless service that adds bureaucracy to the already complicated world of healthcare & insurance.

Something as simple as inquiring about claim status or review a claim that was filed in the wrong currency takes weeks and at the end of the day they will just say there's nothing that can be done.

If your company allows it, I would bypass Accolade and just call your insurance directly; when United Healthcare was able to service me directly, they got things done much quicker and correctly as soon as you call them. Unfortunately my company has since forced us to use Accolade to interact with the health insurance provider

Everyone who has complained here are all correct. You can’t talk to your actual medical insurance company, nor can your doctor. They tell you they’re connecting you to who you need to speak with and then you get a voice mail, leave a message and they never call you back! They never call your doctor back! Doctors should be treating patients not being ignored by sub par gatekeepers that have no interest in helping the members. Apparently according to them, chemo is not medically necessary for Cancer patients after it was approved by the prior insurance Company and received for 3 months before the employer switched health providers that included Accolade. God forbid something happens to my loved one with cancer and I will be suing them for negligent homicide for deliberately delaying care. We only started with them on 1/1/24 and have been calling them multiple times daily. I truly believe companies hire them so you do anything possible to avoid using the employers healthcare and look for other alternatives.

Accolade is a company that was put together by a billionaire tech venture capitalist who bought a bunch of “tech” medical companies, cobbled them together, and is calling it “advocacy” or concierge care.

Accolade is a medical management company that reviews for medical necessity-period. Accolade has purposefully made the process burdensome for the doctors and providers who are tasked with seeking PRIOR AUTHORIZATION. So, when your doctor orders an MRI, or physical therapy, or a planned surgery- those treatments will be denied if Accolade hasn’t provided prior authorization. This seems reasonable- except; the accolade staff are all mostly new employees, working remotely, who don’t understand your individual benefits - and it feels like none of them care.

I’ve had three diagnostic tests cancelled by Accolade and my partner had his surgery held up (on the day of the surgery) because of their mismanagement of the prior auth process. The prior are process is all manual (faxes) from our doctors to the Accolade staff (NON-clinical!!!!) who check to see if all the codes/info is correct. If your doctor failed to fill out an element in their form- well the process stalls and sits on an Accolade desk until you or the doctor calls to complain. Oh, and their phone system is a mess and you can plan to be on hold for at least 5-10 minutes.

Accolade is obstructing access to medical care by over-hashing the medical necessity review process.

Our healthcare premiums went up $200 in year two of my company’s Accolade contract. Accolade charges approx $150-200 per member, per month for their services- it’s gross and this is why healthcare costs are rising- everyone is trying to get a cut! This is another publicly traded company that reports to their investors and couldn’t care less about actual illness/wellness, as evidenced by their poorly run company.

They dictate what is approved, not the physicians. I have been denied twice for two different reasons. I suffer from their lack of insight. It will cost them more money in the long run due to more surgeries unfortunately.

Needed a virtual appointment. Earliest appointment was 2 days away. Said I could speak with a nurse. We on hold for 45 minutes. Finally give up two hours later nurse called back. I was already at urgent care by then. It’s really scary to think that you depend on these people and they’re never available.

This company is a complete joke with "Medical Assistants" who have no idea what they are talking about. I have received different information from each representative I spoke with and all of it was incorrect. I now have a $3000 bill for a metabolic panel that 100 percent should have been covered in my high risk pregnancy. This company and Anthem insurance have done nothing but cause additional stress throughout my pregnancy by denying coverage that was necessary. I am wondering if they get incentives for ensuring that paying members don't have the information needed to file claims appeals, which is what happened both times I called them for assistance. Very frustrating and disappointing experience and I plan to file a formal complaint with the state.

I wish I could give 0 stars to this company . They have no idea what they are talking about. Their main goal is to push you away without any credible explanation. They just lie straight to my face coming up with fake reasons why my claim was not paid. I will call my company’s benefits dept and demand to provide more coverage options.

Accolade seems to be nothing more than a gatekeeper service to keep you from actually speaking with anyone at you insurance company. I've had an issue for a week getting an authorization for surgery. Accolade/Anthem has completely fumbled the process every step of the way and neither company seems to care in the slightest. I tried to find a therapist earlier in the year, the doc finder info was out of date in many cases, called several providers, no one returned a call. Finally just gave up. Really hoping I have other options when benefits elections come up later this year.

I am an employee of the University of California, on the Anthem/Blue Cross PPO plan that uses Accolade as “health advocates”. What a disappointment! They just seem like an added, yet ineffective, layer of bureaucracy intent on appeasing customers without actually ADVOCATING. For anything. They told me 4 months ago that my out of network therapist was approved to be covered at in network rates (because there are no available in network providers). Then all summer Anthem processed the claims wrong and didn’t reimburse me for thousands of dollars they owed me. All along I told Accolade about the problems, and nothing has been fixed. Then, a week ago, the Accolade rep told me he had good news—Anthem approved covering my therapist at in network rates, backdated to April. Setting aside the fact that it had already been approved in March, the claims were re-processed incorrectly after this supposed approval. They still owe me over $2000. And Accolade rep says, it’s going to take up to 45 days for them to reprocess my forms. When I ask for it to be expedited, given the comedy of errors, I just get attitude from the Accolade rep. The idea that they are advocates in any way shape or form is such a joke! The University of California should be ashamed of itself for providing such substandard health insurance access and advocacy to their employees!

They seem to have no purpose other than blocking my access to speak directly to my "premium" cough, cough health care at Blue Shield.

Now, a computer-generated system answers their phone which adds about an extra 6 minutes to the wait. Oh, I can hear "her" typing away but nothing happens, then finally I am transferred to a health associate and no one picks up. I've used their app as well. Not good. My dedicated health associate hasn't responded to my requests in months. The general health associates write back but do not solve even simple question. It's ridiculous. This company is so unnecessary and unhelpful. They do not care about the consumer and I am guessing they hire minimum wage workers to handle these situations. It's insulting and such a waste of money and time. They helped me with one problem in 2022 but since then it is a complete joke. I can read my own benefits manual and fill out forms. I don't need a company who just cuts and pastes my benefits as an answer to my question. I am so disappointed the way they run their company. Someone at the top, needs to know this if they don't already. They need to spend the extra money and hire professionals who understand medical procedures and billing. I want to talk to or text a real person who is my advocate. Isn't that their purpose rather than acquiring companies to look good to the VC's? This is not better healthcare in any way, shape, or form.

June 17, 2023 - this is an update date to a previous review. I answered another questionnaire about Accolade. Again, I informed them that I had not received any assistance with my request. I received another call from their management team on July 17, 2023 to smooth my ruffled feathers. Promising everything would be taken care of this time. LOL. Now it is July 25, 2023 and no contact from Accolade and no changes completed just I as told them it would happen. Such a waste of money for my company. By working thru back doors, I was again able to complete my request and received the answer I needed without Accolade's help. There truly no need for Accolade's services.