BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is the worst insurance ever. They do not care about consumer health. I have been fighting for five days to get medication with a prior authorization. They have given me and my doctor the runaround. They claimed they did not receive the prior authorization when in fact I was sitting there when my doctor sent all documentation over. I have been almost a week without my medication. I would never recommend them to anyone. Do better BCBS of Tennessee!

Those troglodytes keep pulling payments years after they paid for them. I have paid them thousands and they can't even pay for a ultrasound. When I pay for someone to dig a hole, you don't see them not do it. Or rather fill that hole back in, even though they are being paid.

This is BCBS's new sapphire dental review.

1. I visited my dentist in severe pain on 1/6/2026 (pain started Sunday 1/4/2026), only to discover my dentist is no longer an approved provider, and that your inexperienced staff (on the new dental rollout) won't provide a fee structure to see if they would become an approved provider. My dentist spent 7 hours over two days trying to get information from the new dental provider, but your staff never could assist.
Note... To this day, I have still never received any notification of this change.
2. I go home on 1/6/2026 attempting to do the same thing... find an approved dentist and information on the changes. I spend 3 days and finally, Amy A, a Customer Service Rep (not dental) from Chattanooga, sends me the approved provider list.
3. Amy even calls Dr. Brown and secures an appointment for me for the next day. Dr. Brown is rated 1.3; my dentist is rated 5.
4. I see Dr. Brown, who offers an entirely different opinion than my 5-star dentist (whom I have a twenty-year relationship with). Dr. Brown takes one X-ray and says I need to see a periodontist.
5. I go home and again contend with your dental staff trying to find an approved periodontist.
6. I secure an appointment for Monday at 8:00 AM on 1/12/2026 with Sam Jameel at Northshore Smiles in Knoxville. I am on day 9 with zero sleep and in tremendous pain.
7. I visit Sam Jameel (the periodontist) for all of 2 minutes, and he charges me $60 out of pocket and tells me EXACTLY what my original dentist told me. He sends me back to Dr. Brown for a root canal and crown. My crown is cracked, and my root is exposed, and I'm in extreme distress.
8. On my way home I call Dr. Brown's office to relay what the periodontist said and to get an appointment for treatment, but they tell me that without a referral from the periodontist, they can't book an appointment. Dr. Brown had sent me to the periodontist initially.
9. I call the periodontist back, and he's too busy to provide a referral. At this point, I'm exceedingly frustrated. I inform them I had an appointment with Sam Jameel, who spent only 2 minutes with me, and surely he could dictate a one-sentence referral so I can receive assistance. They say he's in surgery and too busy. In response, I become very upset, and they hang up on me. Dr. Brown refuses to see me without the referral. Now, BCBS, I'm on day 9 with zero sleep, in total agony, and I'm consuming Tylenol and Advil every 4 hours.
10. At 5:41 PM on 1/12/2026, I receive an email from the periodontist's office (Northshore Smiles Dentistry, Dr. Sam Jameel) with my visit notes, which contain literally nothing of substance. The notes indicate that I paid $60 and list my blood pressure and oxygen levels, which they NEVER took. They never measured my blood pressure or oxygen, so how can they report it?
11. On day ten, I'm in dire straits! I've lost hundreds of dollars in wages, paid dental fees, and I am spending countless hours on the phone with BCBS, yet I'm still nowhere closer to resolving my dental issues. I've now seen three dentists and received not one ounce of help.

I can only pray and hope that those who implemented this change experience even a moment of the distress they've caused me. BCBS is, by far, the most uncaring, profit-driven, and poorly managed organization in the healthcare field.

Why does BCBS state in their benefit coverage brochure that out-of-network chiropractic manipulations are covered at 50%, but fail to mention that it's 50% of the Medicare maximum? Therefore, for a $95 treatment, I'm left with a $77 bill for 24 treatments. Thank you, BCBS.

I had BCBST until 2023 when I moved out of state. Recently I discovered an outstanding bill from 2021 that was affecting my credit score. I had gotten rid of all past documents and cards, as I thought everything had been paid and taken care of. Terrance at BCBS was able to help me get the information I needed and investigate matters where I could not concerning the mysterious outstanding bill. This case is still open, but I am so thankful for this man taking my concerns seriously and looking into the confusing situation and calling multiple places! He has gone above and beyond, which is amazing because I haven't been a member with BCBST for 2 years. Anyways, thank you, Terrance! Bless you.

Horrible company. Horrible. But, if you don't mind your claims being erroneously denied, their lack of communication with other BCBS offices in other states (who process your claims because of where you live), rude customer service representatives, excessive wait times on hold, and ineffective and stupid AI chatbot help instead of real people, then you'll be satisfied.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. This is a penny-pinching insurance company that will do anything it can to avoid covering essential medication. They are truly evil. Stay away at all costs.

I have no choice of insurance as this is through my husband's state employer. We have had much better coverage in the past. I'm deeply disturbed by the dictate of insurance on our health and well-being. I have been left to suffer for weeks at a time in terrible pain, unable to receive a much-needed cortisone injection and migraine medication, all while working a very demanding home health job caring for others. I've seen jobless individuals with lengthy criminal backgrounds receive full treatment with no insurance and no obligation to pay. What?? I cannot keep suffering with these migraines or miss work because of poor insurance. I cannot continue pulling over to vomit between patients as I try my hardest to work through the pain. Should I just go to the hospital every time I need medication to be able to function? Then let insurance get all those bills? Sarcasm, I can't help it. I'm more than frustrated. I just need what my doctor has prescribed for me. I'll even pay more for it. Just don't impede me from functioning at my optimal level. Don't implement rules that feel like penalties and cause unnecessary suffering. I'm still waiting for insurance to review a new medication that my doctor feels will help me tremendously as the previous one is no longer effective. So I go to him desperate for help. He helps me. I'm so relieved and grateful beyond words. I go to the pharmacy, and bam, all hope is destroyed instantly by insurance. It's not right. All necessary documentation for prior authorization was sent. It's been 2 weeks. Nothing. We pay a lot of money and expect just a little peace of mind, not heartache and continued suffering.

I have been using the same doctor and the same clinic since 2017 on the Sapphire Advantage Plan without any problems. I called during the open enrollment period from October to December to verify that my doctor's services, medications, and hospitals were all in-network. I scheduled a doctor's visit for an exam and lab work on May 20, 2024, with a $0 copay. The BCBS booklet advises asking at the time of the visit if the doctor is in-network. So I asked the receptionist, and she confirmed that the nurse practitioner (NP) I see was in-network; even her name is on the bottom of my new 2024 medical card.

Then, on June 2, I received an email from the clinic's billing department stating I owed $114.66. I called them and was informed that BCBS did not pay. Afterward, I contacted BCBS and was told that the NP had been dropped from the network on March 31st. I called the clinic and BCBS three times each, and during a conference call, it was realized that my NP was supposed to file new paperwork. She had not been informed of this, and I had not been aware that she was the only one out of six at this clinic that was out of network. The MD she works under, who has to approve her prescription refills and treatment, is in-network, but she is not; I don't understand how that works.

BCBS informed the clinic that they would send paperwork for her to be reinstated in-network. That was over two weeks ago. My wife visited the same NP this week and just received an email stating she now owes $114.66. I called the clinic to find out when and where the issue would be resolved and was told that BCBS had not sent the paperwork and was waiting on several patients' bills to be paid, all from patients on the BCBS Advantage Plan.

It's evident that the doctor's choices are poor, and none of them know how to deal with complex patients with real conditions. They gaslight me into thinking nothing's wrong when I have diagnoses from my doctors in California, who are actually educated.

BCBS has become one of the worst insurance providers I've had. I have never had a doctor write a prior authorization for a medication and it be denied, but they have denied 3-4 medications for 3 people in my household which especially and severely jeopardizes my wife's quality of life. I suppose that until they feel as if the doctor has provided enough justification for her to have what she needs they deny it even after authorization and prescriptions are sent to the pharmacy. In two cases thus far, they think they know better than the doctor and deny it altogether. Pure garbage! I pay for a service that I don't receive! unbelievable!

Terrible insurance and even more horrible to work with to try and get necessary medications covered. I have called several times and so has my doctor’s office and this company won’t work with us. I have severe ulcerative pancolitis and have tried several medications with none working. I finally found a medication that works and I have been on it 3 years. This company will not make an exception. I guess they’d rather pay my hospital bill when I end in there than to pay my medication to keep me in remission.

My company switched health insurance providers this year, from cigna, to BCBS of TN. Comparatively, Cigna was far better than BCBS

Contacted the Healthcare.gov to remove myself from the policy but keep my wife covered. BCBST instead cancelled the whole policy and reissued another policy for my wife. The problem is the deductible and out of pocket expenses were already met on the old policy and now it has to be met again with the new policy. We have called CS Dept. numerous times to have the deductible and OOP amounts corrected and nothing has been done. They always come up with different excuses. The last one being that the premium had not being paid, the premium is paid by Healthcare.gov and they actually sent an invoice showing that it was fully paid. If you are considering going with this company, think again.

You call the supposed Benefits Department and you get"we don't know what you're talking about, or no we can't give you a copy of your policy."