Premeritations

March 26, 2022 10:58 AM

I’m evaluating a remote job with a Seattle company that provides BlueCross Premera insurance with in-network providers in the “Heritage Network.” I live in IL, not WA. I’m planning to call my doctors’ offices to ask if they’d be in network, but generally, has anyone been in this situation and found this insurance to work for them? And any issues with claims when you’re so far away? I’m okay with the deductible and co-pay if the network is reasonably large. All previous insurance has been with in-state BCBS or Humana.
posted by michaelh to Work & Money (8 answers total)

I can't give you any answers regarding out of state claims with Premera, but as a WA resident who has had Premera, they have been been easy to deal with as an insurance company regarding claims.
posted by ShooBoo at 12:04 PM on March 26, 2022

Try this to see if your doctors are included: https://www.premera.com/visitor/find-a-doctor
posted by erst at 12:18 PM on March 26, 2022

Just to clarify, you're asking about Premeds/WA specifically, right?

I have out-of-state BCBS and it "just works", especially now they have online claim submission. (When they didn't, it was a bit goofy, you had to mail claims to a specific address belonging to BCBS in my state.) I do, however, have amazingly good insurance, so no comment on network size etc.
posted by hoyland at 12:37 PM on March 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

If health insurance is provided, legally they have to secure you a policy in your state. Now this may be an out-of-state BCBS plan (I have one myself) or it could be another plan but they will have to do something that has in-network providers in your state.
posted by ananci at 3:07 PM on March 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

FWIW, I had IL BC/BS for 5 years while living in VA. Never had a problem seeing any BC/BS doctor.
posted by COD at 4:26 PM on March 26, 2022

BCBS is made up of a number of different, some for one state, some for several states. So BCBS Premera in WA is a different company from BCBS of Il. Despite this they do cooperate in some ways for customer service reasons.

So address your concerns to Premera because that's your employer's state.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:35 PM on March 26, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks, all. a) yes, it's Premera BlueCross of WA. b) I checked my three area hospital systems and they all seem to be included in 24 different networks on Premier's find a doc. I think that's all the networks, so I'm hopefully okay. I'll double-check Monday with my physicians.

As for submitting bills, really hoping I can just present the card and have everything kick off that way.
posted by michaelh at 10:16 PM on March 26, 2022

I have Californian insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) but live in WA and use the Premera network here. It seems like basically any doctor here I want to see takes my insurance. I agree with others that this seems like a pretty routine thing doctors offices are used to dealing with. If the doctors you already like are in network, I wouldn't be too worried about this.
posted by potrzebie at 1:51 PM on March 27, 2022