I work for a major business which has very sadly made the decision to outsource it's heath insurance benefits management to Willis Towers Watson... What that means is that when an employee like myself has a problem with our employer provided health insurance, we have to call the "benefits center" which is operated by Willis Towers Watson as an entirely 3rd party operation with no apparent accountability to anyone at the company where I actually work. I'm horrified to see that Willis Towers Watson isn't even located in the same COUNTRY as the business I work for, although their location in England explains why all their employees sound like half-baked characters from a cartoon show based in medieval Europe...
This is actually my first time purchasing health insurance through an employer, and Willis Towers Watson has made the experience such a nightmare that this will likely be the first, last and only time I ever make the mistake of signing up for health insurance through an employer. Maybe that is their goal? Perhaps they figure if they harass and torment people enough, they won't use their employer's benefits package and thereby save the employer money?
Willis Towers Watson sent me a letter (via the absolute slowest method of old-school "snail mail" available, because apparently they haven't heard of e-mail or cell phones in England) notifying me that they were unceremoniously kicking my wife and 18-moth-old daughter off of my health insurance policy. Their excuse was some minor administrative procedure that called for some additional paperwork that I was never aware of.
I immediately called their "benefits center" and spoke with some guy whose name I assume was 'Captain McBritish' based on his pattern of speech, and offered to send them whatever paperwork was needed to get my benefits reinstated. The guy flatly refused and informed me that he would NEVER allow my wife and daughter to be added back onto my policy under any circumstances, even if I provided the proper paperwork.
I then politely asked Captain McBritish to transfer me to whatever department at his company was responsible for canceling my policy entirely, as I have no desire to continue to pay for "benefits" which his company is refusing to provide. McBritish refused this request as well, not only telling me that he would never allow me to cancel the policy, but that he would also continue to deduct the payments from my paychecks no matter what and there was nothing I could do to stop him. The fact that he called me "good sir" while saying these things made him sound like some kind of a cross between a super-villain and a butler!
The internal HR department at my company is absolutely mortified by the behavior or Willis Towers Watson, but because they have made a contract with them to outsource all our benefits management to them, we are apparently powerless to reign in their utterly vile behavior. read more