Survey: NC residents suspicious of health insurers Do North Carolinians trust their health insurers? Survey says: No.

Most North Carolinians don't believe their health insurance provider has their best interest in mind. They also believe their providers are a huge factor in rising healthcare costs, according to the latest Meredith College poll.

The poll, released Tuesday, involved 1,012 respondents - all over age 18 - surveyed by either phone and online from Oct. 17 to Nov. 2.

Nearly 24% of participants said health insurance companies are more responsible for the rising costs of healthcare than any other part of the healthcare network.

As typical for a Meredith Poll, the survey was weighted on the basis of age, gender, geographic location, race and ethnicity and educational attainment "so our sample closely resembles North Carolina," the survey said.

About 44% of respondents reported being a Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C. customer, while 17.6% were with United Healthcare, 10.3% with Aetna and 7.1% with Cigna.

The poll found that just 8.3% of survey participants feel their health insurer has their best interest in mind, while more than 60% believe hospitals and doctors do.

"Every demographic group surveyed had health insurance companies as the top reason for these rising costs," said David McLennan, director of the Meredith Poll.

McLennan said the majority of survey respondents expressed overall satisfaction with their health insurer.

However, McLennan said the negative perception comes when consumers feel or believe that health insurers are balking at covering expenses.

"Typically, it is a denial of a claim, or they get a surprise bill or their doctor or provider leaves the insurer's network," McLennan said.

"Their satisfaction, in those instances, doesn't just drop, but (falls) very significantly."

Poll organizers said respondents' concern over rising costs "is heightened by the fact that the two most important factors that influence consumers' decision to purchase health insurance plans are monthly premium costs and out-of-pocket expenses."

"Rising premium costs produce very high levels of dissatisfaction for consumers with almost half (48.3%) reporting being very dissatisfied," according to the poll.

Tracking a two-year period, about 23% of respondents said they had a procedure not covered by insurance, while 20% said they had a claim denied, and 16% had to go through unnecessary paperwork to get treatment.

"In fact, 73.6% of those who had a claim denied reported feeling dissatisfied with their insurance company, with most of those being extremely dissatisfied," according to the poll.

"Similarly, those who said they had a health procedure not covered by the insurance company or received a surprise bill also saw their dissatisfaction levels increase by a factor of two."

McLennan said some respondents indicated that "they just gave up" appealing their bill or claim denial because of the complicated nature of the appeal process.

"That is a sign that customer service can be improved," McLennan said. "That would be a good starting point for insurers wanting to blunt consumer complaints."

Additional dissatisfaction factors included claims being denied because the insurer determined it wasn't medically necessary or were told the treatment or medication was not on the approved list of covered services.

"This reinforces a growing trend of health insurers making medical decisions for patients instead of their doctors or caregivers," poll officials said.

The poll may be a reflection of overall North Carolinians' dissatisfaction with health insurer when it comes in particular to claim denials and procedures not covered by insurance.

A recent report from Kaiser Family Foundation found North Carolinians are seeing higher denial rates than the national average.

Another Meredith Poll finding is that 32% of respondents report being confident and knowledgeable about navigating the health insurance system.

How consumers gain access to health insurance is a major factor given that 42.5% of respondents with private insurance say they are given just one option from their employer.

"Although almost two-thirds of those surveyed who get health insurance through their employer report being satisfied, just 26% report being very satisfied - far lower than those who use Medicare as their primary health insurance (52.3%) and even for health insurance purchased through healthcare.gov exchanges (31.3%)," according to the poll.

When it comes to the four primary health insurers in North Carolina, Blue Cross N.C. had the highest percentage of those who viewed it positively at 62%.

Meanwhile, United Healthcare was at 43.9%, Aetna at 39.3% and Cigna at 34%.

McLennan said that for consumers who shop around for their health insurance, particularly on the federal health insurance marketplace, the top three factors are what they paying in monthly premium costs and annual deductibles, and is their doctor in the insurer's network.

He said that respondents who have a choice in health insurers tended to express more satisfaction than those whose employer only provides one insurer.

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