Frustration abounds as public service health plan gets switched to Canada Life | CBC News

Dorène Hartling estimates she’s called Canada Life close to two dozen times over the last week, each time failing to speak to an agent no matter what time of the day she rings.

Almost immediately, she gets the same message.

“Our service representatives are temporarily unavailable due to higher than normal call volumes.”

With a big sigh, Hartling has one word to describe how she feels: “frustration.”

She’s not alone. On July 1, the country’s largest health-care plan switched providers to Canada Life Assurance Company, bringing more than 1.7 million federal public servants, retirees and their dependents with them.

For Hartling, her husband Stephen, and many others, the transition has been anything but smooth.

Stress, frustration

CBC received a number of complaints from current and retired public servants and veterans in the weeks before and after the Canada Day switch.

They ranged from long wait times — upwards of an hour in many cases — trying to get through to someone on the phone, only to get an automated message telling them that no one is available and that they can’t leave a voicemail.

Others have expressed concerns about not hearing back from anyone over email and not having access to their digital drug and dental benefit cards.

Even as recently as Friday, CBC was hearing from members who were still having problems reaching anyone by phone.

It’s all led to worries that members might have to pay out-of-pocket for pricey prescriptions.

“There’s a lot of public servants that are retired that are living, you know, on the edge. And without their public service health-care coverage, it’s a significant financial strain,” said Hartling, who also has an $1,800-a-month medication, among others, she needs to fill soon.

She’s been trying to reach Canada Life on the phone because she’s unsure if her prescriptions will go through and be covered, given the big transition. Her pharmacist has told her it’s been hit-and-miss, she said.

“That would basically leave us strapped on a monthly basis, especially if this doesn’t get resolved,” she said.

“We’re not going to go broke in the first week, but if we start having to cash out RRSPs … there’s a financial burden to that too.”

In a statement to CBC, Canada Life said it’s adding a “significant number” of staff to help meet the higher demand. The company said it hopes to get to a point where calls are answered in under one minute.

“We expect to make significant progress toward this over the next few weeks,” the statement said. 

“We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and appreciate members’ patience during this transition period.”

The company also acknowledged there was a temporary outage of their website on Tuesday, which was resolved the same day.

‘Another Phoenix issue’

CBC also reached out to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) and Treasury Board President Mona Fortier.

In a statement, TBS said the government has been in contact with Canada Life about wait times.

“Canada Life is taking immediate steps to address the high volume of calls being received, including increasing the number of call centre agents. Plan members can expect to see progressive improvements,” TBS wrote.

“Plan members continue to be covered by their plans and claims are being processed.”

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents the majority of public servants, released a message to members Friday saying the employer has an obligation to ensure the transition is seamless and must resolve issues “as quickly as possible.”

But Stephen Hartling has doubts. 

“It’s sort of looking like it might turn into another Phoenix issue,” Hartling said, likening the switch to the problematic pay system the federal government introduced in 2016. “Just a large government project that went awry right off the bat.”