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Cigna offers individual plans outside of Covered California

Posted March 11, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Cigna California health plans

Covered California doesn’t have a monopoly on individual and family health plans in California. In addition to the carriers participating in the California exchange, Cigna is also offering health insurance outside of Covered California. Cigna is offering eleven different individual and family plan (IFP) options in California: seven Baseline Portfolio plans and four plans that mirror the Covered California standard metal tier levels for 2014. None of their plans are available through Covered California for the Advanced Premium Tax Credit.

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Blogging for entertainment and information

Posted March 7, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
The Internet is either for entertainment or information.

People turn to the Internet for two things: entertainment and information. If you’re not producing content focused on one of those two areas, you may not be getting that much traffic to your website. If you want to get visitors to your blog or website you need to create content that is either entertainment or information oriented.

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Salyer – Swanson hydraulic mine suspension bridge and history

Posted March 7, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Photo of suspension bridge for hydraulic mining water pipe found in Antique store in Albany California. Closely resembles suspension bridge used across American River for the Zantgraf mine in El Dorado County in 1899.

When I picked up the old photo in an Antique shop in Albany I was immediate struck by hpw the suspension bridge supporting a water pipe across a river could be the one across the American River to the Zantgraf mine built in 1899. But upon closer inspection, and studying a companion photo, this suspension bridge was at another site in California. My research indicates that the suspension bridge was built to deliver water to a 1930′s hydraulic mining operations on the east side of the South Fork of the Trinity river, just south of the confluence of the South Fork and main Trinity River in Salyer, CA.

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Covered California SHOP is a Flop

Posted March 5, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Covered California SHOP broken.

With no website and no functioning customer service, Covered California’s SHOP for small groups has ceased to exist. There may be a glimmer of hope for a return, but it is painfully apparent that SHOP is wrestling above its weight class. Whether their total melt-down is a function of poor vision and management from Covered California executive management and Board is anyone’s guess. That is a moot point when small groups that earnestly wanted to support and participate in the ACA have been handed plate of food contaminated with mold and weevils.

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Filed in Agents, Covered California, Health Insurance, SHOP, Small Business | Tagged: ,
        

Democrats, don’t ask me for money

Posted March 2, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Democrats that have not supported the ACA will not get my money.

At the dawning of a new era in the United States as we lurch and stumble forward to fulfilling a dream of affordable health insurance for all our residents, I have been disappointed at how many Democratic leaders that helped pass President Obama’s signature first term accomplishment have been missing in action now that the Affordable Care Act is being implemented. When we need political and representational leadership most, the Democrats have abandon ship. To the Democratic Party I say, “Don’t ask me for money for your campaigns.”

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Filed in California, Covered California, Politics | Tagged: , , , ,
        

Covered California February system crash snares thousands of applications

Posted March 1, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Covered California corrupts applications equivalent to the population of a small city.

In an effort to dull the impact of the bad news, Covered California released a statement late on a Friday afternoon detailing how many applications were effected by the previous week’s crash of their website. Covered California estimated that 14,500 applications that were started before the CalHEERS enrollment website went dead for five days may have to be resubmitted. Agents and consumers that started applications on February 17, 18, and 19, while the site was functioning but experiencing problems, before it completely crashed on the 20th may need to resubmit or start a whole new health plan application.

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Filed in Covered California, Health Insurance, IRS ACA Tax Credits, Medi-Cal | Tagged: , , , , ,
        

Transgender health benefits remain elusive in California

Posted February 26, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Transgender health benefits remain elusive in California.

While the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act (IGNA), also known as AB 1586, prohibits health plans from denying medically necessary health care to transgender individuals, the exact treatment options covered for individuals with gender dysphoria remain unclear in California. The determination of whether a health plan will cover a certain medical procedure to facilitate the transition to the opposite and identified sex of the health plan member hinges on the medical necessity of the procedure.

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Medicare Prescription Drug Plan finder function is great

Posted February 26, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Medicare plan finder is a great tool for learning about the prescription drug plans.

Before you talk to any insurance agent, prescription drug plan call center or sign up for a Part D Prescription (PDP) drug plan from a direct mail advertisement go to Medicare.gov and do a plan comparison. The Medicare prescription drug insurance plans are the most complicated and confusing of all the Medicare decisions a beneficiary must make. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has built one of the best online comparison tools for evaluating PDPs.

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Blue Shield exposes Social Security numbers on public web page

Posted February 23, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
Blue Shield Covered California Binder Payment

Blue Shield of California sent notices to their appointed insurance agents that the agent’s Social Security number had been displayed during the course of member’s online payment. The letter from Blue Shield, dated February 18, notifying agents of the breach to their private personal information does not mention how many agents had their Social Security number’s compromised. While I was not shocked to receive the letter informing me that my personal information was displayed, I was angry that Blue Shield let this happen.

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Medicare sanctions CalOptima’s OneCare Special Needs Plan

Posted February 22, 2014 By Kevin Knauss
CalOptima OneCare sanctioned by Medicare.

Orange County Health Authority’s CalOptima OneCare Medicare Advantage plan was served a notice of immediate sanctions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 24, 2014. The immediate sanctions mean that CalOptima can’t market or enroll new members into their OneCare Special Needs Plan until the sanctions are lifted. CMS cited “widespread and systemic failures impacting CalOptima’s enrollees’ ability to access health care services and prescription medications” as a summary for issuing immediate sanctions.

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