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Covered California Goes Rainbow

Posted December 4, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Covered_California_rainbow

Covered California announced a marketing campaign aimed at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities to encourage them to enroll in new ACA health plans through the exchange. The print media and billboard advertising is in addition to grants to LGBT organizations to provide outreach and education.

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Filed in Agents, California, Community, Covered California, Health, Health Insurance, LGBTQI | Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
        

California Republicans: sick people cost too much

Posted December 2, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Republicans are mad that ACA offers health insurance to sick people.

The California Assembly Republican Caucus has declared that people with pre-existing conditions are the root cause of escalating health care costs. From their statements on their website Covering Health Care: A California Resource Guide, one can only come to the conclusion that California Republicans feel that sick people should be denied guarantee issue health insurance so premiums of healthy people won’t be adversely affected.

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Filed in Health Insurance, Politics | Tagged: , , , , ,
        

De Young to Sutro Tower Hike

Posted December 1, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
My surreal Sutro Tower from iPad Art Studio

The time spent hiking up to the Sutro Tower was far better spent than the energy wasted on the Hockney exhibit. On any day I’m in the City I tell myself I want to climb the hill the three legged TV antenna rests upon. With a trip to the De Young museum to see a David Hockney exhibition, the weather, time and energy level to hike up a hill all aligned for us to find a way to climb up to the Sutro Tower.

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Covered California estimates 100,000 households stalled in enrollment

Posted November 28, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
100,000 stalled Covered California household application.

Covered California has estimated that nearly 100,000 households have started an application but have not selected a health plan. To help “Jump Start” these stalled applications Covered California will be distributing the contact information of these stalled applications to Certified Agents to call the applicants and offer assistance to help them make a health plan selection for an effective date of January 1, 2014.

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Medicare fines Health Net and other Advantage plans

Posted November 27, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
medicare_fines_health_net

Health Net and several other administrators of Medicare Advantage plans were issued fines from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for errors in their updates to people enrolled in the MA-PD plans. The penalties, issued in October 2013, were for incorrectly stating plan information in annual notices to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the Advantage plans and ranged from $23,410 up to $86,530.

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Covered California releases online small business enrollment for SHOP

Posted November 25, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Employers designate metal level tier for their employees to select health plans from.

Compared to existing small group quoting and enrollment systems from the insurers and the Cal Choice private exchange, the Covered California SHOP program seems a little clunky and unfinished. If an employer wants to realize the tax credits for contributing to employee health insurance premiums they have to have a small group plan through Covered California. Except for the option to purchase pediatric dental plans for dependent children, SHOP offers no adult dental or vision insurance.

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

VSP and Blue Shield new individual vision insurance plans

Posted November 25, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
New stand alone individual and family vision insurance.

One of the secondary benefits of the Affordable Care Act is the new plan offerings in the individual market. Both VSP and Blue Shield of California have introduced individual and family vision insurance plans (IFP) with benefits rivaling group plans. Just as we have seen the medical benefits for IFP become equivalent to small group plans, the insurers are reworking their dental and vision insurance products to be more comprehensive as well.

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Filed in California, Insurance, Vision | Tagged: , , ,
        

Commissioner Jones spars with Covered California over cancellations

Posted November 21, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones versus Peter Lee of Covered California

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones continues to wage not only a regulatory turf battle with Covered California over the issue of policy cancellations, he is also waging a war of words. No sooner had the California Health Benefits Board voted to continue with the planned cancellation of health plans for December 31st, Commissioner Jones fired off a press release to announce how unhappy he was at the Board of Covered California.

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Californians speak out on ACA and Covered California

Posted November 19, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Some people don't like Obamacare.

So many words have been spoken and written about the Affordable Care Act there is hardly an angle that hasn’t been touched. Obamacare101 podcast produced by Staci Joy is a well balanced presentation that features several different Californians that are touched by the ACA and Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace. Just like the ACA itself is controversial, some of the sincere comments by those recorded for the Obamacare101 podcast may leave one thinking, “Did he just say that?”

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Anthem Blue Cross California tiers facilities to reduce costs

Posted November 18, 2013 By Kevin Knauss
Anthem Blue Cross hopes to save money with network tiers.

In what could be the first consumer driven attempt in California to push down rising health care costs Anthem Blue Cross is flagging facilities in California that are unwilling to pass on deep discounts to its members. Anthem Blue Cross has introduced Tiered Networks into several counties in California with its new ACA compliant health plans in hopes that subscribers will choose less costly facilities

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