Even before Folsom Lake Dam was built and the reservoir filled, the north fork of the American River was supplying water to communities, farms and ranches in south Placer and northeast Sacramento counties. I recently found aerial photography from 1952 showing a free flowing north and south fork of the American River. Finally, I can […]
Archives for March 2015
Strategically selecting colleges to increase admission potential
Perhaps one of the greatest triumphs for my son as a senior in high school was getting admitted into all five colleges he applied to. The improbability of going five for five was magnified when I learned that so many of his peers were routinely rejected for their first college choice along with their back […]
IRS Publication 974, comprehensive ACA premium tax credit guidance
Publication 974, released by the IRS in March 2015, is a fairly comprehensive review of the ACA health insurance premium tax credit rules. Its release is long overdue as many Americans have struggled to understand how the Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC) afforded by the ACA interact with their federal taxes. Publication 974 addresses many different […]
IRS waives Covered California incorrect 1095-A tax collection
The Treasury Department has decided to expand their February 24 announcement waiving collection of under reported health insurance tax credits to states that are running their own Marketplace exchanges. Tax payers who already filed their tax returns using incorrect 1095-As issued by Covered California will not be subject to the collection of excess Advance Premium […]
California Transgender Health Insurance Survey
With the passage of the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act (IGNA), also known as AB 1586, all California health insurance plans must cover medically necessary transgender health care services. Unfortunately, many health plan customer service representatives and many health care providers are not aware of the law and have erroneously denied or delayed coverage and treatment […]
Are you a producer?
It wasn’t until I transitioned into a career of insurance sales that I heard the term producer applied to people. Insurance companies label the agents who sell their insurance products as producers, as in producing sales. Previously, I only thought that milk cows were producers. In the insurance game you are either producing sales or […]
Agent begs to be paid Covered California SHOP commissions
I’m not above begging. That is essentially what I did when I addressed the Covered California Board at their March 5, 2015 meeting. Since I have not been paid a commission from Covered California’s small group SHOP division in over eight months, I was politely requesting if someone could look into the situation. My […]
Birdsall Dam, Knickerbocker waterfalls hike at Auburn State Park
Even in the midst of losing my water, grabbing onto poison oak bushes to maintain my balance, and enduring intermittent leg cramps, stumbling down to see the foundation of the historic Birdsall dam and Knickerbocker waterfalls still wasn’t the worst hike I’d taken. My mistake was thinking that I was smarter and stronger than the […]
Blue Shield estimates costs for health care services
One of the big complaints about health care services is not knowing or being surprised by the cost of medical treatment. Blue Shield of California has taken a modest step toward helping plan members determine the cost of health care services with their new treatment cost estimator tool. Initial reports from clients suggest the […]
New federal poverty line could knock Covered California families into Medi-Cal
The federal Department of Health and Human Services has published the 2015 federal poverty line (FPL) which includes a modest increase over the 2014 FPL. The FPL is used by Marketplace exchanges like Covered California to determine when an individual or family is eligible for either Medicaid, Medi-Cal in California, or tax credits to purchase […]