Kevin Knauss

Did Covered California Designate You An American Indian Or Alaska Native?

November 12, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Upon review, the consumer was now listed as an American Indian or Alaska Native, there was no selection for current health insurance or Medicare enrollment, and the application showed a higher income than we had estimated for 2019. This is not the first time I have seen individuals and whole families being flipped into American Indian or Alaska Native designation. As mentioned earlier, Covered California seems to automatically erase the current health plan information during the renewal. But this was not a renewal, just a correction to Medi-Cal eligibility.

Covered California Response To Fear Over Public Charge Proposed Rule

November 7, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

The proposed rule is complicated and has many conditions and exclusions. Because of this complexity, many individuals and families with lawful permanent status, and enrolled in Covered California, or who have children enrolled in Medi-Cal, are fearful as being labeled as a Public Charge. Covered California has sought to allay the fears of people who might be affected by the proposed rule that their participation in Covered California and monthly premium tax credit subsidy they receive will not adversely impact their status.

DMHC Fines L.A. Care $280,000 for Grievance System Violations

November 6, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

This enforcement action is a result of 21 cases involving 63 consumer grievance violations that occurred during 2014 through 2017. In these cases, L.A. Care deprived enrollees of their rights to medical care. The plan has acknowledged its failure to comply with the law, and the Department has determined that an administrative penalty and Corrective Action Plan are warranted. The corrective actions include employee training and increased oversight of the grievance and appeals system.

Stanford Hospital & Doctors Available Only With Health Net PPO

November 2, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

The Health Net PPO, not to be confused with the EnhancedCare PPO offered through Covered California, is the only plan that will give plan members access to both the Stanford doctors and hospital. These plans are only sold off-exchange or directly from Health Net. Plan enrollment is limited to certain regions and counties within California.

Tips For Families To Lower Their Health Insurance Premiums For 2019

October 31, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Not all family members have to have the same carrier either. Some family members can enroll with a more expensive PPO plan while other individuals enroll in an HMO from the same company or completely different carrier. I have clients where some family members have chosen the Blue Shield PPO plan and other household members are with a less expensive Kaiser plan.

Hospitals By County For Covered California Individual And Family Plans 2019

October 30, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

You can’t assume that all hospitals part of a larger network are all in-network with the same carrier if one is in-network. In Butte County, Blue Shield contracts with all the Enloe associated hospitals. But Anthem Blue Cross only contacts with Enloe Medical Center – Esplanade. The converse is also true. Blue Cross doesn’t typically contract with Sutter hospitals for their individual and family plans. However, in Amador County, Sutter Amador is an in-network hospital for Blue Cross.

Casting Off Gender Identities, Affirming Transgender Rights

October 25, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Imagine for a moment that the day you born your religion, political party affiliation, and occupation were chosen for you. It was official. You could not change what had been entered into those fields on your birth certificate. You were designated a Roman Catholic, Democrat, Farmer. Your destiny and life had been chosen. The government would only recognize what was entered on the birth certificate.

Hidden Covered California Income Adjustment Feature

October 22, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Once all the income is entered in the different sections of the Covered California application, the program has a little link titled, Click here if this looks wrong. That takes you to the Adjust Project Annual Income (PAI) window. You can then type in an amount that is higher or lower than the number calculated from the income sections. Unfortunately, once you have used the PAI feature, the Covered California system won’t alert you to the override if you need to update your income in the future.

Medi-Cal And Covered California Assistance And Terms

October 18, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Caution! There are known data miss-match issues between SAWS and Covered California CalHEERS software. When a consumer is released from Medi-Cal it is necessary to scrub the application and look for missing or inaccurate data and conditions. The missing data could prevent the individual or family from getting the subsidy. It could be as simple as the application no longer indicating that the consumer will file taxes. This is simply fixed by checking Yes, the consumer will file taxes. Both Covered California and Medi-Cal are working to resolve this issue.

2019 Covered California Renewal And Enrollment Questions

October 17, 2018 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

If a consumer does not like their plan or rate, they must make changes to their account and actively renew their coverage by December 15th for a plan effective date of January 1, 2019. Changes to the account and plan selection between December 16th and January 15th will have an effective date of February 1, 2019.

« Previous Page

Menu