For independent health insurance agents, such as me, who don’t have access to an already established secure network through a large agency, we have to be more diligent in securing all the different parts of the internet communication puzzle.
Posts related to Covered California Certified Insurance Agents and their role helping consumers enroll in health insurance, commissions, carriers, problems.
Medi-Cal advocate smears health insurance agents
Medi-Cal advocate Beth Capell smeared the reputation of all health insurance agents by insinuating that agents enroll Medi-Cal eligible children in private plans just for the commissions they derive from those enrollments. Ms. Capell is assuming, incorrectly, that all health agents put money above the best interest of their clients. It’s unclear where Ms. Capell’s animus towards health agents springs from when thousands of agents have assisted tens of thousands of families with enrollment in Covered California and Medi-Cal health plans.
Covered California supports a uniform agent commission structure
Over the course of two different letters to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Burwell, the Executive Director of Covered California, Peter Lee, outlined the benefit of Certified Insurance Agents to their enrollment activities and suggested there should a uniform commission structure for health insurance agents. Mr. Lee’s comments come at a critical time when many health insurance companies are reducing and even eliminating agent commissions.
Anthem Blue Cross denies Covered California consumers agent representation
Anthem Blue Cross, following internal policies to protect agents, prevents their members from selecting their preferred health insurance agent through Covered California. The Blue Cross policy of not recognizing an agent delegation made by a household in their Covered California account prevents the selected agent from properly representing the family members and being compensated for his or her time. The Blue Cross agent of record policy occurs when the Covered California member originally enrolled with another agent or without an agent and the member is considered a house account.
Pinnacle Management and Covered California complaints
At some point you get tired of dealing with idiots. At some point you need to complain with the full understanding that nothing changes because government bureaucracies and private corporation sucking off a government contract never change. As my phone showed I had been on hold for over four hours with Covered California’s agent support Pinnacle Management, I was able to finish writing the following complaint forms to Covered California.
California health agents assist 429,365 Medi-Cal eligible individuals
Covered California Certified Insurance Agents assisted 429,365 individuals for possible enrollment into the expanded ACA Medi-Cal health insurance from January 1, 2014 through July 31st, 2015. The Medi-Cal assistance enrollment figure comes from a Public Records Act Request that I submitted in early October of 2015 to Covered California. As the $58 compensation to agents for Medi-Cal enrollments ceased over the summer I felt it was important to learn the level of agent involvement with funneling Californians in Medi-Cal health plans.
Covered California funds Navigator program, cuts agent compensation
Covered California announced in mid-July they were awarding $10 million in grants to a Navigator program that performed poorly in 2015. Two weeks later Covered California sent out a letter to agents that they would no longer be compensated for assisting individuals and families who are determined eligible for Medi-Cal. For the 2015 open enrollment […]
Updates to Covered California enrollment software for spring 2015
A year and half after the launch of Covered California the CalHEERS enrollment website is still a work in progress. Covered California released more instructional briefs on changes they’ve made to the California Health Enrollment Eligibility Retention System (CalHEERS) website. Just when Certified Insurance Agents thought they had figured out how to navigate CalHEERS, new […]
Agent seeks class action lawsuit against Covered California
Certified Insurance Agent John Dickey, who is already taking Covered California to small claims court, is now in conversations with a Southern California law firm to potentially file a class action lawsuit against Covered California on behalf of agents who suffered a loss of income because of the numerous problems during open enrollment for 2014. Dickey’s […]
Health agent sues Covered California for damages
It is no news to the first wave of Covered California Certified Insurance Agents in 2013 that Californias online health insurance exchange was not ready for business. The number one complaint from agents was they were not receiving credit, and ultimately commissions, from the numerous individual and family enrollments they were performing. […]
