Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts on the development and implementation of the California health insurance market place, application, account, enrollment, termination.
Throughout the past year of enrolling individuals and families into the Covered California health plans, Certified Insurance Agents were in the dark when it came to Medi-Cal. The Department of Health Care Services held a webinar on July 31st to review of the essential basics of the Medi-Cal program. Even if you only review the […]
On August 4th Covered California rolled out another enhancement to their CalHEERS program called “identity proofing”. Before an account holder, Covered California customer service representative (CSR) or Certified Insurance Agent can either Report a Change or create a new enrollment for a health plan, the primary applicant’s identity must be verified. This “Identity Proofing”, as it […]
Medi-Cal was one of the biggest mysteries during open enrollment in the new ACA health plans. Even though Covered California advertised a “no wrong door” approach to signing up for health insurance, when a client had to go through the Medi-Cal door, not even Covered California could tell them what to expect. Finally, seven months into the expanded Medi-Cal program, the Department of Health Care Services has finally put together a presentation that goes over the various parts of Medi-Cal and how the system works.
The IRS has released drafts of the tax forms that will be used to reconcile the amount of Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) received from an insurance exchange against how much the individual or family was entitled to based on their modified adjusted gross income. The various components used to determine the APTC (income, household size, dependents, employer sponsored insurance, […]
For Certified Insurance Agents enrolling clients into health plans through Covered California for an August 1, 2014 effective date, many have been asking why it is taking so long for the enrollment data to be transmitted to the carrier. Customer Service Representatives at Anthem Blue Cross and Covered California acknowledged on July 28th that enrollment […]
One would assume that the probabilities of a second Covered California enrollment nightmare would be less than being struck by lightning. But for one family, lightning has struck not once, but twice. Covered California and Blue Shield have teamed up to disenfranchise all but one family member because the mother delivered a healthy baby boy in […]
With Covered California moving forward on the Navigator grant program consumers will have to contend with even more and potentially confusing marketing for ACA health plans this fall during open enrollment. The new Navigator program will allow non-profit organizations that receive grant money to create radio and TV commercials along with opening store fronts to […]
The Covered California CalHEERS online enrollment system continues to be upgraded to fix problems and accommodate household changes, but Certified Insurance Agents (CIA) are rarely notified of the updates. As CIAs helped enroll 40% of Covered California’s households and continue to update their clients changes through the system, agents deserve to be provided regular updates […]
The Covered California Board approved a resolution at their June 2014 meeting to allocate $16.9 million toward establishing a Navigator program. Under the new Navigator program organizations awarded grants will be encouraged to open store fronts, theyll receive bonuses for exceeding enrollment projections and theyll be allowed to advertise their services. Short of requiring an […]
It what seems to be a core principle of Covered California, they have sent out another confusing letter, this time regarding the Learning Management System and agent certification. In a relationship where agents take nothing for granted when it comesto Covered California, hundreds of certified agent called the SHOP line to inquire if they were […]
