Covered California

Posts on the development and implementation of the California health insurance market place, application, account, enrollment, termination.

IRS limits on ACA Advance Premium Tax Credit repayment

January 16, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 43 Comments

One of the hidden dangers of the Affordable Care Act’s Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) provision to lower the cost of health insurance is the possibility of having too much tax credit issued for the tax payer’s final income. If the ACA applicant doesn’t report increases to the household income during the year, which triggers a corresponding decrease in premium assistance, the tax payer will be liable to pay the excess back. Fortunately, there are limits to the repayment of excess APTC based on household income.

Kaiser and Health Net extend Covered California payment deadline

January 16, 2014 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

In the wake of the billing nightmare revolving around Covered California ACA health plans, both Kaiser and Health Net have extended their payment deadlines for health plans effective for January 1, 2014. Kaiser will allow new plan members up to January 22 to receive the first month’s premium. Health Net will mirror the recently announced Anthem Blue Cross extension of January 31.

File a complaint against Covered California and ACA health plans

January 14, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 74 Comments

If you are one of the thousands of Californians who have suffered because of the coordination and planning between Covered California and the participating health plans, I hope you will consider filing a complaint against them. While Covered California is one of those bureaucracies that is comfortably insulated from being held accountable for their actions, or lack of there of, the health insurance companies have caused enormous pain and suffering from their fumbling on a number of issues.

Covered California makes me want to vote Republican

January 14, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 3 Comments

I’ve tolerated the many failures of Covered California until yesterday when they absolutely refused to help an applicant that has been left without health insurance. Miss B’s situation where her application has mysteriously become lost after allegedly being transmitted to the carrier is not unique to me or Covered California.

Anthem Blue Cross California extends payment until January 31st

January 13, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 3 Comments

At a hastily arranged conference call for insurance agents to address a variety of issues involving new individual and family health plans for California, the Anthem Blue Cross Regional Sales Manager for Northern California announced they were extending the payment deadline until January 31st for policies sold through Covered California with effective dates of January 1st, 2014. This is the third time Anthem has extended the deadline for new enrollments.

Peter Lee accuses Californians of being lazy

January 11, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 4 Comments

The Executive Director of Covered California, Peter Lee, insinuated that Californians are being lazy when it comes to paying for the first month’s premium of their new health plan. Lee’s statement, released in a press announcement on Friday, would be laughable if it wasn’t insanely out of touch with reality. Californians have been stymied from making their first month’s premium payment because of the failures at Covered California.

Prescription help for new ACA plan members with no health insurance

January 8, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 1 Comment

When Covered California decided to force health insurance companies to cancel their policies on December 31, 2013, they set in motion a cascading effect that have left many new plan members without access to prescription drug coverage. At least two pharmacies have recognized the problem and are offering help to cover vital prescription medications to new Affordable Care Act health plan members that have yet to received neither member ID numbers nor an invoice.

Covered California creates confusion with extended payment deadline

January 7, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 5 Comments

Families that didn’t have their insurance cancelled by the ill-fated Covered California forced policy cancellation of December 31 are now wrestling if they should make their current health plan premium for January. The utter lack of communication between Covered California and the health plans has left many families without knowing if they do or don’t have health insurance.

Covered California ignores pregnant woman’s plea for health insurance

January 4, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 10 Comments

A pregnant Bay Area woman who applied for health insurance through Covered California in November and has yet to receive any notification from her selected health plan or Covered California must now consider cancelling her prenatal doctor visits for lack of insurance. When asked about the status of the woman’s application a Covered California call center staffer said that it can take weeks for the insurance companies to receive the application. Essentially, Covered California has decided to ignore the woman, her family and unborn baby.

ACA group health plan rule set to punish families

January 2, 2014 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

The Affordable Care Act regulations preclude individuals and families from receiving tax credits to lower health insurance premiums bought through an exchange if they are offered employer sponsored health insurance that is deemed to be affordable and meets minimum value. This rule is actually denying some families access to affordable health insurance and is set to penalize other families with a huge IRS tax bill in 2015.

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