Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Health Net is bringing primary, preventive and urgent care right to our members — literally. Starting May 1, 2018, your PPO clients — individuals and all group sizes — will have a new way to connect to care with a Heal doctor who can make house calls.
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2019. The final rule will mitigate the harmful impacts of Obamacare and empower states to regulate their insurance market. The rule will do this by advancing the Administration’s goals to increase state flexibility, improve affordability, strengthen program integrity, empower consumers, promote stability, and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The underlying assumption is that honest and ethical people will continue to pay their premiums even after their health care challenge has passed. But these people who cancel the health plan after treatment don’t value health insurance and don’t understand the financial structure necessary to keep the rates low for everyone. Their actions of terminating health insurance after they have received their expensive health care services are driving up the rates for everyone.
Anthem Blue Cross of California has introduced a Medicare Supplement plan that offers vision and hearing benefits. Medicare Part B does not cover eye glasses or hearing aids. The vision and hearing benefits are included in the California Blue Cross Innovative Plan F Medicare Supplement. Glasses And Hearing Aids One of the great frustrations for […]
Inovalon is an independent company that provides secure, clinical documentation services to help make sure members get their diagnoses confirmed, corrected and updated each year. This review helps address potential preventive care gaps, like missed or overdue health screenings.
The question no one can answer for me is if the expanded Medi-Cal HMO capitation rates have been decreasing because there are more healthy people in the Medi-Cal pool? Or are there other factors that are driving down the rates. There must be good money in Medi-Cal as Aetna, Blue Shield, and United Healthcare have all been approved to offer Medi-Cal HMO plans alongside other private health insurance companies such as Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net, Kaiser, and Molina.
In direct response to President Trump’s October 2017 Executive Order, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury (the Departments) issued a proposed rule today that is intended to increase competition, choice, and access to lower-cost healthcare options for Americans. The rule proposes to expand the availability of short-term, limited-duration health insurance by allowing consumers to buy plans providing coverage for any period of less than 12 months, rather than the current maximum period of less than three months.
In December, during the Open Enrollment Period, she enrolled in the previous health plan for the 2018 year. The health plan took her first month’s premium payment, applied it to her past due balance, and then terminated her coverage at Covered California. Under the new rules the health plan is within their rights to take her money and deny her coverage for 2018.
A glaring deficiency in the report is the failure to attribute any decline in enrollments, either on the federal level or at Covered California, to an improving economy. Unemployment is at record low percentages and more people are working for employers who offer group health plans. Covered California’s own small group plans have seen increased enrollment since its inception in 2014 and their budget report estimates continued enrollment growth.
I find it amusing that the strategy to kill off government funded and managed health insurance for people may be the very illustration and demonstration of how single payer can work. The added benefit is a nod to the fact that, if included, volunteer work or family care work is treated as equally valuable as a wage earning job for eligibility for Medicaid. This is an acknowledgement that people volunteering in our communities plays an important role in the maintenance of the community fabric.
Kevin Knauss provides no cost health insurance rate quotes and enrollment.
Kevin Knauss, Education Before Enrollment, Health Insurance Bridge
Visit the IMK File Explorer page to find the latest documents from a variety of health plans for individuals, families, and small groups.
