Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to health insurance agents in California working with Covered California, small groups, and the different health plans. Also known as brokers.
Consumers who were unable to create an online account or start their online application because of technical difficulties can contact a Covered California Certified Insurance Agent to explain that they attempted to get through on March 31 and experienced difficulties. Those consumers will have until 11:59 p.m. April 15 to work with the Certified Insurance Agent to complete their application and choose a plan.
As the ACA open enrollment winds down, attention now turns to helping individuals and families in the new health plans actually get health care from their insurance. While there have been significant challenges just getting people signed up for health insurance, there will surely be additional hurdles as households now try to use the new health plans. For most people, they have no advocate to help them maneuver through the maze set up by health care professionals and insurance plans. Who will be the health insurance advocates for these families?
Outside of open enrollment there will be few opportunities to switch health plans unless the individual or family has a qualifying event such as moving to a new region. In all cases, if you are making the change through your Covered California account, you’ll need to terminate participation in the current health plan, create a change report and then select a new health plan.
With no website and no functioning customer service, Covered California’s SHOP for small groups has ceased to exist. There may be a glimmer of hope for a return, but it is painfully apparent that SHOP is wrestling above its weight class. Whether their total melt-down is a function of poor vision and management from Covered California executive management and Board is anyone’s guess. That is a moot point when small groups that earnestly wanted to support and participate in the ACA have been handed plate of food contaminated with mold and weevils.
Blue Shield of California sent notices to their appointed insurance agents that the agent’s Social Security number had been displayed during the course of member’s online payment. The letter from Blue Shield, dated February 18, notifying agents of the breach to their private personal information does not mention how many agents had their Social Security number’s compromised. While I was not shocked to receive the letter informing me that my personal information was displayed, I was angry that Blue Shield let this happen.
One of the strategies for enrolling hundreds of thousands of California residents in new Covered California health plans was to have an army of in-person Certified Enrollment Counselors. While these folks are trained on how to fill out the Covered California application, they don’t necessarily have any background in health insurance or how it works. Are the Certified Enrollment Counselors (CEC) qualified to answer simple to complex questions about health insurance and will they be there next month when their client has issue?
The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) from Covered California has unfortunately proved itself to be just as inept at processing enrollments as the individual and family plan side. What promised to be a stream lined and easy process for small employer groups to offer health insurance to employees through Covered California is beset with a dysfunctional enrollment website and poorly trained support staff. They make Anthem Blue Cross’ decision not to offer plans through SHOP absolutely prophetic.
Health Net notified all their California agents by a letter dated January 29th, that effective March 1, 2014, they will slash the sales commission by over 50% on four of their five individual and family plans offered in California. This further reduction in compensation for agents since the ACA was passed continues to make customer service oriented health insurance agents a “family of dinosaurs” who will quickly become extinct.
At the January 23, 2014 Covered California Board meeting I made public comments regarding the numerous applications for enrollment that had failed to be transmitted to chosen health insurance carriers. I have documented the numerous instances where I’ve enrolled individuals and families into a Covered California health plan only to learn the health insurance company never received the data.
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.
