Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to Health Net of California health insurance plans for individuals, families, small groups, Covered California.
But if you don’t have an account, are trying to help a family member or friend, or are just checking to see if you current mental health provider might be covered in a new health plan, you will have to swim in the sea of confusion for finding the doctor or counselor. Some of the health plans have great online directories and others really suck. Here is an overview of what I learned.
California individual and family plan health insurance carriers have been combating fraudulent enrollment for open and special enrollment periods. Many of the health insurance companies have placed additional requirements on applicants to verify California residency. Unfortunately, enrollments through Covered California, which have virtually no verification of special enrollment eligibility, continue to be a source of high-cost claims from fraudulent enrollments.
One of the first filters in selecting an EPO or PPO individual and family plan, either through Covered California or off-exchange, is determining if your current doctor is in-network. For all the enhancements to online doctor directory search tools, they still suck. They are not consumer friendly. Consumers are given either too many conditions to select or the provider search tool offers too little information.
The Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), who regulates most of the individual and family plans offered through Covered California, has developed a website to allow consumers to compare health insurance companies. The Health Plan Dashboard website does not assign any performance review ratings. But it does give consumers a high level view of some of the data collect on the health plans such as enrollment, complaints, and enforcement actions for medical, dental, and vision plans.
The California individual and family plan market place will be changing quite a bit in 2017. Next to confirming if your favorite doctors are covered by the new health plans, many consumers want to make sure their chosen hospital is in-network as well. From information provided by Covered California and the health plans, I have put together a table of California hospitals by region and the health plans they accept.
All individual and family health insurance plans include a maximum out-of-pocket amount that is the most an individual will pay on in-network health care services for a calendar year. This is particularly important for sole proprietors and self-employed people as one emergency room visit can easily top $20,000, and without health insurance, can imperil the person’s business. The value of the maximum out-of-pocket benefit can be measured and compared between different metal level health plan tiers and carriers as one guide in selecting a health plan.
Health insurance companies are deploying a variety of measures to reduce fraud and abuse such as only accepting paper applications or requiring proof of residency and identity.
California Department of Insurance Commission Dave Jones excoriated Aetna in a news release on December 18th over Aetna’s planned small group premium increases but he was noticeably silent when Health Net submitted a similar rate increase for individuals and families. The average increase for the 2015 Health Net IFP PPO plans is 10.8% while the Aetna small group […]
While Covered California was preparing a large press announcement with the California Medical Association (CMA) about extolling the number of physicians that are participating in Covered California individual and family health plans, Health Net was releasing their list of providers in their new narrow network Exclusive Provider Organizations (EPO) and Health Service Plans (HSP). A search […]
In the confusing landscape of health insurance regulations post ACA implementation, numerous health insurance companies have sent out renewal letters to members with errors. Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Net and even Covered California have had to send follow-up letters to correct erroneous information. Unfortunately, this incorrect correspondence only leads to more confusion surrounding the benefits and renewal […]
