Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to Blue Shield of California for individuals, families, small groups, Medicare, Medi-Cal, Covered California.
Blue Shield of California has agreed to allow upwards of 115,000 individual and family plan members to keep their existing policies through March 31, 2014. The press release from the office of Insurance Commissioner Jones indicated the agreement to allow the policy holders to keep their plans past the original December 31, 2013 cancellation date was the result of a late filing or notification requirement for plan closures on the part of Blue Shield.
Covered California released their small business health option plans (SHOP) for small employers and they might prove competitive for some companies with less than 50 employees. There will absolutely be small businesses that will not participate because they don’t want to support any government bureaucracy, even if it is to their benefit.
Health insurance company Blue Shield of California announced that they will be sending rebate checks for certain health insurance plans that didn’t meet the Medical Loss Ratio in 2012. Some large and small employer groups along with individual and family plan members will receive rebates equivalent to .2% up to 3.4% of their 2012 premiums.
Children’s dental insurance options have now been added to the line of plans being offered through California’s health insurance exchange Covered California. Part of the ten Essential Health Benefits that must be offered through the new health insurance exchanges or Marketplaces is pediatric dental. The state exchanges can meet this requirement in various ways and Covered California has opted to offer stand alone plans.
Covered California will be offering 13 different health insurance plans to individuals and families. Some of the plans will be offered through large commercial insurance companies and other from smaller regional organizations. Ten of the thirteen plans have some form of easily accessible report card on their services from either a state agency or accreditation organization.
It’s hard to compare the plans side by side because of the diversity populations they serve and lack of data on some of the health insurance companies. Much of the information about the different health plans and companies is spread out over several different agencies, reports and websites.
Only two plans, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California will be available in all the 19 regions in California. All of the regions will have at least 3 health insurance plans to choose from. Many of the plans are region specific to areas such as San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. In addition, some of the plans have concentrated primarily in Medi-Cal and Medicare market and this will be their first push into the individual market.
Blue Shield of California outlines the new health insurer and transitional reinsurance tax to be levied on all plans in 2014.
Blue Shield of California, new endorsement clarifying health care services for transgender individuals who people who are transitioning. 2013
With the release of the Covered California Standard Benefit Plans and the Cost Estimator on the website, health insurance plans through California’s health insurance exchange may prove to be unaffordable for what consumers expect.
