Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to L. A. Care Covered for individuals and families through Covered California.
I will note that when selecting the UCLA Medical Group from the drop-down list on the L. A. Care website, it will specify that limited enrollment is available. I don’t know if that means only the participating primary care physicians will accept a limited number of L. A. Care members or if the entire UCLA Medical Group is limited.
This is a review of the responses to the Coronavirus Covid-19 health care issues from the websites of most of the individual and family plan carriers in California. Some websites detail the response and cost of Covid-19 health care issues better than other. They all seem to be covering Covid-19 testing at no cost. The cost of other health care services are subject to the plan benefits.
This enforcement action is a result of 21 cases involving 63 consumer grievance violations that occurred during 2014 through 2017. In these cases, L.A. Care deprived enrollees of their rights to medical care. The plan has acknowledged its failure to comply with the law, and the Department has determined that an administrative penalty and Corrective Action Plan are warranted. The corrective actions include employee training and increased oversight of the grievance and appeals system.
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.
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.
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.
How health insurance companies and health plans determine premium rate increases is a little bit of a mystery. Covered California didn’t add to the consumer’s understanding of this process when they released their 2015 health insurance booklet. The plan rates booklet is mostly marketing material and fails to provide specific rates by region, carrier, and […]
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act all individual and family plans now include coverage for maternity care. These new health services, many of which are provided at no cost to the patient, also extend to the new born. Prominent in many private health plans is coverage for routine infant circumcision.
Covered California has been assuring health insurance agents that they will be an important part of the effort to enroll millions of residents in affordable health insurance. Unfortunately, many of the health plans they have selected for the California market place are giving insurance agents the cold shoulder.
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.
