Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to health insurance for individuals, families, small groups, enrollment, eligibility in California, plans, coverage, benefits.
An unexpected gift to my professional and personal life this past year of 2014 has been the numerous transgender men, women and families I became acquainted with as a health insurance agent. Through numerous conversations and correspondence I realized we had more in common with the transgender community than I previously thought. In reality, most of […]
The IRS has published a taxpayer friendly guide to assist individuals and families with attempting to calculate their Affordable Care Act tax credits. The focus of IRS Publication 5187 Health Care Law: What’s New for Individuals & Families is on the Shared Responsibility Payment (individual mandate penalty) and calculating eligible Premium Tax Credits for 2014. Pub. 5187 is […]
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 […]
The federal government is reaching out to behavioral health counselors and therapist to educate them on how the Affordable Care Act works so they can encourage members of the LGBT community to enroll in an ACA health plans. Sometimes the professionals who provide important health services through health plans offered through Healthcare.gov and CoveredCa.com can be the […]
Blue Shield of California announced that it was getting a slice of the lucrative government Medi-Cal pie with its acquisition of Care1st of Los Angeles County. Blue Shield has been missing the easy money of Medi-Cal payments that Blue Cross, Health Net and Kaiser have been receiving from different California counties when they offer a Medi-Cal managed care HMO […]
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 […]
One of the confusing aspects of the Affordable Care Act is the interchangeable tax terms people use when defining a household. The federal and state exchanges use the terms children or dependents when describing members of a household. The IRS uses the more accurate, but confusing terminology, of personal exemptions as the true test for […]
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 […]
On October 29th, 2014, Chinese Community Health Plan (CCHP) was notified that they were being put on immediate imposition of intermediate sanctions from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The Medicare sanction was triggered by what the CMS auditors concluded were severe violations in the Chinese Community Health Plan Medicare Advantage (MA-PD) plans offered in […]
After four years in the health insurance business I have learned to read the fine print. Health insurance is like a can of fruit cocktail; the essential elements might be in the package but the manufacturer might be adding something you don’t want. Never trust the marketing of any insurance product because they always over […]
