Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to California's Medi-Cal program, specifically MAGI based, income eligibility, enrollment, costs, children, Covered California.
The Affordable Care Act has helped provide health insurance to millions of America’s citizens and residents. The accompanying bureaucracy has also created mental health meltdowns for thousands of individuals and families. Through a series of website glitches, bureaucratic rules and purposely designed narrow provider networks, the ACA is delivering unparalleled amounts of stress, anxiety, and for […]
There has been a strong reluctance among unemployed professionals to enroll in the ACA’s expanded Medicaid or Medi-Cal programs. For most people, being a Medi-Cal member just has a stigma they would rather avoid. However, in certain situations, Medi-Cal can be a great solution to avoiding the high premiums of COBRA while letting the professional focus on getting […]
What’s the difference between a Covered California enrollment for a subsidized private plan and Medi-Cal? Nothing when assisted by a Certified Insurance Agent. A Medi-Cal enrollment takes just as much knowledge, experience and time to perform for an agent as an enrollment for a private plan through Covered California. Yet, a Medi-Cal enrollment only yields […]
In recent weeks I’ve been contacted by several consumers who found out they had been enrolled in Medi-Cal while receiving, and still paying, for their subsidized private health insurance through Covered California. Aside from the obvious question of how could this happen, is the reality that Covered California may have been advancing tax credits to private health […]
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 […]
Contrary to Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) statements in their Medi-Cal Essentials webinar, agents will not be receiving any payments for assisting clients that were enrolled into Medi-Cal through a Covered California application in the near future. Recent email communication from Covered California to Certified Insurance Agents suggests thatcompensation of approximately $58 per Medi-Cal […]
Have you ever wondered how one of your Covered California accounts got changed when you know that neither you nor the client touched application? Covered California accounts are being mysteriously changed without the applicants knowledge or consent. If you check the Transaction History of the account you might find that this mysterious user known as […]
Throughout the past year of enrolling individuals and families into the Covered California health plans, Certified Insurance Agents were in the dark when it came to Medi-Cal. The Department of Health Care Services held a webinar on July 31st to review of the essential basics of the Medi-Cal program. Even if you only review the […]
Medi-Cal was one of the biggest mysteries during open enrollment in the new ACA health plans. Even though Covered California advertised a “no wrong door” approach to signing up for health insurance, when a client had to go through the Medi-Cal door, not even Covered California could tell them what to expect. Finally, seven months into the expanded Medi-Cal program, the Department of Health Care Services has finally put together a presentation that goes over the various parts of Medi-Cal and how the system works.
Medi-Cal health insurance premiums paid to managed care health plans or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) is a sizeable sum of money. The California Department of Health Care Services estimates the average monthly cost for each Medi-Cal beneficiary is $611. Expanded Medicaid, where families earning less than 138% of the federal poverty line are automatically enrolled in Medi-Cal through Covered California, encompasses a population who is often healthier and use fewer health care services than beneficiaries who qualified under the original Medi-Cal rules.
