Under California legislation SB 78, employees of small groups who had previously waived coverage will have a Special Enrollment Period to sign up for health insurance through their employer for 2020.
Covered California for Small Groups
Formerly known as SHOP, Covered California for Small Business employer sponsored small group health insurance plans, enrollment, overview.
Covered California Premiums Higher Than Small Group Rates
The first comparison was of two individuals at a Sacramento company enrolled in a Sutter small group HMO Silver plan. The rate for the 60-year-old employee is $838 and $688 for the 56-year-old employee. An IFP Silver plan directly from Sutter Health Plus HMO is $1,115 for the 60-year-old and $958 for the 56-year-old. The IFP rate is 25% and 28% higher than the small group plan at the respective ages. The lowest IFP plan available to these employees in the Sacramento region is a Kaiser Silver HMO plan at $990 for age 60 and $851 for age 56.
Income questions top Covered California agent forum
Consumers receive letters from Covered California stating that their estimated income doesn’t match with their most recent federal tax return. This has led many consumers to assume that Covered California can actually view a taxpayer’s federal return. Covered California can’t see a consumer’s federal tax return unless they send it to them to verify their income.
Helping small group dependents get Covered California tax subsidy
One of the most frustrating aspects of the Affordable Care Act is that it excludes family members from receiving the premium tax credits to reduce their health insurance if one of the parents is offered affordable employer group health insurance. One way around this problem is for the employer to offer employee only coverage. Covered California for Small Business health insurance exchange offers the employee only option for employers when they set up their group health plans.
Covered California launches new small group marketing
Covered California has released a series of marketing videos to develop interest and drive sales to their small employer group plans. Formerly known as SHOP (Small business Health insurance Options Program), the small employer group offerings, authorized as part of the Affordable Care Act, has been re-branded as Covered California for Small Business. The small employer group marketplace exchange initially flopped as it was beset with an online application process that failed and subsequent management problems that resulted in billing nightmares for many clients. Fortunately, they seem to have righted the foundering small group boat at Covered California.
Agent begs to be paid Covered California SHOP commissions
I’m not above begging. That is essentially what I did when I addressed the Covered California Board at their March 5, 2015 meeting. Since I have not been paid a commission from Covered California’s small group SHOP division in over eight months, I was politely requesting if someone could look into the situation. My […]
My dead beat dad: Covered California SHOP
It’s been over seven months since I heard anything from Covered California’s SHOP program and the commissions they owe me from the small group I helped enroll in their small business health options program. The lack of communication from SHOP is a flash back to over forty years ago when I wouldn’t hear from my […]
Covered California promotes annoying telemarketing constest
Covered California solidified its role as a big marketing machine for health insurance by announcing a contest to promote its Small Business Health Option Program or SHOP. The top producer of quotes for the Covered California small group health plans will win 100 hours of telemarketing according a sales seminar slide shown during their seventh sales […]
Are California SHOP enrollment projections over estimated?
Covered California staff is forecasting that SHOP enrollment will double by the end of 2014 and double again during open enrollment for 2015. A list of assumptions was given for the stellar forecast enrollment during the May 2014 Board meeting where the topic was revenue projections from fees charged on individual small group members. Based […]
Covered California SHOP delays agent commissions
Covered California’s Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) announced on May 7th that agent commissions will once again be delayed. This comes on the heels of last months announcement that SHOP hoped to pay commissions at the end of April. SHOP has had to completely move all billing data for the small groups enrolled onto […]
