Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Covered California has updated the CalHEERS income section of the individual and family plan application to accommodate partial year employment. This was accomplished with the insertion of simple date fields. Now, instead of the annualized income from a job a client has left, the employment can just have a start and end date. Changes to […]
A significant change to the plan types offered for individuals and families through Covered California for 2015 will be Health Net dropping their Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans. In place of the PPO health plans, Health Net will offer Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) health plans. This change may be particularly significant for members who relied on […]
There have been few changes to the standard benefit design between 2014 and 2015 health plans offered through Covered California. A comparison of the metal levels offered in 2014 to the standard benefit design announced by Covered California for 2015 individual and family plans reveals modest changes to copayment amounts for prescription drugs, maximum out-of-pocket […]
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 […]
On August 4th Covered California rolled out another enhancement to their CalHEERS program called “identity proofing”. Before an account holder, Covered California customer service representative (CSR) or Certified Insurance Agent can either Report a Change or create a new enrollment for a health plan, the primary applicant’s identity must be verified. This “Identity Proofing”, as it […]
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.
For Certified Insurance Agents enrolling clients into health plans through Covered California for an August 1, 2014 effective date, many have been asking why it is taking so long for the enrollment data to be transmitted to the carrier. Customer Service Representatives at Anthem Blue Cross and Covered California acknowledged on July 28th that enrollment […]
One would assume that the probabilities of a second Covered California enrollment nightmare would be less than being struck by lightning. But for one family, lightning has struck not once, but twice. Covered California and Blue Shield have teamed up to disenfranchise all but one family member because the mother delivered a healthy baby boy in […]
The Covered California CalHEERS online enrollment system continues to be upgraded to fix problems and accommodate household changes, but Certified Insurance Agents (CIA) are rarely notified of the updates. As CIAs helped enroll 40% of Covered California’s households and continue to update their clients changes through the system, agents deserve to be provided regular updates […]
The Covered California Board approved a resolution at their June 2014 meeting to allocate $16.9 million toward establishing a Navigator program. Under the new Navigator program organizations awarded grants will be encouraged to open store fronts, theyll receive bonuses for exceeding enrollment projections and theyll be allowed to advertise their services. Short of requiring an […]
