Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to Anthem Blue Cross individual, family, small group, and Medicare health insurance.
In what could be the first consumer driven attempt in California to push down rising health care costs Anthem Blue Cross is flagging facilities in California that are unwilling to pass on deep discounts to its members. Anthem Blue Cross has introduced Tiered Networks into several counties in California with its new ACA compliant health plans in hopes that subscribers will choose less costly facilities
In September, Anthem Blue Cross will be mailing members enrolled in California plans that their health insurance may not be renewed in 2014 as certain plans will be discontinued. Because Blue Cross is selling individual and family insurance through Covered California, the new health care reform insurance market place, they are not allowed to offer non ACA-compliant plans outside of the exchange.
Anthem Blue Cross of California has withdrawn their application to offer small group health insurance plans through Covered California. Unlike the individual and family market health plans purchased through Covered California that will be invoiced directly by the respective carrier, the SHOP plans are to be purchased and administered by Covered California.
While the filed rate increases of Anthem Blue Cross may be unreasonable that hardly justifies their being banned from the Covered California small employer group program. There is also the prospect that Anthem Blue Cross might be forecasting a sharp drop in membership of their small group plans as small businesses abandon the plans or employees leave to purchase subsidized health insurance through Covered California.
It’s hard to compare the plans side by side because of the diversity populations they serve and lack of data on some of the health insurance companies. Much of the information about the different health plans and companies is spread out over several different agencies, reports and websites.
The larger point of Anthem’s discussion is that rising health care costs have several roots. There is no one culprit that is driving costs.
It was an urgent plea by an insurance company that I had to act now to save Medicare Advantage Plans.
This latest premium increase must have created a greater exodus of members than they had anticipated.
I now know that I have been having outbreaks of the shingles on my legs these past couple of years.
Health insurers cloak their opposition in the form of membership and donations to organizations that appear to be consumer friendly but advocate for changes in the ACA that will benefit the insurance companies.
