Blue Shield of California

Posts related to Blue Shield of California, primarily individual and family plans, billing issues, enrollment, health plans, small groups, Medicare.

Blue Shield member premium rate scare letters

June 8, 2016 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

Blue Shield has been sending confusing letters to their members that seem to indicate that the individual or family has lost their Covered California subsidy and they will now have to pay the full premium amount. These premium rate scare letters are automatically generated and do not necessarily reflect the full premium amount will be the consumer’s responsibility. Unfortunately, these confusing letters are throwing consumer’s into a panic generating phone calls to Covered California, Blue Shield, and insurance agents.

Blue Shield online Covered California payments not applied for new members

April 14, 2016 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

As of April 2016, when a consumer makes their first month’s payment for their Blue Shield health plan, the money is never applied to their account.

Do Not Enroll in Blue Shield of California Health Plans

January 12, 2016 By Kevin Knauss 8 Comments

As of January 12, 2016, I cannot recommend any individual or family enroll in a Blue Shield of California health plan either directly with them or through Covered California. As an insurance agent I have been dealing with Blue Shield’s nightmare enrollment, eligibility, and billing fiasco for over three weeks.

Blue Shield’s Bumbling Billing System Stumbles into 2016

December 30, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 2 Comments

Blue Shield of California’s billing system that created major headaches for individuals and families in 2014 continues to stumble into 2016. Even through changes to the enrollment website, the simple tasks of determining an applicant’s eligibility and properly applying a premium still seems elusive to Blue Shield in several instances. For whatever reasons, several of the Blue Shield units – underwriting, eligibility, billing, member services, and IT- don’t seem to talk to one another.

Out of Network costs vary greatly among California PPO health plans

December 21, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 7 Comments

While Covered California standard benefit design health plans have very specific limitations on member responsibility for in-network health care services, the coverage for out-of-network services can vary greatly between PPO health plans. The insurance carriers that offer PPO health plans through Covered California (Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, and UnitedHealthcare) with out-of-network coverage seem to have made up their own rules for this PPO benefit. Because the Covered California individual and family health plans have such narrow networks, many families are finding that they must go out-of-network to receive certain health care services.

$7 office visit, lab copay California family health plan

December 9, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 3 Comments

New for 2016 is a Blue Shield individual and family health plan that offers $7 primary care office visits. The new Blue Shield of California Silver Seven 3750 PPO also has $7 lab tests as well. The trade-off for the low $7 office visits and other health care services is $3,750 deductible and 30% coinsurance for services subject to the deductible.

Blue Shield denies seniors online enrollment

December 6, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 3 Comments

Blue Shield has redesigned their online enrollment website to exclude seniors turning 65 in 2016 from purchasing a health plan directly through their website. If an individual will be turning 65 years old within six months of the effective date of the plan they must apply with a paper application. The only online enrollment option is to use the Covered California enrollment website even if the individual doesn’t qualify for the ACA tax credits.

Blue Shield adds UC providers to networks, sort of

July 18, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 2 Comments

Blue Shield of California announced that they were adding University of California Medical Centers and Physician Groups as preferred providers for their individual and family, small group, and large employer health plan networks. Shortly after the initial announcement the UC hospitals and doctors were in-network; Blue Shield released another announcement to clarify that not all […]

How much do health insurance agents earn?

April 25, 2015 By Kevin Knauss 53 Comments

2020 was the year I was hoping to replace my 2002 CRV with 285,000 miles on it for new hybrid car. I don’t feel particularly optimistic about any significant revenue gains in 2020. While I picked up some new clients for 2020, I also lost just as many who have decided that health insurance is just too expensive.

Blue Shield estimates costs for health care services

March 7, 2015 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

One of the big complaints about health care services is not knowing or being surprised by the cost of medical treatment. Blue Shield of California has taken a modest step toward helping plan members determine the cost of health care services with their new treatment cost estimator tool. Initial reports from clients suggest the […]

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