Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to the Covered California application, consumer account, estimating income, household size, monthly subsidies, health plans, Medi-Cal, and terminations.
A group of Covered California Certified Insurance Agents have begun organizing the early stages of a class action lawsuit against Covered California for unpaid compensation. Led by John Dickey who earlier took Covered California to small claims court, the goal is to enlist enough health insurance agents with verifiable losses to establish a base for […]
Covered California announced in mid-July they were awarding $10 million in grants to a Navigator program that performed poorly in 2015. Two weeks later Covered California sent out a letter to agents that they would no longer be compensated for assisting individuals and families who are determined eligible for Medi-Cal. For the 2015 open enrollment […]
Covered California has released the preliminary health insurance rates for 2016 conveniently avoiding telling some consumers that they will see a 30% to 44% increase in their monthly rates. While Covered California was massaging the statistics to promote a statewide weighted average increase of only 4%, consumers enrolled in some Blue Shield plans in Northern […]
Covered California has released a list of new and updated documents to help Certified Insurance Agents and Certified Enrollment Counselors assist existing Marketplace exchange members renew their health insurance for 2016. The focus of the renewal tool kit is on consent for verification, immigration and lawful presence, consumers who haven’t filed a 2014 tax return, and […]
For many individuals, families and their children that were award a Medi-Cal health plan based on their estimated Modified Adjusted Gross Income reported through the Covered California application, it can be a daunting task to report a change of income to Medi-Cal. As we have all learned, once Covered California hands of the enrollment to […]
Of the nearly 3 million Californian’s enrolled in Medi-Cal, Covered California estimates that approximately 2 million became newly eligible under the ACA expanded Medi-Cal rules. Many of the new Medi-Cal members are working families and individuals. They have little time to sit on hold with their local county social services department to correct Medi-Cal errors […]
In California there are essentially five different paths to getting health insurance. Each of the different options have varying conditions and restrictions. Below is a summary of the five paths to California health insurance. There is also a short video you can watch titled California Paths to Health Insurance which also explains the five different […]
Covered California has made great strides in reducing consumer telephone wait times and assisting individuals and families with health plan enrollments. What has bubbled to the surface is the failure of the Help Desk to resolve consumer enrollment problems ostensibly created by Covered California’s CalHEERS software. While there is no published data on the length […]
Hidden within every health plan sold through Covered California is a fee to fund their operation. This per member per month (pmpm) fee applies to both individual and family plans, small group plans sold through the exchange and adult dental plans if they are ever offered. These fees, paid by the health plans and insurance […]
A year and half after the launch of Covered California the CalHEERS enrollment website is still a work in progress. Covered California released more instructional briefs on changes they’ve made to the California Health Enrollment Eligibility Retention System (CalHEERS) website. Just when Certified Insurance Agents thought they had figured out how to navigate CalHEERS, new […]
