Covered California Application

Posts related to the Covered California application, consumer account, estimating income, household size, monthly subsidies, health plans, Medi-Cal, and terminations.

Democrats, don’t ask me for money

March 2, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 6 Comments

At the dawning of a new era in the United States as we lurch and stumble forward to fulfilling a dream of affordable health insurance for all our residents, I have been disappointed at how many Democratic leaders that helped pass President Obama’s signature first term accomplishment have been missing in action now that the Affordable Care Act is being implemented. When we need political and representational leadership most, the Democrats have abandon ship. To the Democratic Party I say, “Don’t ask me for money for your campaigns.”

Covered California February system crash snares thousands of applications

March 1, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 3 Comments

In an effort to dull the impact of the bad news, Covered California released a statement late on a Friday afternoon detailing how many applications were effected by the previous week’s crash of their website. Covered California estimated that 14,500 applications that were started before the CalHEERS enrollment website went dead for five days may have to be resubmitted. Agents and consumers that started applications on February 17, 18, and 19, while the site was functioning but experiencing problems, before it completely crashed on the 20th may need to resubmit or start a whole new health plan application.

Are Certified Enrollment Counselors prepared to answer health insurance questions?

February 14, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 1 Comment

One of the strategies for enrolling hundreds of thousands of California residents in new Covered California health plans was to have an army of in-person Certified Enrollment Counselors. While these folks are trained on how to fill out the Covered California application, they don’t necessarily have any background in health insurance or how it works. Are the Certified Enrollment Counselors (CEC) qualified to answer simple to complex questions about health insurance and will they be there next month when their client has issue?

Covered California’s SHOP not ready for occupancy

February 13, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 1 Comment

The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) from Covered California has unfortunately proved itself to be just as inept at processing enrollments as the individual and family plan side. What promised to be a stream lined and easy process for small employer groups to offer health insurance to employees through Covered California is beset with a dysfunctional enrollment website and poorly trained support staff. They make Anthem Blue Cross’ decision not to offer plans through SHOP absolutely prophetic.

Will Covered California Medi-Cal claw back payments?

February 11, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 2 Comments

With more working Americans eligible for expanded Medicaid health insurance there is also a growing fear that some government agency will want to seize a recipient’s assets to pay for the health care expenses. Fortunately, the expanded Medicaid, Medi-Cal in California, works under slightly different rules and provides some protection against “claw back” of assets to satisfy health care debt. However, one age group may be subject to Medi-Cal estate recovery rules under expanded Medicaid.

Changing Covered California plans may be hazardous to your health

February 10, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 2 Comments

What should be a simple task of changing from one Covered California health plan to a new one is proving to be no easy switch. The Covered California CalHEERS internet based program seems incapable of handling the switch between health plans for residents. People are complaining of retroactively cancelled policies, odd effective dates and a system unable to handle simple billing issues.

Covered California scraps doctor finder feature

February 8, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 1 Comment

Covered California is finally scrapping their error filled doctor search feature on their ACA enrollment website. Initially conceived to help match families with health plans that supported their current physicians, it had problems from the start. Covered California announced in a press release they will be taking their provider directory offline until further notice.

What are the real Covered California enrollment numbers?

February 7, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 2 Comments

Covered California has provided basic statistics and pretty pie charts on enrollment numbers into the ACA health plans that they offer. But what is left out is the statistical data that economists and demographers would like to have to ascertain if the Affordable Care Act is merely working or if it is actually fulfilling the promise to reduce health disparities in our communities with affordable health insurance.

Health Net slashes agent commissions

February 1, 2014 By Kevin Knauss 5 Comments

Health Net notified all their California agents by a letter dated January 29th, that effective March 1, 2014, they will slash the sales commission by over 50% on four of their five individual and family plans offered in California. This further reduction in compensation for agents since the ACA was passed continues to make customer service oriented health insurance agents a “family of dinosaurs” who will quickly become extinct.

Covered California releases worthless health plan rating report

January 30, 2014 By Kevin Knauss Leave a Comment

In an attempt to help consumers decide on the right health plan, Covered California has compiled a star rating system for the health insurance carriers based on outdated information. Even worse than basing a report on old data is the disastrous customer service that many Californians have experienced from many of these health insurance companies, including Covered California, in the last two months. The horrible customer service and nightmare enrollment process is not reflected in the new quality rating results.

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