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.
Covered California just announced they received another grant for more marketing of their health plans. In the words of one of the Covered California Board members, Paul Fearer, “I’m concerned about ramping up on media if we aren’t fully prepared to deal or provide excellent customer service in response.” Covered California needs to scrap the slick marketing and “one touch and done” concept to enrollment and open up walk-in enrollment centers to service Californian residents.
At the January 23, 2014 Covered California Board meeting I made public comments regarding the numerous applications for enrollment that had failed to be transmitted to chosen health insurance carriers. I have documented the numerous instances where I’ve enrolled individuals and families into a Covered California health plan only to learn the health insurance company never received the data.
Covered California continues to sabotage their customer service operations by sending out confusing eligibility and verification request letters to new applicants of ACA plans. Individuals and families receiving these letters are confused by Covered California informing them what programs and plans they aren’t eligible for, no mention of what they have enrolled in and requests for documentation they have already uploaded to the CalHEERS enrollment website.
In the wake of the billing nightmare revolving around Covered California ACA health plans, both Kaiser and Health Net have extended their payment deadlines for health plans effective for January 1, 2014. Kaiser will allow new plan members up to January 22 to receive the first month’s premium. Health Net will mirror the recently announced Anthem Blue Cross extension of January 31.
If you are one of the thousands of Californians who have suffered because of the coordination and planning between Covered California and the participating health plans, I hope you will consider filing a complaint against them. While Covered California is one of those bureaucracies that is comfortably insulated from being held accountable for their actions, or lack of there of, the health insurance companies have caused enormous pain and suffering from their fumbling on a number of issues.
I’ve tolerated the many failures of Covered California until yesterday when they absolutely refused to help an applicant that has been left without health insurance. Miss B’s situation where her application has mysteriously become lost after allegedly being transmitted to the carrier is not unique to me or Covered California.
At a hastily arranged conference call for insurance agents to address a variety of issues involving new individual and family health plans for California, the Anthem Blue Cross Regional Sales Manager for Northern California announced they were extending the payment deadline until January 31st for policies sold through Covered California with effective dates of January 1st, 2014. This is the third time Anthem has extended the deadline for new enrollments.
The Executive Director of Covered California, Peter Lee, insinuated that Californians are being lazy when it comes to paying for the first month’s premium of their new health plan. Lee’s statement, released in a press announcement on Friday, would be laughable if it wasn’t insanely out of touch with reality. Californians have been stymied from making their first month’s premium payment because of the failures at Covered California.
When Covered California decided to force health insurance companies to cancel their policies on December 31, 2013, they set in motion a cascading effect that have left many new plan members without access to prescription drug coverage. At least two pharmacies have recognized the problem and are offering help to cover vital prescription medications to new Affordable Care Act health plan members that have yet to received neither member ID numbers nor an invoice.
Families that didn’t have their insurance cancelled by the ill-fated Covered California forced policy cancellation of December 31 are now wrestling if they should make their current health plan premium for January. The utter lack of communication between Covered California and the health plans has left many families without knowing if they do or don’t have health insurance.
