Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to Western Health Advantage (WHA) health plans for individuals and families, small groups, Northern California and Bay Area.
Members of Western Health Advantage (WHA) have been notified that beginning in 2018 they will no longer be able to have a UC Davis Medical Group doctor as their primary care physician. WHA has already started working with current members to transition to a new PCP with Mercy Medical Group, Hill Physicians, Woodland Clinic, or NorthBay Healthcare. However, if you don’t want to give up your UC Davis PCP and specialists, there are other health plans that UC Davis Medical Group will accept.
The Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), who regulates most of the individual and family plans offered through Covered California, has developed a website to allow consumers to compare health insurance companies. The Health Plan Dashboard website does not assign any performance review ratings. But it does give consumers a high level view of some of the data collect on the health plans such as enrollment, complaints, and enforcement actions for medical, dental, and vision plans.
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 whole issue of medical underwriting, and why an applicant is declined, can frequently be a mystery to both the individual and the broker. It was refreshing to hear a discussion from the insurer of what system they were using for the determination of issuing a health insurance policy.
Western Health Advantage (WHA), a regional HMO serving the greater Sacramento region, introduced 3 new individual health insurance plans for their service area in northern California. Up until this time, WHA has focused solely on the small and large group market. Their individual plans will reflect their existing network of hospitals and doctors.
