ACA sign Up

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Sue J said:
And if you try to log on late at night you get the "The System Is Down for Maintenance" message!
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Sad but true.

MRG
 
I looked at the above link when REWahoo first posted it. Unfortunately, none of the "typical scenarios" provided in that link fits my situation (two pregeezers with no dependents). See excerpt below.


The table below shows premiums for the following rating scenarios:

Adult individual = age 27
Adult individual = age 50
Family = 2 adults age 30, 2 children
Family single parent = 1 adult age 30, 2 children
Couple = 2 adults age 40, no children
Child = 1 child any age​
 
Accidental Retiree said:
From the article:

"Moreover, once consumers are able to see which medical providers are part of the insurance networks, they might be in for a bit of a surprise: In an effort to keep premiums low, some major insurance companies are limiting the numbers of doctors and hospitals they are offering consumers.

Blue Shield of California confirmed to this newspaper that it will offer only 50 percent of its network doctors and 75 percent of its network hospitals to those who sign up for its exchange plans. Anthem Blue Cross of California will offer 95 percent of its hospitals to exchange customers -- but only 60 percent of its network doctors to consumers, said company spokeswoman Leslie Porras.

. . .

Similarly, Blue Shield spokeswoman Lindy Wagner said the company is confident that its networks will be adequate for its Covered California customers. "We want to keep our exchange product affordable," Wagner said.

California's new health exchange still doesn't list doctors and hospitals - Inside Bay Area
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Hmmm....while I personally haven't experienced this issue, I have heard various stories over the years about going to an "in-network" hospital/ER/surgery center - only to get the bill after the fact and find out that the nurse, attending physician and bed were "in-network", but the anesthesiologist and specialist physician were "out of network", and were billed the out-of-network rate.

With exchange policies having even fewer facilities and doctors in-network, I wonder if the above will become an even bigger issue with in-network vs out-of-network pricing after the fact?
 
Does anyone know why the size of the network effects the costs to the insurance company and therefore the cost of the policy?

Why does more choice for the policyholder cost more? I guess the implication is that some hospital networks and doctors are much more expensive than others.
 
Buckeye said:
Does anyone know why the size of the network effects the costs to the insurance company and therefore the cost of the policy?

Why does more choice for the policyholder cost more? I guess the implication is that some hospital networks and doctors are much more expensive than others.
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The negotiation on price (for each service) between insurance company and hospital system is based on the relative size of each. General Motors pays less for each wiper blade than you do.
 
travelover said:
The negotiation on price (for each service) between insurance company and hospital system is based on the relative size of each. General Motors pays less for each wiper blade than you do.
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So are you saying larger hospital systems can demand higher reimbursement rates from the insurance companies so they are left out of the cheaper plans?

Or that insurance companies can negotiate much better prices which still makes me wonder why the networks are limited in cheaper plans?
 
And the odyssey continues ....

After a week of seeing that my application was in process, I log in today to see "continue enrollment." The big difference is arhat now, everything is being doubled up .... My wife and I show up twice each and it's expecting us to enroll in two different plans each. Playing along, I go into the system and try to delete one plan....no go. And when I hit "enroll" it pops up a premium that indicates that it's been doubled.

So.......

Called the 800 number.

Just off the phone, spent more than an hour with their rep and the end result was,

Wait ......

You know it's coming .......

"There must be a glitch in the system that's causing this!"

I'm told (again) that I'll receive a call from a "resolution specialist" within 2 days to get this taken care of ..... But, of course, if I don't, to please call back.

I'm guessing if I log on tomorrow morning, I'll find something else new and exciting.

(And we will see if there actually is a call back this time!)
 
I am in identity verification purgatory so I created an account this morning with DH as the primary. I made it all the way through the application submission and received notification I was eligible for a subsidy.

I went back to the website to view plans and prices but can't get there. I called and it's the same thing everyone else is getting. "Must be a glitch" or "please try again later when the system is not under stress."

I made the application about 7 am. I'll try again late this evening.
 
Buckeye said:
I am in identity verification purgatory so I created an account this morning with DH as the primary. I made it all the way through the application submission and received notification I was eligible for a subsidy.

I went back to the website to view plans and prices but can't get there. I called and it's the same thing everyone else is getting. "Must be a glitch" or "please try again later when the system is not under stress."

I made the application about 7 am. I'll try again late this evening.
Click to expand...
The same thing happened to me. I am still waiting for the callback....
 
Buckeye said:
I am in identity verification purgatory so I created an account this morning with DH as the primary. I made it all the way through the application submission and received notification I was eligible for a subsidy. I went back to the website to view plans and prices but can't get there. I called and it's the same thing everyone else is getting. "Must be a glitch" or "please try again later when the system is not under stress." I made the application about 7 am. I'll try again late this evening.
Click to expand...

Yes....I love the "system not under stress" comment. If you attempt to go on late at night, the system is down for maintenance. If you log on early in the morning, it's like rush hour on the freeway. If you try to log on mid-day, you're told that it's a peak time.

Funny....Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn never seem to be under too much stress........but then again, maybe they actually mean "us" when talking about the system. Perhaps they should rephrase and say "please log on again when you can better handle the stress!"

And so it goes .......
 
I'm as far as having my ID verified, eligibility confirmed, subsidy letter and ready to enroll. I can browse plans, filter choices (although that doesn't always work) and save plans for later perusal. I'm quite pleased that I'm at this step because the first 2 weeks of this odyssey were like being caught in a corn maze, with no one on duty to help you navigate.

Anyway, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about our plan options and running into pages not working when I go to see details or try to check the provider network, drug formulary of other official plan info.

I'm going to make a few calls to providers.
 
Sue J said:
I'm as far as having my ID verified, eligibility confirmed, subsidy letter and ready to enroll. I can browse plans, filter choices (although that doesn't always work) and save plans for later perusal. I'm quite pleased that I'm at this step because the first 2 weeks of this odyssey were like being caught in a corn maze, with no one on duty to help you navigate.

Anyway, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about our plan options and running into pages not working when I go to see details or try to check the provider network, drug formulary of other official plan info.

I'm going to make a few calls to providers.
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What state do you live in? It's nice to see at least one person can actually look at plans. Maybe if you find all the bugs, they can fix them before the rest of us get that far.:)
 
CoveredCA is looking much better today

There are still certificate issues with both sites, whether www or not, on and off, but I finally made it in.

Once I got onto the website I got through the application process and all the way through to where I can hit "Enroll,"but haven't hit the button yet.

Initially, we were going with Anthem's HDHP, but we aren't sure we can keep our doctors and our local hospital. CA doesn't have doctors and hospitals available yet, so I'm going to hold off before enrolling.

If we can't get our current doctors and preferred hospital in the plan, we will go with Kaiser. Consumer Reports rates Northern CA Kaiser very highly, and anyone I know who has them has always been pleased. I figured we can try it for a year, and if we think we need to change next year, we can.
 
jflynn4 said:
"resolution specialist" within 2 days to get this taken care of ..... But, of course, if I don't, to please call back.
Click to expand...

Wow we had the same thing it duplicated us. I called was told two business days. That was up on Monday, called today asking why no callback? Rep says 'that groups really busy right now', I'm trying to stay calm, but have to ask if 'their too busy to meet the commitments they made'?

Rep takes my info entered an application for me. I ask how will I see this? Oh wait a few days, it should show up under your account. Of course I ask what one, she confirms its the account that is unusable, so she claims she switched it to the one I can log into, of course now I'm waiting......

The specialist did drop a VM while I'm on this call. I guess I can call back for the next 30 days about my duplicate data, need to call from the correct phone number. This gets sillier every day.

MRG
 
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tomz said:
What state do you live in? It's nice to see at least one person can actually look at plans. Maybe if you find all the bugs, they can fix them before the rest of us get that far.:)
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I'm in Ohio and using www.healthcare.gov. Very surprised I've been able to progress this far. I wonder what happens if I click ENROLL. Haven't tried that yet.
 
Tried accessing the healthcare.gov site this morning using the ID I had setup last week -- no go.
I then created a different gmail account, forwarding all of the email from the new account to my main email account, cause I get easily confused with multiple email acounts :(
Then went into healthcare.gov, created a new ID w/new email address -- all fine and good.
I have progressed to the point where my application is IN PROGRESS !
Yahoo!
 
Set up an account for my GF this weekend on the Colorado Exchange. Went fairly smoothly although all quotes were without subsidy included. Used on line chat and found out the I had inadvertently skipped that section. They reset the account and it now shows costs with subsidies included.

Keep in mind that in Colorado a grand total of 18,000 people have created an account and only 300 have actually purchased. Think the marketing campaign may have missed its mark.

All in all the site works pretty well. Probably because at this point it is getting very little use.
 
MRG said:
The specialist did drop a VM while I'm on this call. I guess I can call back for the next 30 days about my duplicate data, need to call from the correct phone number. This gets sillier every day.

MRG
Click to expand...

So I return the call and ask about 'ARC' escalation call. Gentleman is very helpful but can find no escalation on either of our phone numbers. He admits they wouldn't call me unless there was an escalation, but can't transfer me.

So another two business days.

He did find the application done on phone today, its incomplete. He says he marks it completed. Who knows.

I did thank him for all his assistance, then asked if he could tranfer me to the folks that designed the website. We both had a good laugh.

MRG
 
After not being able to log in to the account I had set up a month or two ago, and not getting the password reset email that was promised to come within 2 hours, I created a new account with a different email address this morning and sailed through it, and least as far as seeing my policy options. I did not try to enroll. It was a bit cumbersome and there were times when I had to enter the same info on two different screens, and everytime I went to the Next page it took between 10-60 seconds for that page to appear, but I did get through. I even logged back in a second time and was able to pretty quickly resume where I had left off. It's not a very well designed user interface but it worked for me.
 
Transcript from my online chat this afternoon:

1:26:01 pm]: Thanks for contacting Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat. Please wait while we connect you to someone who can help.
[1:26:04 pm]: Please be patient while we're helping other people. [1:26:22 pm]: Please be patient while we're helping other people. [1:26:31 pm]: Welcome! You're now connected to Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat.
Thanks for contacting us. My name is travis. To protect your privacy, please don't provide any personal information, like Social Security Number, or any other sensitive medical or personal information.
[1:26:56 pm]: travis How may I help you?
[1:27:06 pm]: Zed Hi, quick question if you please. I successfully completed an online application this morning. How long on average are the reviews taking?
[1:28:21 pm]: travis Thank you for your question today. It will take me just a moment to review and respond to your question.
[1:28:33 pm]: Zed It says my application is "In Progress"
[1:29:41 pm]: travis We understand the eagerness to get your Account set up, your Application filled out and even viewing the results. However, due to high traffic on the website we are experiencing glitches. We are aware of these issues, and are working around the clock to correct them for you. Open enrollment started October 1, 2013 and ends March 31, 2014. We thank you for your continued patience, and know that we are here to help you by phone and online.
[1:30:37 pm]: Zed So in other words -- you dont know?
[1:32:09 pm]: Zed I have to add that I was rather impressed with the website when I went in this morning. Hence I was thinking things are looking much better
[1:32:31 pm]: travis Because we have not been able to resolve your current technical issue(s) (stated technical issue) with the Lite Account Tool, please contact the Marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596. Once connected to the call center, please let the agent know that you have already attempted to resolve (stated technical issue) with the web chat team and that you now are needing further assistance.

Gee that was helpful :)
If I ever get tired of being FIREd I could go and not work for the gub'mint.
 
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tomz said:
The same thing happened to me. I am still waiting for the callback....
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Never got the callback. However after logging in 3 times today, my application is done and I can look at plans. There are 3 companies and most are hmos. The lowest cost silver plan from Coventry is an HMO that does not have any doctors within 100 miles of where I live. I'm not sure how they can say they are offering coverage in my county. If I lived in Wyoming, I could understand how something like this could happen, but I live in Florida. In any event, I am definitely making progress. The plan filtering is slow and buggy, but the basic info is there. I hope it is still there next time I log in.:)

As mentioned before, I can't get in with Chrome, but Firefox and IE both work.
 
MRG said:
Wow we had the same thing it duplicated us. I called was told two business days. That was up on Monday, called today asking why no callback? Rep says 'that groups really busy right now', I'm trying to stay calm, but have to ask if 'their too busy to meet the commitments they made'? Rep takes my info entered an application for me. I ask how will I see this? Oh wait a few days, it should show up under your account. Of course I ask what one, she confirms its the account that is unusable, so she claims she switched it to the one I can log into, of course now I'm waiting...... The specialist did drop a VM while I'm on this call. I guess I can call back for the next 30 days about my duplicate data, need to call from the correct phone number. This gets sillier every day. MRG
Click to expand...

Well, believe it or not, I got a callback in about an hour .....

And, believe it or not, all the "resolution specialist" could really tell me was that it was (yep!) a "glitch in the system" that they are working to fix. What was interesting is that he first told me "what you need to do is to delete one of the duplicates." (Wish I'd thought of that). I asked him how to do so, that I'd seen no way that I could remove anything once if was in there. His answered floored me ... "Our technicians are working on that issue now and may have it ready for consumer use today but it may take longer." So, I asked him how he'd recommend I proceed ... He told me that I should wait a few days to see if they have the fix in place and, if not, to call them back.

Of course.....glitch in the system.... Wait a few days...... We are working on it .... Call us back.

I'm wondering If they're actually adding to the response script on a daily basis or whether they just go down the list and I've been lucky enough to get them in succession?
 
Buckeye said:
So are you saying larger hospital systems can demand higher reimbursement rates from the insurance companies so they are left out of the cheaper plans?

Or that insurance companies can negotiate much better prices which still makes me wonder why the networks are limited in cheaper plans?
Click to expand...
I'm saying that each insurance company negotiates rates with each provider. That is why there is no one price on health care services, like there is for merchandise at Walmart. The relative leverage of each entity (insurance company or health care provider) determines where that negotiated price ends up. A big insurance company can steer away enough business to sink a small healthcare provider, while a big health care provider has enough clout to command premium prices from the insurance company. The insurance companies factor in the negotiated rates when they decide which hospitals are "in network" to ensure that they make a profit.
 
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