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[Accidental Retiree]

Any Success with Covered CA?

Has anyone here who signed up on California's exchange actually received anything from their chosen insurer?

I reported earlier this week that I called Anthem since Covered CA said I'm enrolled and that I should be hearing from my insurer about making payment.
I hadn't received anything, so I called.

Anthem could not confirm that I am in their system because "the system just went down," but the Anthem rep assured me that invoices had been mailed out.
To date, nothing has arrived. Maybe in today's mail....

 

[M Paquette]

Has anyone here who signed up on California's exchange actually received anything from their chosen insurer?

I got mine! I signed up Nov 1. The letter saying I was in provisionally (pending income verification) was posted Nov 15. I've sent them the requested documentation. Meanwhile, my selected insurance provider (Kaiser Permanente) sent out the welcome letter and initial bill Nov 26, which I received and paid Dec 2.

I'll probably hear back on the income verification in late February or early March. If I don't get the subsidy then, I'll probably get it as a tax credit when I file 2014 taxes, as I bought the coverage through the exchange to qualify.

 

[wolf]

Has anyone here who signed up on California's exchange actually received anything from their chosen insurer?

I reported earlier this week that I called Anthem since Covered CA said I'm enrolled and that I should be hearing from my insurer about making payment.
I hadn't received anything, so I called.

Anthem could not confirm that I am in their system because "the system just went down," but the Anthem rep assured me that invoices had been mailed out.
To date, nothing has arrived. Maybe in today's mail....

Live in Calif. San Francisco - bay area.

Completed Covered Ca, application, Nov. 12.

Wife called Blue Shield, Dec. 6. Blue shield, said, they are still waiting
for Covered CA to send them our information.

Wife called Covered Ca today, was told information was being sent out.
(not sure if this was just talk or fact).

Blue shield cannot issue insurance policy until
Blue shield receives our application from
Covered California.

 

[Disappointed]

Live in Calif. San Francisco - bay area.

Completed Covered Ca, application, Nov. 12.

Wife called Blue Shield, Dec. 6. Blue shield, said, they are still waiting
for Covered CA to send them our information.

Wife called Covered Ca today, was told information was being sent out.
(not sure if this was just talk or fact).

Blue shield cannot issue insurance policy until
Blue shield receives our application from
Covered California.

Boy, this makes me nervous, I completed mine last week and waiting for Blue Shield to contact me so I can pay them. What number did you call to verify with Blue Shield?

 

[2retireearly]

When I 'sleuthed' around and found a number for Anthem Blue Cross Health Keepers plan, in Virginia, and called it, on Thursday (supposedly was approved for my subsidized plan about 4am Monday), the very nice man, told me that all packets were to be mailed out by Dec 15th. If I don't receive mine, then DON'T PANIC. But call them then, and they would WORK IT OUT. He understood my panic over this whole thing, but said for me to wait until that date..and they WOULD work it out. So....that is what I am doing.

 

[Free_at_49]

When I 'sleuthed' around and found a number for Anthem Blue Cross Health Keepers plan, in Virginia, and called it, on Thursday (supposedly was approved for my subsidized plan about 4am Monday), the very nice man, told me that all packets were to be mailed out by Dec 15th. If I don't receive mine, then DON'T PANIC. But call them then, and they would WORK IT OUT. He understood my panic over this whole thing, but said for me to wait until that date..and they WOULD work it out. So....that is what I am doing.

Blue Cross plan in VA? The Marketpalce here in NC only had plans from Blue Cross, no other insurance companies competing. Is your new rate lower than before?

 

[gardenfun]

Has anyone here who signed up on California's exchange actually received anything from their chosen insurer?

I reported earlier this week that I called Anthem since Covered CA said I'm enrolled and that I should be hearing from my insurer about making payment.
I hadn't received anything, so I called.

Anthem could not confirm that I am in their system because "the system just went down," but the Anthem rep assured me that invoices had been mailed out.
To date, nothing has arrived. Maybe in today's mail....

Finally got around to choosing my plan on coveredca yesterday. Will let you know when I hear something from Blue Shield.

Hey fellow Californians--in the Verification stage on coveredca, it says I'm provisionally approved for subsidies, and states that I need to submit documentation by January 31st. When I click on the link "Submit documents", however, I get an Error message. Have any of you tried to submit documentation to verify income and get the subsidies? Thanks!

 

[MRG]

Well I hit the 'Enroll' button. System now says I'm completed. The application is set to ' initial enrollment'. I'll call BCBS tomorrow to see if they have my application. Only thing that seemed odd is the broker that I told I'd enter her name and FFMID ID, didn't see anyplace to do that.

MRG

 

[M Paquette]

Hey fellow Californians--in the Verification stage on coveredca, it says I'm provisionally approved for subsidies, and states that I need to submit documentation by January 31st. When I click on the link "Submit documents", however, I get an Error message. Have any of you tried to submit documentation to verify income and get the subsidies? Thanks!

The submission online option was disabled last week.

For the latest request (images of Social Security cards; The SSA computers stopped talking to the exchange...) I'll be using a novel approach called Certified Mail. These nice folks in an actual building downtown say that they'll get the documents to CoveredCa for me for a small fee, and provide proof the documents were delivered.

 

[reubenray]

I contacted BCBSLA about our new policy. She asked for the application ID#. She then said to send in a payment and this would start the policy up. They would then send out our cards and info package.

This wasnt' the way I figured it would play out, but I guess it will work.

 

[ziggy29]

I contacted BCBSLA about our new policy. She asked for the application ID#. She then said to send in a payment and this would start the policy up. They would then send out our cards and info package.

This wasnt' the way I figured it would play out, but I guess it will work.

The hold times for BCBSTX are currently well over an hour. I don't know if it's much better next door, but in terms of making sure you can get paid up the clock is ticking and it's getting really unnerving.

 

[gardenfun]

The submission online option was disabled last week.

For the latest request (images of Social Security cards; The SSA computers stopped talking to the exchange...) I'll be using a novel approach called Certified Mail. These nice folks in an actual building downtown say that they'll get the documents to CoveredCa for me for a small fee, and provide proof the documents were delivered.

Thanks, M--how nice that they have a link that they disabled and didn't bother to mention it!

How did you learn which documents were required? I couldn't find any mention of required documents.

I suppose I could call the 800 number and be on hold while watching a movie....

 

[fisherman]

Want to provide an update on this in case others experience something similar.

First I did the new email with wife as primary, etc. which resulted in the eligibility of my wife and me to shop on the exchange with a subsidy but one of my children was completely declined for any coverage whatsoever while the other was indicated as being eligible for Medicaid.

Decided then to create a new email, id, etc. back with my SS# as primary again to see what will happen and whether we would even be allowed to resubmit a new application since they already had a completed one for all of us indicating we qualified for Medicaid. This time though, I got the same eligibility as above with my wife's primary SS# with me and my wife being eligible for the exchange with a subsidy but one child completely declined for any coverage whatsoever and the second eligible for Medicaid. I tried various applications with both SS#'s as primary with different insurance options and all resulted in the same eligibility determination.

I have nothing unique in my family case of four and we all should be eligible for the exchange and family subsidy as was initially determined in our original app from early Oct that got stuck which was also substantiated by an number of subsidy calculators such as Kaiser and others.

All I can think is that something must now be screwed up with the algorithm for our state. I saw a similar situation posted from someone on the site blog (not sure if our state or not though) so think not just me but have no idea what to do at this point other than wait and hopefully gets resolved. Calling the 800# as I did initially will result in a CS rep indicating the need to file an appeal that can take 90 days for resolution. What a PITA!!!

I am in that boat now as detailed in another thread I started called Enrolled then denied. I wish you luck. I have filed the paper appeal as I have not had a call back on the other account that worked then was denied by BCBS. They say you will get a call in 2-5 days but its been over 30 and I call once a week to escalate. It seems we are in the computer confused states and they only real options is an identify change to be able to start fresh which I am not doing.

I wonder if we can sue the government over the money we will lose each month until they get it fixed?

 

[reubenray]

The hold times for BCBSTX are currently well over an hour. I don't know if it's much better next door, but in terms of making sure you can get paid up the clock is ticking and it's getting really unnerving.

I may have waited 5 minutes if that much.

 

[MRG]

I may have waited 5 minutes if that much.

I'm north BCBSKC.
I waited 20 minutes, then they were going to bring on an underwriter to check if they received my application. That transfer ened up in someone's voice mail. So another 20 minutes on hold. This young lady says it takes a week to get from the exchange to them. I had to ask jokingly, if there were horses involved in that process? She agreed to transfer me to marketing. The marketing person says it a nightly feed, but thinks the weekend is batched up till tonight.

She said she'd put in a request for information today, at COB. She'll call me tomorrow.

MRG

 

[skyline]

Has anyone here who signed up on California's exchange actually received anything from their chosen insurer?

I reported earlier this week that I called Anthem since Covered CA said I'm enrolled and that I should be hearing from my insurer about making payment.
I hadn't received anything, so I called.

Anthem could not confirm that I am in their system because "the system just went down," but the Anthem rep assured me that invoices had been mailed out.
To date, nothing has arrived. Maybe in today's mail....

I applied for a CA Anthem plan back early Nov, and was finally able to confirm receipt of my app by Anthem this morning (apparently, they only just started receiving data from Covered CA electronically as of late last week). I was told they're prepping the welcome letter and that initial payment is now due early January due to all the delays they're experiencing.

 

[cantlogin]

I'm in Pennsylvania and I've been trying to sign up at healthcare.gov since October first.
My experiences with the "system" have been typical.
On three different occasions, a total of 6 people assured me that the "Advanced Resolution Center" would call me in 2 to 5 days. I have never received a call from them.
A few days after the site began working better on December first, it seemed to me that I had enrolled correctly and signed up for insurance.
When I called Healthcare.gov on 12/2 it was confirmed for me that my enrollment form did exist. Today, I called BlueCross and they acknowledged receiving my application, provided an ID# and told me to expect an invoice in 5 to 7 days.
Overall, the process has been very aggravating, but If I consider only my experience since the end of November, It's really been not so bad.
I will have much better insurance for less money than before.

I hate waiting until the last moment for anything, but it does seem that things are falling into place as the deadline approaches.

 

[rbmrtn]

Status update: I received the invoice for the first month of coverage today. I have a policy number assigned but I haven't received an ID card yet ( maybe after making payment ). Hopefully nothing will go wrong now and coverage will start 01/01/2014.

I think some of the delays are due to the insurers not getting their end ready to receive the enrollment data in additional the exchange site problems.

 

[M Paquette]

Thanks, M--how nice that they have a link that they disabled and didn't bother to mention it! How did you learn which documents were required? I couldn't find any mention of required documents. I suppose I could call the 800 number and be on hold while watching a movie....

They sent me mail, both by the 'secure mail' link at the top of the page once logged into CoveredCa.com, and in meatspace via the post office. You get this if the site says you are 'provisionally approved pending veification'. If you were 'approved' rather than 'provisionally approved', I don't think you will need to do anything more.

I called them up on the 800 number, and successfully reached someone who read me the requirements from his display of the same letter I got.

The 'couldn't verify income' issue triggers a printout for each person applying that lists acceptable proof of income. We early retirees with investment income will probably have to provide them with a 2012 tax return. The 'couldn't verify Social Security number' issue triggers the part of the printout that asked for copies of our SS cards. Naturally if you are missing one, you'll soon be dealing with the 'Request for New or Replacement Social Security Card' form and be busily trying to come up with the identification documents that the Social Security Administration wants, so you can mail these or queue up at the local Social Security office, so you can get the card to make a copy to send to CoveredCa.

And people wonder what an early retiree does all day...

 

[gardenfun]

They sent me mail, both by the 'secure mail' link at the top of the page once logged into CoveredCa.com, and in meatspace via the post office. You get this if the site says you are 'provisionally approved pending veification'. If you were 'approved' rather than 'provisionally approved', I don't think you will need to do anything more.

I called them up on the 800 number, and successfully reached someone who read me the requirements from his display of the same letter I got.

The 'couldn't verify income' issue triggers a printout for each person applying that lists acceptable proof of income. We early retirees with investment income will probably have to provide them with a 2012 tax return. The 'couldn't verify Social Security number' issue triggers the part of the printout that asked for copies of our SS cards. Naturally if you are missing one, you'll soon be dealing with the 'Request for New or Replacement Social Security Card' form and be busily trying to come up with the identification documents that the Social Security Administration wants, so you can mail these or queue up at the local Social Security office, so you can get the card to make a copy to send to CoveredCa.

And people wonder what an early retiree does all day...

Thanks, M. I just chose a plan over the weekend and haven't received the email or the letter yet.

I was able to "chat" online with a rep today who said "we've been having trouble with the submit documents button". she gave me a fax # and address to mail the documents to. But I guess I'll wait for the letter to see which exact documents they require for me.

BTW, when I asked her where the snail mail address and/or fax number was on the website (since the upload link isn't working), she said she thought they would add those in the next site update.

Jeez, I hope they can indeed verify the SSN. I think I still have my hand-typed original SS card, but I'll have to check to make sure!

 

[reubenray]

We got a dental plan from Humana and they sent an email today on how to activate and pay for it. I wanted Humana for my medical, but they was never shown on the Healthcare website so we picked BCBSLA.

 

[John Galt III]

Status update: I received the invoice for the first month of coverage today. I have a policy number assigned but I haven't received an ID card yet ( maybe after making payment ). Hopefully nothing will go wrong now and coverage will start 01/01/2014.

I think some of the delays are due to the insurers not getting their end ready to receive the enrollment data in additional the exchange site problems.

Similar status here. Got my invoice from ins co. Mailed in my first check for my portion of of Jan, 2014 premium, 6 days ago. Waiting for "Welcome Packet" to arrive.

Many thanks to all here who have provided their experiences, to allow me to escape various tarpits of despair on the website.

 

[rbmrtn]

We got a dental plan from Humana and they sent an email today on how to activate and pay for it. I wanted Humana for my medical, but they was never shown on the Healthcare website so we picked BCBSLA.

I think it was touched on in another thread but humana didn't offer plans in LA. In this article it says they covered one parish Affordable Care Act FAQ's: What to know about Louisiana's new health insurance marketplace | NOLA.com

In my state Humana only sells in select counties.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Similar status here. Got my invoice from ins co. Mailed in my first check for my portion of of Jan, 2014 premium, 6 days ago. Waiting for "Welcome Packet" to arrive.

Many thanks to all here who have provided their experiences, to allow me to escape various tarpits of despair on the website.

+1 On the gratitude. It must have took a lot of work and cooperation to keep this thread open.

Got the bill from the insurance co today. The changes are so big from my perspective that my mental state has been surreal and untrusting. Only now that the process is complete do I see the savings as reality. Who hoo!

 

[M Paquette]

BTW, when I asked her where the snail mail address and/or fax number was on the website (since the upload link isn't working), she said she thought they would add those in the next site update.

They're online, just not terribly obvious. The FAX and mailing address are also in any e-mail or printed letter requesting additional information, on the first page.