Can't get thru to Healthcare.gov to check status of Income Verification

[Tom52]

I applied for 2016 ACA health insurance thru Healthcare.gov on Nov. 4. Again this year I must submit documents for income verification. These documents were electronically submitted on the website on Nov. 6. As of Dec. 8 I received my SECOND NOTICE in the mail to submit this documentation. I looked at my application for my 2016 policy and the status says "Complete". When I go to the details for my application, where it says "Verify Yearly Income:" There is a green button next to it that says "Submitted" "Select to upload another document".

This seems to indicate to me that the documents have been received into the system. Now I am wondering why I get these notices if indeed my income verification has been received at their end. I have been trying all night (1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM) to phone Healthcare.gov to confirm the income verification documents are in their possession. No matter when I call the recording says the wait times are very long and they hang up.

Is there any way to see on the healthcare.gov site exactly what documents have already been submitted? Has anyone yet received notification that income verification has been accepted?

 

[rbmrtn]

I wasn't asked for documents this year ( not yet ). Last year I was and uploaded them via the website. I didn't upload till a few weeks after the application. I got the reminder notice and then a few days later got another that it was verified. The notices maybe robo letters that just haven't caught up with your application status.

I do recall that after the upload was accepted/verified the the button to upload went away. So if your application shows submitted and the button is still there to upload, sounds like it has not been verified yet.

 

[Senator]

I am always amazed at the ACA website. Having worked on many different financial websites that actually could track and send money, our system has a sub-second response time. The site had to be accurate, fast, and never down.

And cost only ~$125M.

 

[MBSC]

Last year, I submitted documents and got the green "submitted" button. The auto generated emails and letters kept coming for about 3 months until the humans got through their piles of other paperwork to review. It didn't impact my subsidy.

 

[RockyMtn]

I had uploaded docs requested at sign up. Received another letter asking for income verification. Sending the same ones in via snail mail and also uploaded again. How long does this process take?

 

[Tom52]

OP here checking in with an update. I got a final notice about two weeks ago saying that I had yet to verify my income. I called heathcare.gov and asked what was the problem. They looked and said they could see that I sent in some documentation back on Nov. 6 as stated in my original post. But they said there must be something missing that was still needed. I asked them to tell me exactly what was missing as I had already submitted every possible document to verify the income figure estimated for 2016. They fumbled around awhile and said they had seen this before and suggested that I send a detailed cover letter explaining all the documents sent in. I kindly read to them the very first page of the documents submitted on Nov. 6 which indeed was a detailed letter giving this exact requested information.

I could tell they were grasping for straws so they told me to hang on while they talked to a supervisor. About 5 minutes later they came back on the line and told me that somehow when they accessed my information again on the computer it showed that my income had been verified. There was absolutely nothing else to be done from my end. I believe it is a case where on hand doesn't know what the other is doing. For some reason even when you send in the income verification you still get these letters saying the information needs to be submitted. I see no way on healthcare.gov to go back and actually see a copy of what you have already submitted for income verification. That seems wrong to me, but what do I know.

I would suggest anyone that has submitted income verification on line and are still getting the letters, to call healthcare.gov directly and talk with them.

 

[Nunthewiser]

^^ OK, now you know that they have it, but do they buy it? I went through much the same process last year. I retired at the end of January and they asked for income verification by 17 February. At that time, the best thing I had was a pension estimate from my employer with a letter to the Marketplace stating that this plus a few pennies of taxable interest was my estimate for 2015. All was well (I got the same upload message you got) until the end of April when the gubmint decided , without so much as giving me a chance to submit better proof, that my income was higher and cancelled our policies. I got them reinstated and submitted bank statements , but you cant imagine the chaos it caused all year and is still going to be messing me up as I file my 2015 1040. So, I would advise yet another call to "customer service" to see if you can find out if they like what you sent.

 

[Tom52]

^^ OK, now you know that they have it, but do they buy it? I went through much the same process last year. I retired at the end of January and they asked for income verification by 17 February. At that time, the best thing I had was a pension estimate from my employer with a letter to the Marketplace stating that this plus a few pennies of taxable interest was my estimate for 2015. All was well (I got the same upload message you got) until the end of April when the gubmint decided , without so much as giving me a chance to submit better proof, that my income was higher and cancelled our policies. I got them reinstated and submitted bank statements , but you cant imagine the chaos it caused all year and is still going to be messing me up as I file my 2015 1040. So, I would advise yet another call to "customer service" to see if you can find out if they like what you sent.

Nunthewiser, if you were referring to my last post healthcare.gov confirmed that my income was now "verified", there is absolutely nothing else I needed to do. I hope they don't come back later and say something else.

 

[Nunthewiser]

You may be alright, at least I hope you are. If you sent the docs in in November and somebody actually approved what you sent as it would appear, that's good. They rejected mine without so much as a courtesy call. The decent thing to do before one causes a $#1storm seems to me is to give someone an opportunity with a deadline to correct insufficient information, but that was too hard for them, I guess.

It sure would be nice to get "income approved" in writing, though I don't think that happens.

 

[rodi]

You may be alright, at least I hope you are. If you sent the docs in in November and somebody actually approved what you sent as it would appear, that's good. They rejected mine without so much as a courtesy call. The decent thing to do before one causes a $#1storm seems to me is to give someone an opportunity with a deadline to correct insufficient information, but that was too hard for them, I guess.

It sure would be nice to get "income approved" in writing, though I don't think that happens.

While it's not optimal - if your income is, indeed, low enough to qualify for a tax credit, you will get it at tax time, in the form of a refund. It does mean you have to cashflow the full price of the premium... but in the end the annual cost is the same as if you got the premium tax credits up front.

 

[bmcgonig]

While it's not optimal - if your income is, indeed, low enough to qualify for a tax credit, you will get it at tax time, in the form of a refund. It does mean you have to cashflow the full price of the premium... but in the end the annual cost is the same as if you got the premium tax credits up front.

Am I correct in that if I wish to avoid all the income verification rigmarole I can just pay the unsubsidized price for the plan I want, and then claim it on that years taxes? I'm assuming I still have to go through the ACA website as well?


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[MichaelB]

Am I correct in that if I wish to avoid all the income verification rigmarole I can just pay the unsubsidized price for the plan I want, and then claim it on that years taxes? I'm assuming I still have to go through the ACA website as well?

Yes, if you use an eligible policy from the exchange and qualify for premium assistance, you'll get it when you file your 2016 taxes in 2017.

 

[MBSC]

Am I correct in that if I wish to avoid all the income verification rigmarole I can just pay the unsubsidized price for the plan I want, and then claim it on that years taxes? I'm assuming I still have to go through the ACA website as well?

This is true for premium tax credits when the policy is purchased through the exchange.

If your income is below 250% FPL and you want to also take advantage of the Silver Plan Cost Sharing Reductions (CSR) for deductible and OOP, you have to report and possibly verify the low income upfront.

 

[MRG]

OP, I got through the income verification, but a new, unseen before by me issue, has arisen. I picked a plan and paid my premium. Healthcare.gov doesn't think so, I get daily reminders to sign up! Calling three weeks ago they said someone would have to manually fix my data, that was due last week. I guess not. Good luck.

 

[Tom52]

OP, I got through the income verification, but a new, unseen before by me issue, has arisen. I picked a plan and paid my premium. Healthcare.gov doesn't think so, I get daily reminders to sign up! Calling three weeks ago they said someone would have to manually fix my data, that was due last week. I guess not. Good luck.

MRG, I also was receiving daily phone calls from healthcare.gov reminding me to sign up for 2016 coverage. This was all after I had already signed up back in Nov 2015 and had already paid premiums for 2016 coverage and received insurance cards. This is another case where one hand does not know what the other is doing. It was upsetting for me to get these daily phone calls for about 3 weeks because I have to pay for these calls on my cell phone.

 

[COHgirl]

OP, I got through the income verification, but a new, unseen before by me issue, has arisen. I picked a plan and paid my premium. Healthcare.gov doesn't think so, I get daily reminders to sign up! Calling three weeks ago they said someone would have to manually fix my data, that was due last week. I guess not. Good luck.

On one of those reminder emails I got there was some blurb about being able to turn off the reminder. I don't remember how I found it. Maybe you can find that link in the emails??