Warning - this is a long rant!!!!
This year my husband started Medicare on Jan 1st. A few months ago I went on coveredca.com and renewed the HDHP/HSA bronze plan for myself and my 2 minor age sons.
In previous years, a "feature" of coveredCA (that was handled properly on healthcare.gov) was that you could not sign up with family members on more than one plan and still get the premium tax credit up front. So we paid full freight up front, and receive(d) it at tax filing time. CoveredCA seems to have fixed that "feature" (aka Bug) this year - the first year we wouldn't need it.
I entered my income more accurately (vs inflating it to allow 2 separate plans) for 2017. It was above the level mediCAL should apply - but somehow the kids got put into mediCAL. This despite the fact that I did NOT change my 2016 income. It took over 2 months to get this mess cleared up... and I finally resolved it in late December... Although the kids were still on mediCAL (medicaid for california) until 12/31 because there's a provision to "protect" children from being dumped off prematurely.
After I got it fixed through the county Social Services, I went back to CoveredCA and spent a while on the phone with them to verify that my 2017 insurance was properly entered.
Note - I prepaid the January payment (reduced with a PTC) in October, then prepaid the full amount (again) in December when it theoretically was fixed.
Yesterday - I called Kaiser to get a physical appointment for my son since he wants to join the swim team. They told me that neither son was covered.
What!!!!
I talk to the first level of member services and they put me in "believe me" status while it is investigated. I call the main member services line - and am told that it is out of their hands. I ask her to verify that I've paid the premiums and she refuses - saying it's up to Covered California. She then hangs up on me.
I call covered California - and find out my application is still a giant mess. At first glance it looked like we're all covered. Then they look at the effective dates for my sons - and their insurance started *and ended* on 1/1/2017. He was able to see that I'd paid and had no idea why the dates were wrong. Then he does some more digging and my reported income is completely messed up -showing 3 different income levels... in 3 different spots in their system. They reapplied my application for 1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017 (needed a supervisor) - but they couldn't figure out why the income was all messed up.
I may have the situation where the kids are put back into the mediCAL system improperly - which will take months to undo again.
My case is "escalated" at covered california - but I was told not to call back for 2 more weeks.
Kaiser Permanente was good - with the "believe me" status I was able to make the physical appointment, and confirm that the follow up surgical appointment (for his jaw surgery last november) was still valid.... But sheesh.
I really hope it doesn't get shunted to medicaid again. I will completely lose it if that happens.
This year my husband started Medicare on Jan 1st. A few months ago I went on coveredca.com and renewed the HDHP/HSA bronze plan for myself and my 2 minor age sons.
In previous years, a "feature" of coveredCA (that was handled properly on healthcare.gov) was that you could not sign up with family members on more than one plan and still get the premium tax credit up front. So we paid full freight up front, and receive(d) it at tax filing time. CoveredCA seems to have fixed that "feature" (aka Bug) this year - the first year we wouldn't need it.
I entered my income more accurately (vs inflating it to allow 2 separate plans) for 2017. It was above the level mediCAL should apply - but somehow the kids got put into mediCAL. This despite the fact that I did NOT change my 2016 income. It took over 2 months to get this mess cleared up... and I finally resolved it in late December... Although the kids were still on mediCAL (medicaid for california) until 12/31 because there's a provision to "protect" children from being dumped off prematurely.
After I got it fixed through the county Social Services, I went back to CoveredCA and spent a while on the phone with them to verify that my 2017 insurance was properly entered.
Note - I prepaid the January payment (reduced with a PTC) in October, then prepaid the full amount (again) in December when it theoretically was fixed.
Yesterday - I called Kaiser to get a physical appointment for my son since he wants to join the swim team. They told me that neither son was covered.
What!!!!
I talk to the first level of member services and they put me in "believe me" status while it is investigated. I call the main member services line - and am told that it is out of their hands. I ask her to verify that I've paid the premiums and she refuses - saying it's up to Covered California. She then hangs up on me.
I call covered California - and find out my application is still a giant mess. At first glance it looked like we're all covered. Then they look at the effective dates for my sons - and their insurance started *and ended* on 1/1/2017. He was able to see that I'd paid and had no idea why the dates were wrong. Then he does some more digging and my reported income is completely messed up -showing 3 different income levels... in 3 different spots in their system. They reapplied my application for 1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017 (needed a supervisor) - but they couldn't figure out why the income was all messed up.
I may have the situation where the kids are put back into the mediCAL system improperly - which will take months to undo again.
My case is "escalated" at covered california - but I was told not to call back for 2 more weeks.
Kaiser Permanente was good - with the "believe me" status I was able to make the physical appointment, and confirm that the follow up surgical appointment (for his jaw surgery last november) was still valid.... But sheesh.
I really hope it doesn't get shunted to medicaid again. I will completely lose it if that happens.
