Guidance offered by Covered California to Certified Insurance Agents assisting consumers with enrollment into MAGI Medi-Cal
Covered California Extends 2017 Open Enrollment With Agent Support
Open Enrollment for 2017 coverage with a Covered California Health Plan ends on Tuesday, January 31, 2017. Covered California is allowing consumers who attempted to enroll by January 31 an extra four days to complete enrollment and select their health plan. Some consumers may face challenges completing enrollment and Covered California is committed to helping all consumers who attempted to find help cross the enrollment finish line.
Zenefits Hit With $7 Million Fine For Unlicensed Agents
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today announced the enforcement action taken against Zenefits for multiple license violations has resulted in a $7 million penalty. Zenefits was charged with allowing unlicensed employees to transact insurance and circumventing insurance agent education requirements. This is the largest penalty assessed by any commissioner against Zenefits and one of the largest penalties for licensing violations ever assessed in the department’s history.
Covered California Only to Work with Agents, Not Support Staff
Covered California has reaffirmed their policy that only Certified Insurance Agents can call into the agent service center and request assistance for a Covered California consumer for whom they have been properly delegated. Support staff to the agent cannot call the service center on the agent’s behalf and make any changes or inquiries. Callers to the service center will authenticated by the agent’s name and Department of Insurance license number.
Cigna California 2017 Individual and Family Plans
Cigna has released their 2017 health plans available in select counties of Northern and Southern California. Cigna has decided not to pay agents commissions for 2017. (Cigna Cuts All Agent’s Commissions to 0% for 2017) Consumers will have limited options for assistance with enrollment and the explanation of the health plans from Cigna in 2017. Most all Cigna plans have been converted to EPO plans. The exception is one Bronze plan that still remains a PPO product.
Covered California melts down during renewal period
As Covered California began to allow consumers to renew their health insurance for 2016 the online enrollment system has ceased to operate. They issued an Agent Alert on Thursday at 2:45pm.
Medi-Cal Payments Ending for Health Agents
Pursuant to the California State budget enacted for fiscal year 2015-2016, however, payments will no longer be made for enrollments in Medi-Cal submitted after June 30, 2015.
Health agent sues Covered California for damages
It is no news to the first wave of Covered California Certified Insurance Agents in 2013 that Californias online health insurance exchange was not ready for business. The number one complaint from agents was they were not receiving credit, and ultimately commissions, from the numerous individual and family enrollments they were performing. One health […]
More cuts to health agent commissions, can independents survive?
The commission structure for individual and family plans has been on a steady decline since the Affordable Care Act began to be implemented in 2011. As the commissions to agents have decreased, the request from clients for assistance has increased. Now a major carrier has announced a reduction in commissions for small group plans. There […]
Covered California Sales Seminar 2
Covered California held its second in a series of sales seminars for Certified Insurance Agents. The webinar was punctuated by technical glitches and an amateurish quality of the presenters. They did manage to address several questions that had less to do about sales and more about the CalHEERS on-going technical problems and new voter registration […]