Anthem Blue Cross CA Finally Gets Approvals!

Just received a voicemail from Anthem Blue Cross California that the plan portfolios held up by the California Dept of Insurance have finally been approved.These plans have been pending approval since September 22, 2010.According to the voicemail the new plans (all PPACA-compliant) will be available for sale tomorrow (1/14/11) to the public. I will update this post with the particulars of the

Anthem CA Quote Upload Available Today (New Plans)

The Anthem Blue Cross CA quoting and application system has been uploaded and is currently quoting the new approved individual & family health plans for 2011 (PPACA-compliant).The new plans quoting include:*Tonik 5000 PPO*Premium Plus PPO (six deductible choices)*PPO Share 3500, 5000 and 7500*HMO plansYou can get quotes for the current plans via my linkLumenos HSA plans will not be available for

Child Only Health Insurance California 2011 -Anthem Blue Cross Live Blog

I am blogging this live while attending an Anthem Blue Cross conference call. Important news concerning Child-only health insurance coverage in California beginning January 1, 2011 for children under 19.Per CA AB 2244, children may apply for coverage without a parent being a co-applicant during certain periods. This includes both healthy children and children with pre-existing conditions who need

Anthem Blue Cross CA Partial Plan Release 12/10

Anthem Blue Cross has announced that a portion of the health plans held up for approval by the CDI (California Dept of Insurance) have been approved and are available for sale today.In addition to the 3 HMO plans and PPO Share 3500 and 7500 which were previously approved for sale, the following plans are now available today for quoting and applications:Premier Plus PPO (1000, 1500, 2500, 3500,

Anthem Blue Cross CA Update

Just wanted to update on my suspending sales with Anthem Blue Cross CA.I have spoken with Anthem concerning my issues with their processes and am supposed to be receiving some correspondence from "on high" regarding my issues and concerns. As of today I have not yet received anything from Anthem in this regard. I understand the correspondence has to be cleared by the legal department due to

Anthem Blue Cross HIPAA Enrollment Change (California)

Effective October 1, 2010, Anthem Blue Cross California will institute a new enrollment process for HIPAA applicants.Beginning 10/1, applicants will have start dates as follows based on application submission (WITH premium):1st-15th of the month, 1st of the next month(ex. Apply 11/1-11/15 start date is 12/1) (one month gap)16th-31st of the month, 1st of the second month(ex. Apply 11/16-11/30

Anthem Health Plan Blackout (California IFP)

Anthem Blue Cross of California has today suspended it's online application program for individual & family health plans. The application will be unavailable until approximately October 1. I will update when it becomes available.For those seeking quotes for Blue Cross coverage plans (non-HIPAA), currently over 75% of the plan portfolio is not available for sale pending Dept of Insurance approval

Anthem Blue Cross CA Eliminates Child-Only Enrollments

Effective 9/23, Anthem Blue Cross CA will no longer offer individual coverage plans to children under 19 as a stand-alone enrollment. Children of any age may apply for coverage as long as they are applying with parents/guardians over the age of 19. However, Anthem will no longer accept applications for children-only under the age of 19.Several carriers in many states have taken similar action in

October 1 Rate Increases on Individual Health

October 1 will see major rate increases by both Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California.Blue Shield will average 18.2% increase but some age groups may experience rate increases as high as 50%! Anthem Blue Cross will average 14% with a max rate of 20% increase.Interesting article from today's Sacramento Bee.In addition, Anthem Blue Cross has currently blacked out all individual and

Anthem CA Re-tooling For Obamacare

Effective August 14th, quoting for individual health plans will only be available for start dates of Sept 22 or before. If you request an effective date on or after Sept 23, the system will have a pop up message stating that no plans are available for the requested effective date.Anthem is currently working on the mandatory changes and rates for plans to be sold Sept 23 and after. Plans sold on

Anthem Blue Cross CA Security Breach Update Pt IV

Further updates regarding the security breach of Anthem's online application tracker program.As of today, 470,000 individual subscribers have been notified of a potential compromise. 230,000 are in California, the rest across the various Anthem states.There are some disturbing bits of information surfacing. Apparently the breach went on for quite some time and was only discovered in March when an

Anthem Security Breach Update

Article from the Orange County Register indicating that more than 200,000 affected so far by the security breach of the Anthem Blue Cross Online Application Tracker.Orange County Register ArticleAccording to the article, the attorneys who breached the system have returned all of the improperly obtained private information to a custodian of the court system. I expect that means that everyone who

Anthem Security Breach Update

I have a couple of updates regarding the security breach of the Anthem Blue Cross "Application Tracker" system. 1. Anyone who submitted an application for a minor child/children only that was breached and has received ID theft protection for the minor(s) will, if there was information breach for the parent/guardian, also receive the protection. Anthem is currently sorting applications on

Anthem Blue Cross Security Breach (Individual Health)

Anyone who has recently applied for individual health insurance with Anthem Blue Cross and been assigned an online application tracker link needs to be aware of the following unauthorized security breach. Affected applicants will receive notification with details and one year of free identity protection services. No agent has been or likely will be notified of specific applicants (if any) who

HIPAA Enrollment Change (Yet Again) - Anthem

Anthem Blue Cross (CA) has made another enrollment change to the HIPAA plans. Under the prior change, all enrollments in HIPAA were subject to approval followed by a premium notice. The notice would allow payments in two 15-day periods (1-15th, 16-31st paid or postmarked) to start on the first of the following month. Example:*Premium paid or postmarked 1-15 June would start July 1 (30-day gap)*

Anthem CA Rate Increase Withdrawn

According to KGO Radio, Anthem Blue Cross CA has withdrawn the proposed 39% rate hike for California. Apparently they will be re-working the numbers for a more moderate change at some point in the future. Members will be given 30 days notice before any rate changes would go into effect.KGO Article

The HIPAA Tango Continues (Anthem Blue Cross)

For those who may be looking at my HIPAA page and wondering what is going on with Anthem Blue Cross enrollments, I thought this might help (I hope!).Effective 5/1/10, Anthem has a new enrollment process for HIPAA plans. The process works like this: application and supporting documents to get approval to enroll, premium notice sent out upon Anthem's "OK" to enroll (approval), then you pay future

From Wall Street Journal "The Wellpoint Mugging"

A very interesting article from the Wall Street Journal. The Wellpoint MuggingSome parts of the article are quite telling.He ought to subpoena California's political class because Wellpoint's rate hikes are the direct result of the Golden State's insurance regulations—the kind that Democrats want to impose on all 50 states. Under federal Cobra rules, the unemployed are allowed to keep their

More HIPAA Dancing

I have learned that Anthem Blue Cross California has again changed its position with regard to HIPAA enrollments.Apparently they have backed off of the "no premium" with application design (which virtually guaranteed a 60-day minimum gap in coverage) and will allow premium submission with the application in the near future.The current no premium program was only in effect on the HMO HIPAA plans,

Part Deux: Is The California Individual & Family Health Insurance Market In Critical Condition?

Having recently watched the "bi-partisan" meeting in Washington and many videos on youtube, I wonder if the problem is "un"-fixable.Speaker Pelosi, in a recent youtube video answering questions on the meeting, pointed out two things which are absolutely of concern. 1, our health insurance system is employer-based in design and function. 2, there are many more people not covered under the