News

Health Net’s Peak Season Incentive Program, for any new sales with July 2023 through January 2024 effective dates. They are offering a special commission rate of 6% for the life of the case for groups with just six or more subscribers enrolled. Click here to see the flyer Contact you Dickerson Sales Represenative Today for Help Quoting Health Net!

Health Net has announced two new promotions for Q3 and Q4. Enhanced Choice Promotion and Sell HMO with 6 Promotion. It’s a great time to sell Health Net with these two new promotions alongside their already flexible underwriting. Enhanced Choice Promotion -Groups of 5-100 eligible employees -No DE9C is required -No prior carrier bill is required -All eligible employees declining coverage must provide a waiver including those enrolling with another carrier. -Employees enrolled on another carrier through the same employer will count as valid waivers. Sell HMO with 6 Promotion -Mix and match any plans from HMO networks -No DE9C is required -No waivers are required (when not paired with Life or Employer Paid Dental/Vision) -No participation attestation -No prior carrier bill is required Flexible underwriting -2 weeks of payroll, or a Startup Group of any size (down to one) -Mix and Match ALL Networks -Health Net can be written alongside any carrier, no limit to the number of carriers if participation is met -Groups of 1-4 employees enrolling, 70% participation -Groups of 5+ employees enrolling, 25% participation -Accept PEO Subgroups with a quarterly wage report or two weeks of payroll from the PEO Click here to see the flyer Contact you Dickerson Sales Represenative Today for Help Quoting Health Net!

Anthem is offering small group employers in California a travel and lodging benefit option you can add to your 2023 health plans at no additonal cost. Unless prohibited by law, this coverage pays a benefit toward eligible travel expenses for indivduals who can only access care and treatment covered by their plan in another state because that care and treatment is unavailable in the state where they reside. Click here for more details Contact you Dickerson Sales Represenative Today for Help Quoting Anthem!

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California launched a virtual media tour on Wednesday to spread the word about the upcoming Medi-Cal to Covered California Enrollment Program and how it will help keep Californians covered. With the end of the federal continuous coverage requirement, Medi-Cal in April resumed the renewal process for its more than 15 million members, and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) estimates between 2 and 3 million people will no longer be eligible for coverage. As this process continues over the next year, Covered California stands ready to enroll eligible Californians transitioning out of Medi-Cal. Read the full release here

UnitedHealth has rescinded a plan to require prior authorization for colonoscopies and other endoscopic procedures, following backlash from physician groups. UnitedHealth, which operates the biggest private health insurer in the U.S., was set to require prior authorizations for the procedures this week, but announced it was instead enacting an alternative advance notification process. Provider groups still slammed the new process, which requires doctors to collect and submit patient data to the insurer before most endoscopic procedures, claiming that it raised documentation requirements on physicians and is a glide path to stricter prior authorization policies. The new advance notification process is the latest development in an ongoing back and forth between UnitedHealth, the parent company of payer UnitedHealthcare, and provider groups over prior authorization. UnitedHealth was set to enact prior authorization for 61 endoscopy codes starting in June for its more than 27 million commercial beneficiaries. The payer argued the policies would hold physicians to evidence-based practices for clinically appropriate care. However after several meetings with provider groups, UnitedHealth agreed to temporarily postpone the prior authorization program in exchange for advance notification. UnitedHealth will run the pilot program collecting data for at least seven months, according to the American Hospital Association, which discussed the policy wit UnitedHealth. Read the full story here

(By Hannah Recht) More than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1. And a KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork. Under normal circumstances, states review their Medicaid enrollment lists regularly to ensure every recipient qualifies for coverage. But because of a nationwide pause in those reviews during the pandemic, the health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans kept people covered even if they no longer qualified. Now, in what’s known as the Medicaid unwinding , states are combing through rolls and deciding who stays and who goes. People who are no longer eligible or don’t complete paperwork in time will be dropped. The overwhelming majority of people who have lost coverage in most states were dropped because of technicalities, not because state officials determined they no longer meet Medicaid income limits. Four out of every five people dropped so far either never returned the paperwork or omitted required documents, according to a KFF Health News analysis of data from 11 states that provided details on recent cancellations. Now, lawmakers and advocates are expressing alarm over the volume of people losing coverage and, in some states, calling to pause the process. KFF Health News sought data from the 19 states that started cancellations by May 1. Based on records from 14 states that provided detailed numbers, either in response to a public records request or by posting online, 36% of people whose eligibility was reviewed have been disenrolled. Click here to read the full release

(By Matt Volz) At least eight states this year have decided to seek federal approval to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, leaving just a handful that have opted not to guarantee at least a year of health care for women during that critical period after pregnancy. The new states on the list include Montana, where lawmakers in the recently ended legislative session voted for a state budget that contains $6.2 million in state and federal funds over the next two years to extend continuous postpartum eligibility from 60 days to 12 months after pregnancy. That would ensure coverage for between 1,000 and 2,000 additional parents in the state each year, according to federal and state estimates. Maggie Clark, the program director for Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, has been tracking statehouse bills to expand postpartum coverage under Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people. What’s driving the wave is the recognition by policymakers of all political affiliations that the U.S. is in a maternal health crisis, she said. Maternal mortality rates increased during the pandemic, particularly among non-Hispanic Black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read the full story here