<p>Well…Anthem needs to get its act together.</p>
<p>“Insurers and federal officials sifting through insurance applications under the health-care law have identified a raft of errors, including missing customers and inaccurate eligibility determinations that mean people may be enrolled in the wrong coverage.”</p>
<p>“Thousands of insurance applicants from HealthCare.gov—at least one in five at the height of the problems by one estimate—have received inaccurate assignments to Medicaid or to the marketplace for private plans, or have received incorrect denials, people familiar with the matter said. Eligibility determinations are an early step in the application process, before consumers choose plans.”</p>
<p>Opening paragraphs from a Wall Street Journal article titled, “Errors Continue to Plague Govt Health Site”.</p>
<p>[Errors</a> Continue to Plague Government Health Site - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304202204579256680760860664]Errors”>Errors Continue to Plague Government Health Site - WSJ) </p>
<p>You may have to google this article if you want to read the article.</p>
<p>Dstark, I wouldn’t be popping any champagne bottles about the numbers Covered Ca. are disseminating. Until we know how many of these people actually have chosen plans and how many will pay for them, not to mention if the information was correctly relayed to the insurance companies, it is premature to draw any conclusions. Most of the stuff coming from Covered Ca is propaganda.</p>
<p>You are going to be very disappointed, GP.</p>
<p>I do agree. There will be some problems. </p>
<p>Why would Anthem sign me up for a plan that hasnt been approved? And I asked approved by who? No answer.</p>
<p>Then I find out I am not even signed up.</p>
<p>dstark, I am referring to the numbers relating to the exchange. I would think if you signed up directly with the insurance company, you should be okay. I think?</p>
<p>GP, I assumed you took the statement directly from the email, because of the quote marks. I wasn’t accusing you, GP. You know how to punctuate. Your interlocutor doesn’t.</p>
<p>Right now…Anthem has me signed up for a plan I did not want that includes dental. Over 1500 a month.</p>
<p>I talked to Anthem 4 times and each time the calls get more and more bizarre.</p>
<p>Thia has nothing to do with the exchanges. I may have been better off buying thru an exchange. :)</p>
<p>Luckily… It is only money.</p>
<p>I signed up early so I wouldnt be caught in the last week of signups for jan 1 and Anthem doesnt sign me up for the plan I want.</p>
<p>According to the email, this guy is the director of sales, has a MBA and is Six Sigma Green Belt Certified, whatever that means. I guess they are not teaching punctuation in our graduate schools.</p>
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</p>
<p>We do know how many have chosen plans. Covered California told us:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Covered</a> California Daily News: Covered California And California Department Of Health Care Services Release November Statistics For Health Insurance Marketplace](<a href=“http://coveredcanews.blogspot.com/2013/12/covered-california-and-california.html]Covered”>Covered California Daily News: Covered California And California Department Of Health Care Services Release November Statistics For Health Insurance Marketplace)</p>
<p>dstark, I am not surprised given my exchanges with people at Anthem who are supposedly running the place.</p>
<p>CF, how many have paid?</p>
<p>GP, that’s on the insurance companies. Apparently, some insurance companies aren’t doing such a hot job billing, right, dstark?</p>
<p>CF, lol…</p>
<p>CF, assuming the info is being properly relayed by the exchanges to the insurance companies. From what I have been reading, the so-called back-end of these exchange websites are not working.</p>
<p>Okay, I just went to the Blue Shield website and decided to compare the number of doctors within 5 miles of my zip code under my current plan and the number of doctors with the new 2014 ACA plan. The former has 1033 doctors while the latter has 222 doctors. Yikes, the number of doctors in my immediate vicinity has been reduced by 80%. </p>
<p>I tried the same exercise with Anthem but their provider tool doesn’t work. You can’t make this stuff up.</p>
<p>GP – I get that you want the unobtanium metal plan, with no restrictions on what hospitals you use, no restrictions on what doctors you see, and no restrictions on what medications you’re prescribed, and at a cost at or lower than what you paid this past year. </p>
<p>I’m afraid you’re going to continue to be disappointed – and I’d further suggest that you’d have been disappointed even if the ACA had never passed. Every single one of the concerns you’ve expressed is a limitation of the type I’ve seen in our employer-provided health plans over the past ten years. We’ve had years when Children’s Hospital wasn’t in-network. Years when this large group of doctors or that one were not contracted, or this group of hospitals wasn’t contracted as UHC did battle with various hospitals/groups. An important specialist wasn’t contracted one year, and I had to pay out-of-pocket for the visits I made. We’ve had Rx plans go from covering meds to not covering that same med to only covering the generic for the med and then back to only covering the brand (and not the generic) for the same medication. (I’m still convinced money was changing hands on that one.) There were years when the premium jumped 30%+, and eventually implementation of optional high deductible plans which eventually became mandatory. And rigorously none of this can be attributed to Obamacare. Zip. Zilch.</p>
<p>All this DOES mean that we’ve had to become smarter consumers. With a high deductible insurance plan, I actually care (a lot) about how much something costs. I’ve learned that certain drugs we use are (much) cheaper bought from Costco without insurance, one is cheaper bought from our plan’s on-line pharmacy, and once cheaper bought from the participating neighborhood pharmacy. Costs for lab tests at the non-preferred (but still in network) lab are twice as high (or higher) than are the same tests run at the preferred lab center – but if all they’re running is a thyroid level, twice not very much doesn’t trump the convenience of having it drawn at the doctor’s office. After an unfortunate experience at an urgent care center involving an unexpected charge of $600 for an x-rays plus a bunch for a radiologist to look at it after the doc already confirmed that it wasn’t broken, I’m a lot pickier about imaging costs and locations. But, with all this…I’ve actually bent my cost of healthcare down. I hope it will get easier over time – and particularly that pricing will become much more transparent – but I am hugely more likely to ask, “How much will that cost?” and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Whatever health plan you use, the question really becomes, how do you make the most effective and efficient use of it? When health allows (which it has this year, knock on wood) it is to my benefit to stack health expenses every other year as much as possible in order to maximize the way the high deductible works. </p>
<p>Dr. Welby retired a long time ago.</p>
<p>GP, thanks for the link to the WSJ article. Here’s a link to a free story dated 12/9/2013 on the same topic of the incorrect forwarding of marketplace applications to state Medicaid offices.</p>
<p>[Federal</a> exchange sends unqualified people to Medicaid](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/healthcaregov-medicaid-eligibility-questions/3871113/]Federal”>Federal exchange sends unqualified people to Medicaid)</p>
<p>Well, at least now I know that D’s situation is not an isolated one. But, what a mess.</p>
<p>Arabrab, :).</p>
<p>Unobtanium… I can’t remember what movie that’s from, but I like the word!</p>
<p>“GP – I get that you want the unobtanium metal plan, with no restrictions on what hospitals you use, no restrictions on what doctors you see, and no restrictions on what medications you’re prescribed, and at a cost at or lower than what you paid this past year.”</p>
<p>Show me when I ever said this. I like how you interpret canceling my current plan as somehow wanting unrestricted medical care for less money. I don’t see the nexus you are trying to draw. I have said repeatedly I am willing to pay more money, but I don’t see why a limited pool of people in the individual market have to pay for it.</p>
<p>I do agree with you about being a careful shopper but shrinking your network by 80% has nothing to do with comparing prices for procedures or effectively utilizing your health plan. </p>
<p>Yep IllinoisMom, it is a mess.</p>
<p>So this rap video is one of the paid advertisements by Covered California to get our youth to sign up for Obamacare. If this isn’t pathetic, I don’t know what is.</p>
<p>[WATCH:</a> Rap video spoofing President Obama urges young people to enroll in Obamacare | Gretawire](<a href=“http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/video/watch-rap-video-spoofing-president-obama-urges-young-people-to-enroll-in-obamacare/]WATCH:”>http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/video/watch-rap-video-spoofing-president-obama-urges-young-people-to-enroll-in-obamacare/)</p>