<p>The indecision was more about which plan to choose.I wasn’t pricing out the high deductible or an HMO before. I don’t qualify for subsidies. That’s full price. The doctor network for the HMO for Carefirst in Maryland is the same as the network for the PPO. There is no difference. My primary care doctor is an old friend of mine in one of the top practices in the area so I don’t anticipate having any problem getting the care I need. We don’t have the problem of limited networks in Maryland. The same doctors and hospitals are part of every plan that Carefirst offers. </p>
<p>We are trying to make a payment as a company deducting the amount from the paychecks but the insurance people were not cooperative this month. We will have to test it next month.</p>
<p>Texaspg – while I understand your motives, I don’t think that there is any way that you should be allowed to use payroll deductions to finance subsidized purchases from the individual exchange. In my mind, that’s a pretty flagrant attempt to abuse the system – the whole point of the subsidies is to help people who are not getting employer provided insurance. Small companies who want to provide insurance to their employees have SHOP.</p>
<p>I understand that you are running a very small nonprofit and there are not a lot of $$$ floating around. </p>
<p>I understand that you want what is best for your employees. </p>
<p>But what you are proposing to do is a form of cheating. It may be well-meaning cheating, but it is skirting the rules nonetheless. You are trying to hang onto the employer roll in providing insurance – and at the same time time forego the employer-subsidy part in favor of the taxpayer-subsidy part. </p>
<p>I think your employees need to make the payments directly to their insurance companies. Perhaps one way you could help them is by encouraging them to set up bank accounts with direct deposit for their pay checks, and setting up autopay for the insurance premiums from those same accounts. That would make the process easier for your employees without putting your agency in the position of playing games with payroll deductions. </p>
<p>Calmom - If you have not figured out, we are too small, we are not part of ACA rules, and we in fact would never hear from the government, NO MATTER whether our people had insurance, no insurance, nothing since the employees themselves would break no laws if they did not buy insurance and most likely have no tax penalties since Texas has no medicaid.</p>
<p>Not sure where the cheating comes from when we are ensuring that people are paying their premiums ontime by sending a check to the insurance company on their behalf. If the insurance companies refuse next month also, the employees will keep mailing payments like they did this month.</p>
<p>I understand that you are not required to provide insurance for your employees – but you certainly are eligible for SHOP. (aside from whatever technical rollout applies). That is the system that was designed for small employers who want to provide insurance to their employees. </p>
<p>I had been under the impression that you planned to stop offering employer-provided insurance and instead give your employees a raise in pay that would be enough to cover their premiums. </p>
<p>But now you are posting about payroll deductions to pay those premiums. You are causing my lawyer brain to explode, but I don’t have the time or inclination to research it. If you have a tax expert and/or lawyer who has advised you that your scheme is acceptable… then go ahead. </p>
<p>But a casual Google search tells me that you are treading on very thin ice:</p>
<p>That is a pre-ACA reference and there might be some changes to regulations now, but I would be very surprised if there is anything specifically authorizing what you propose. </p>
<p>What we are eligible is irrelevant since our employer insurance has already been terminated and we NO LONGER offer insurance. At this point we are trying to help those employees who want to issue a check to the insurance for those employees who want us to take care of it for them. Whether insurance companies will or will not accept is something we have not looked into yet. If they say no, employees will send their own payment.</p>
<p>Cartera, one of the points I was trying to make is that comparing the plan you had pre-obamacare and the one you have now is an apples-to-oranges comparison. The old plan had a $500 deductible; your new plan has a much higher deductible. I am sure you would be paying much more than the price you quoted for your current plan if it had a $500 deductible. To suggest you’re paying much less now is misleading without providing more detail about the respective plans.</p>
<p>Hey Calmom, thanks for that link re:105 plan. I should probably consider doing that for H and My premiums since we’re w2 employees. I’ll have to have the accountant run a few scenarios.</p>
<p>If anyone wants to see what it is like to deal with Blue Shield of Ca post-Obamacare, read the comments on their Facebook page. What a joke. This is worse than going to the Motor Vehicle Bureau. Getting sick in America and having to deal with new onerous Obamacare bureaucracy will be a form of purgatory no one would wish on their worst enemy.</p>
<p>Of the hundreds of comments on the BS website, here are some of my favorites:</p>
<p>Why doesn’t Blue Shield operators answer their phones?!! I’ve been on hold for over an hour with crapy 70’s porn music and every 4 seconds a recording telling me thanks for waiting! I hate this company, they are worthless!!!</p>
<p>I DO NOT even understand how this company operates! First off, my bill has arrived with barely any proper time for me to send my check in in a timely manner. So I tried calling (855) 836-9705 to pay via phone and NO OPTIONS TO PAY BY PHONE!!! So now I tried to sign up on the site, finally made it on and there is NO TAB TO PAY! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!?! I have wasted a good solid hour on this and am ready to just smack you all! HORRIBLE site and the least user friendly company I have EVER encountered! EVER!</p>
<p>Was on hold for over 2 hours just to ask questions about a claim. This company is the worst and I will discourage anyone I meet from this horrible insurance company. HORRIBLE customer service, I am going to find another plan ASAP</p>
<p>Thanks Blue Shield of California for being total criminals when it comes to the new care act! I am so glad I pay for an Ultimate PPO and cannot even choose my own Doctors. I am leaving you and your criminal ways!</p>
<p>I have now been on hold for FIVE HOURS over the past TWO DAYS. For a claims issue that BLUE SHIELD needs to rectify. A live person does not exist on the other end of their phone lines, I am convinced. Frustration level = immensely high.</p>
<p>This sums up everything that I have experienced with blue shield and covered california thus far. I was switched from an amazing blue shield plan (the Shield Saver 6000) to a covered California plan AGAINST MY WILL. I just want my old insurance back. Can someone make that happen for me? Please?</p>
<p>“1.2M visits to HealthCare.gov and 270k calls yesterday - record Saturday volumes. 1 day to #GetCoveredNow.
1:42 p.m. Sun, Mar 30”</p>
<p>Texaspg, after reading your conversation with calmom…
I told my friends who own a small business, “Good luck. Try to find a broker that understands small business issues”. </p>
<p>A private company provides terrible customer service. Yeah, that’s news.</p>
<p>But I’m interested in this person’s comment, cited by GP:
</p>
<p>This sounds like the person got one of those letters that said their plan was cancelled, and they would be moved to a new plan unless they notified Blue Shield, and then they did nothing. Or perhaps the letter never reached them, or their response never reached Blue Shield, but in any case they were moved to the new plan. My guess is, there are a lot of people who were sent those letters, who did nothing, and who were moved to new plans.</p>
<p>Apparently this message was sent from London, or Spain, or Greenland, or Beijing, or Kabul, or somewhere where 1:42 pm Sunday Mar 30 has already happened.</p>
<p>Give folks a public forum and there’s no telling what they will write.</p>
<p>Texaspg, agree you have to scour Zane. So far, they’ve been easy to google into. Follow their own links. Also, mind that you follow the general privacy regs (which Z also covers; I may have linked that, but long ago.) Keep in mind the contractors rule: measure twice, cut once. </p>
<p>The CA complaints are legit, for those who experience them. I think the point goes to dstark: look at all the people who want insurance and keep trying to get through to BS.</p>
<p>The survey assumes there are 24 milliion uninsured that qualify for individual insurance and 10 million insured people. That is from the Jan survey. Those numbers look close. </p>
<p>The rest of the information I was looking for was in exhibit 2. The right hand sign shows 56 percent of the insured just reinsured. (Now the survey makes some sense). 26 percent of the uninsured bought new plans. On the uninsured side, 10 percent plus of the uninsured bought insurance. This was as of Feb 3 to Feb 13. </p>
<p>Anyway…10 percent sounded low and was reported as low. That was over 2.4 million people. We were reading stuff like 1 million people were newly insured. That is not what the survey said.</p>
<p>The next McKinsey survey, if it comes out monthly, is going to show 14-15 percent uninsured signed up or something close to that. This would be as of March 10. People are going to jump on that and say “See. The uninsured are not signng up”. These people dont understand. :)</p>
<p>First…that will be around 3.4 million people are newly insured as of March 10th.</p>
<p>Second, if the survey is correct, there are “now” approximately 6 million uninsured that have signed up. That is 25 percent of the uninsured eligible to buy insurance on an exchange. This doesn’t include medicaid. When all is said and done, 40 percent of the uninsured who could sign up will have signed up for private insurance or medicaid the first year. </p>