Agents of Action
No on Prop 45 Update
CAHU continues to work
hard in our efforts to defeat Proposition 45. By now, you probably
have heard the commercials against the November ballot proposition. We
know that we have the resources to continue to oppose this measure through the
media. We have certainly received some good news, where the editorial
staff of major newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the
San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee and
others across the state have come out in opposition to Proposition 45.
Additionally, our coalition against Prop 45 continues to grow – also good
news.
However, good news
will not drive voters to the polls on November 4 -- Election Day. That is
where we come in. Our job, as agents, is to get out the word out about
the chaos Prop 45 potentially will cause in the health insurance
marketplace. That is why I urge everyone of your to go to the
NO on 45 website--set up specifically for agents--to help get out the
vote: www.agentsofaction.org.
Go on the website and pledge (top right corner) to contact your network
of clients, associates, friends and family and urge them to vote NO on Prop 45.
By indicating that you
will pledge to help, you will be able to access the tools needed to get out the
No on 45 vote. For example, you will be sent email letter templates,
social media information, etc. That will help us to get people to vote on
election day, but more importantly to fill out and send in their ballots prior
to election day. Time is very short. Voter pamphlets and absentee
ballots are being mailed to voters as I write, so I need you to go to the
website and pledge to help today.
I think people now
understand the harm that this measure will do to the insurance market in
California. Having one elected politician decide most everything about
health care insurance in the state is just bad policy. That is why
I am asking you as agents in our industry to please take the time, and make the
effort, to tell everyone you know why it is a bad initiative, and how it will
harm the marketplace.
Covered California
Update
Agents have started to
receive the agent agreement. Please be sure to get the agreement signed
and back to Covered CA before the deadline (45 days). The agreement may
be in your spam folder, so please check that (that is where I found mine).
The
agreement "from" address will read Covered California via DocuSign,
so search for that in your inbox or spam folder.
If you have a license
renewal in September or October, I suggest getting that taken care of prior to
sending the agreement back, so you can indicate your license renewal date post
the agreement effective date. Just to be safe.
Covered CA has also
recently sent out notices to agents who have clients that may have documents
that need verification. September 30 was the day that all documents were
due. At this point, your client will be terminated if they did not submit
the documents required by Covered CA. However, the termination will not
be until the end of October. So if you do have documents that you can
upload into the system, please hurry to get that done - your clients will be
reinstated back to October 1. You can get reinstatement, but if you wait
to upload the documents, your clients will have a period where they are not on
the eligibility system. So please get those documents uploaded as soon as
possible. This will make enrollment season easier.
CMS Update
In other news, the
Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) has recently published a FAQ on
the need to obtain a Health Plan ID for all medical plans, including self
funded benefit plans, etc. Most insurance carriers do that already, but
if you have a self-insured plan it is important that you understand the
requirements regarding this process.
There was a lot of
concern about this process, particular about the idea that flexible spending
accounts, company sponsored HSA plans, and HRA plans may also need to obtain a
Health Plan ID number. However, the Q&A makes it pretty clear that,
at least for the HSA and Flex plans, they do not consider those group plans and
a HPID is not necessary. It is a bit unclear on the HRA plans, however,
and probably depends on the particular facts and circumstances of the
particular HRA.
You should also note
that wrap plans could also be impacted.
So please take a look
at the link below which outlines the Q&As put forth by CMS on this issue:
Legislative
Update
Some good news on the
legislative front. AB 2088, which CAHU the lead opposition to most of the
year, was vetoed by the Governor last week. AB 2088 was the bill that
would have taken away from the market on the large group side supplemental
plans which were not paired with a group plan already at 60% actuarial value.
It was a bad bill that only at the end did others understand the damage
that it would do. It is a testament to the power of our association that,
in combination of our voter voice outreach, meetings with the Governor’s office
and our legislative advocates, that we were able to kill this bill through his
executive action. Good Job CAHU!
One bill that did get
signed into law was the so-called Dental MLR bill. AB 1962 requires that
dental plans provide data to the legislature on their loss ratios over the next
three years with the idea that a dental MLR will be developed from that
process. In other words, from that data, the Legislature hopes to
implement a dental Medical Loss Ratio for dental programs. This is a bad
idea for a lot of reasons, the largest being that the ACA specifically excluded
dental from the MLR calculation. Expect that CAHU will have to try to
fight this again in 2018, when the Legislature is likely to take up DLR issue
again.
Overall, CAHU had a
very good legislative session. The dental MLR bill was one of only a few
bills that we opposed that were signed into law. Many other bills were
amended to eliminate the most egregious parts and CAHU was able to change to a
neutral position on the bills. More to come on the results for this year.
Finally - please
make the time to attend the CAHU Health Care Summit next week at the Universal
Sheraton. Lots of great events going on -- be part of it!
Patrick Burns
comments@cahu.org
Patrick Burns
comments@cahu.org