Health Sherpa 2016 Open Enrollment

[AllenChicago]

Thursday December 17th @ 10:00pm CST

FYI: Health Sherpa enrollments entered tonight are now processing to approval in about 10-15 minutes and giving 1/1/2016 effective dates.


BTW...A small change was made to the Health Sherpa Enrollment form this evening. The applicant must now pick/answer ONE "Security" Question from 4 pre-defined choices. It's the same ridiculous, useless Q&A thing that a client must do when they have a broker helping them. (Choose One: What town was your first job in? What's the middle name of your dog? etc..) No doubt CMS forced Health Sherpa to add this to their application. Government really likes picking on this WBE doesn't it?

 

[txagt39]

Me too....so insane.

 

[cruhm1971]

I'm not high volume as health insurance isn't my main business (more on the Medicare and investment side). And next year I don't plan on doing any on-exchange business because it's just a PITA! I'll lose maybe 50 clients by giving up on-exchange, but I won't have to deal with the headaches of all that goes with on-exchange business.

If you had no problems with Sherpa, then as I said, those applications were prior to this week. Have you submitted any apps with Sherpa this week? I'm pretty sure someone from Sherpa even posted something here about the technical issues regarding applications this week not going through.

And if you've read through this thread, you know that multiple people have had problems prior to this week with Sherpa. Sherpa tried to reinvent the wheel the first day of open enrollment and screwed the pooch. They also now have a conflict of interest since they are an IMO/FMO as well.

Is this the first year you've used Sherpa?

Yes, it was my first year with Health Sherpa. I had a problem or two in the last week. I took them over to Healthcare.gov. I hate on exchange business as well. I didn't read through all 86 pages of these threads. I only have 15-20 on exchange and agree it's a nightmare, 50 would suck. I really wish Healthcare.gov would set up an agent platform to help people out, it would simplify the ID & Password issues I had. If there's an application on exchange, I can help people pretty quickly. United HealthOne made my life difficult more than Sherpa. I'll have fun switching them all next year when they leave the Marketplace.

Why is it a conflict of interest being an IMO/FMO out of curiosity? Do you think they steal clients? That's a serious PII violation if they do.

Thanks for the info.

 

[sman]

Yes, it was my first year with Health Sherpa. I had a problem or two in the last week. I took them over to Healthcare.gov. I hate on exchange business as well. I didn't read through all 86 pages of these threads. I only have 15-20 on exchange and agree it's a nightmare, 50 would suck. I really wish Healthcare.gov would set up an agent platform to help people out, it would simplify the ID & Password issues I had. If there's an application on exchange, I can help people pretty quickly. United HealthOne made my life difficult more than Sherpa. I'll have fun switching them all next year when they leave the Marketplace.

Why is it a conflict of interest being an IMO/FMO out of curiosity? Do you think they steal clients? That's a serious PII violation if they do.

Thanks for the info.

No I didn't state or even imply that they steal clients. They are serving two masters. Where does their loyalty lie. With their downline or the agents simply using their technology to submit apps where they are getting $10 per app? Or is it with the corporate accounts they are evidently working on? It doesn't appear to be with us though. And if you complete enough applications with them, George K will be the agent of record on occasion (evidently he's the head of the company). They will correct it though.

Since this is your first time using Sherpa you don't have a frame of reference as to how good it was last year. Night and day difference. And then to go absent from the forum and take days to respond to emails just isn't good service at all.

 

[WiscBroker]

Yes, it was my first year with Health Sherpa. I had a problem or two in the last week. I took them over to Healthcare.gov. I hate on exchange business as well. I didn't read through all 86 pages of these threads. I only have 15-20 on exchange and agree it's a nightmare, 50 would suck. I really wish Healthcare.gov would set up an agent platform to help people out, it would simplify the ID & Password issues I had. If there's an application on exchange, I can help people pretty quickly. United HealthOne made my life difficult more than Sherpa. I'll have fun switching them all next year when they leave the Marketplace.

Why is it a conflict of interest being an IMO/FMO out of curiosity? Do you think they steal clients? That's a serious PII violation if they do.

Thanks for the info.

We obviously don't want to accuse them of "stealing clients" but it is troubling when, like today, you log-in to healthcare.gov via the Access button to check on a client you wrote through HS, see your name as Authorized User/ Agent Broker, then call the carrier and the carrier lists George K (HS's principal agent) as the AOR, and it is in my resident state, with a carrier I already have checked as appointed with in my HS profile. Not cool. So, I assume it is an error in their programming, because most have passed through just fine with me as the AOR, but then again if they can get 1 or 2 from every agent in their name, then well, yes I would move it from a programming error, to stealing, ala the movie Office Space.

By the way, I spoke with a carrier, Molina Healthcare, and they told me Sherpa has been having lots of AOR problems and they no longer recommend sales be written through HS because of the AOR problem alone. So, I think this is more than just an isolated incident.

 

[SouthernComfort]

Completely done with Sherpa. I don't have time to be stuck with BS, acaexpress has done it correctly from the beginning, I didn't want to listen last year or two years ago when Acaexpress and Sherpa started, lesson learned. I have a few questions but I won't be stuck again. BTW, I made a support call/calls to Sherpa a few times this year, I'm still waiting on that support. Anyway you want to know who answered my question about Sherpa when I was having issues? Kenny West.

The man took the time to personally call someone who wasn't using his system and got me straightened out on Sherpa issues. Now, when things went south this year and apps started hanging up and getting kicked back, I made the switch to acaexpress and I'm not going back. My opinion, you are costing yourself time and money using Sherpa.

 

[WiscBroker]

OK folks, need some advice on a problem application.

I enrolled a client via HS on Dec 3, 2015. We selected her plan (Molina Healthcare Silver), and even paid the premium right away after by hitting the pay premium button. A confirmation of payment reference # and email was generated and sent to the client and received by the client.

HOWEVER, Molina is telling us they never received the application from the Marketplace. They cannot even find the client at all in their system. According to the insurer, this client does not exist. Further, when I hit "Access" through HS, I cannot log in- my login credentials don't work at all.

Stumped and confused, I tried using a different client's Access button, and amazingly now I can log-in right away, and so I tried to search and find the application for this 'missing' client whose application has not been received by Molina. Thankfully I found her, but continue reading...

To add to the confusion, after locating her I noticed in the "status" on healthcare.gov, it says "Initial Enrollment" and in fact it lists the plan we selected. Saying "initial enrollment" causes me to believe she is not enrolled and maybe this is why the insurer doesn't see her. Am I right?

The insurer told her to call the Marketplace to request the application be resent to the insurer. The client called the Marketplace per Molina's direction and asked them to 'resend' the application to the insurer. The Marketplace told the client "No, you need to call the insurer."

We spent an hour on the phone with the insurer, they could not locate the client's info nor the payment but we DO have a reference # generated by the insurer's billing site. Since we had that reference #, the insurer said they will escalate it to research further.

My concerns are two-fold. #1. Why is it saying "Initial Enrollment" and could this be as a result of all the weirdness that was happening around Dec 2-3 with HS not able to submit except via the double redirect? and #2. What the hell do we do to fix this problem?? We cannot get anywhere with either the marketplace and I have a feeling the 'escalation' with the insurer isn't going to get us anywhere either based upon how things are going so far.

Would it be prudent to hit the eligibility results button and click on 'return to enrollment site' and re-select the plan again or will this screw everything up even further and possibly screw up her effective date?? Should I wait on the insurer to get back to us (who knows how long that is going to take)? It's now passed the 17th and I don't know what to do to guarantee her 1/1 enrollment in this situation. I need advice.

Any ideas?

 

[sman]

OK folks, need some advice on a problem application. I enrolled a client via HS on Dec 3, 2015. We selected her plan (Molina Healthcare Silver), and even paid the premium right away after by hitting the pay premium button. A confirmation of payment reference # and email was generated and sent to the client and received by the client. HOWEVER, Molina is telling us they never received the application from the Marketplace. They cannot even find the client at all in their system. According to the insurer, this client does not exist. Further, when I hit "Access" through HS, I cannot log in- my login credentials don't work at all. Stumped and confused, I tried using a different client's Access button, and amazingly now I can log-in right away, and so I tried to search and find the application for this 'missing' client whose application has not been received by Molina. Thankfully I found her, but continue reading... To add to the confusion, after locating her I noticed in the "status" on healthcare.gov, it says "Initial Enrollment" and in fact it lists the plan we selected. Saying "initial enrollment" causes me to believe she is not enrolled and maybe this is why the insurer doesn't see her. Am I right? The insurer told her to call the Marketplace to request the application be resent to the insurer. The client called the Marketplace per Molina's direction and asked them to 'resend' the application to the insurer. The Marketplace told the client "No, you need to call the insurer." We spent an hour on the phone with the insurer, they could not locate the client's info nor the payment but we DO have a reference # generated by the insurer's billing site. Since we had that reference #, the insurer said they will escalate it to research further. My concerns are two-fold. #1. Why is it saying "Initial Enrollment" and could this be as a result of all the weirdness that was happening around Dec 2-3 with HS not able to submit except via the double redirect? and #2. What the hell do we do to fix this problem?? We cannot get anywhere with either the marketplace and I have a feeling the 'escalation' with the insurer isn't going to get us anywhere either based upon how things are going so far. Would it be prudent to hit the eligibility results button and click on 'return to enrollment site' and re-select the plan again or will this screw everything up even further and possibly screw up her effective date?? Should I wait on the insurer to get back to us (who knows how long that is going to take)? It's now passed the 17th and I don't know what to do to guarantee her 1/1 enrollment in this situation. I need advice. Any ideas?

One idea. Drink a case of beer. Yeah, not helpful I know.

 

[AllenChicago]

OK folks, need some advice on a problem application. I need advice. Any ideas?

1.) If you want a 1/1/2016 effective date just utilize the Special Enrollment Period provision. There's a SEP available for everything...including complicated "WTF!?" scenarios.

2.) If 2/1/2016 is acceptable, due to not being willing to craft a SEP, simply re-enroll using Health Sherpa.

Good luck Wisconsin!

 

[WiscBroker]

1.) If you want a 1/1/2016 effective date just utilize the Special Enrollment Period provision. There's a SEP available for everything...including complicated "WTF!?" scenarios.

2.) If 2/1/2016 is acceptable, due to not being willing to craft a SEP, simply re-enroll using Health Sherpa.

Good luck Wisconsin!

So you're telling me she's not enrolled. How then could we pay? I will wait a few days to see if the insurer can find anything, and when they don't we'll attempt SEP. On to wine bottle #2.