Health Sherpa

[AllenChicago]

U are way over analyzing this stuff. I'm sure they have no intention of stealing your clients. U either have the relationship or not.

YAgents,

I'm just cautious, because I've experienced financial damage from a brokerage that started out small and innocent, but grew big and corrupt.

Real World: Imagine what you could do with the Personal Protected Information from thousands of families that was gifted to you from agents who were so trusting that they didn't even request a business-to-business contract.

You're right..HealthSherpa founders are probably not thinking deviously at this time. But once the client's info is in their system, it's there to stay, for any use that the current or future HealthSherpa principals see fit.
ac

 

[ameneses54]

YAgents,

I'm just cautious, because I've experienced financial damage from a brokerage that started out small and innocent, but grew big and corrupt.

Real World: Imagine what you could do with the Personal Protected Information from thousands of families that was gifted to you from agents who were so trusting that they didn't even request a business-to-business contract.

You're right..HealthSherpa founders are probably not thinking deviously at this time. But once the client's info is in their system, it's there to stay, for any use that the current or future HealthSherpa principals see fit.
ac

At this point I'd like more proven links that ratify the trustworthiness and legitimacy of HealthSherpa.
Other things that have me doublfull after using the service are:
-How do you access if needed your Marketplace account ?
-How about the official acceptance report which is generated when you use the official site
-How would you edit your information, be it personal, financial or work related
-How does HealthSherpa verify identity?

Arturo

 

[dorado]

Not crazy about providing my clients to another agency...We were able to place applications in a few minutes, and when the web site was stuck and we called, MKTP reps confirmed that their system was down for them as well...so how will HS be able to get it faster than the MKPL? The issue was and I think still will be Healthcare.gov this OE. At least we will be dealing directly.

 

[FLM2]

I have a scheduled call with the CMS to review the validity of the company. I will post a follow up.

Very high class move, be sure to report back to the rest of us, ***.

 

[taterpeeler]

Very high class move, be sure to report back to the rest of us, ***.

any reason you decided to call someone that is trying to help us an ***?

----------

Oh, that's right he has me on the ignore list........

 

[Yagents]

I would be happy to. And I am sure that any agent concerned for their clients and their own security would greatly appreciate the feedback. Best of luck to you.

Sounds like you have access to certain key people. I, along with other agents, would greatly appreciate your insight/feedback.

Just be careful not to harm yourself, or call out Health Sherpa if they are in fact compliant.

 

[AllenChicago]

Can someone please exlplain how Health Sherpa is submitting policies behind the scenes. I have a scheduled call with the CMS to review the validity of the company. I will post a follow up.

TheEdge3,

re: https://www.healthsherpa.com/about

If you contact NING LIANG by e-mail or phone, he does get back to you.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: (888) 735-1464

It's Best to go to go directly to the source to accurately learn how Health Sherpa does what it does. Good luck! Looking forward to your findings.
-ac

 

[FLM2]

any reason you decided to call someone that is trying to help us an ***?

----------

Oh, that's right he has me on the ignore list........

Because going directly to a governmental agency before calling the company direct for information is a low class move, at least in my world.

And you aren't on ignore, I just choose not to ever comment on things you write except in cases like this that are directed to me.

 

[Yagents]

The Edge has left the building........followed FLM's advice

 

[all34ht]

Like many of you I've had my concerns with healthsherpa.com . As "thedg3" pointed out there are issues with the process that are apparent and need further review. It's even more ominous that he was asked to remove his posts about it.

Many on this forum have asked health sherpa publicly about their process for submitting outside of AEP and gotten no response from health sherpa. NONE! I also know several that have, as FLM recommended, called and emailed health sherpa to ask about their process but have still gotten no reply. Considering that, how can this not be troubling? As an agent I certainly have no interest in losing everything I have because of the risky process they are obviously using. Further, why the complete absence of ANY reply from them when they have been asked multiple times in threads they participated in?

I consider this a last resort after trying ad nauseam to get answers but getting nowhere. Some of you might be fine without knowing, brush it under the table or whatever. Personally I am not willing to risk the commissions I built. I wrote the below over a week ago with the intentions of posting but as you can see, haven't done so till now.

____________________

Hi, I'm a health insurance agent with concerns, like you, involving Health Sherpa (healthsherpa.com). Here are some facts that I've gathered...

BEAR WITH ME, the reason I am posting this is what they are doing is clearly in violation of federal law by way of their being a CMS broker entity and this means they are putting agents licenses and customers health insurance at risk. See the below where they clearly state:

"If you qualify for a special enrollment period, you enroll online through HealthSherpa or over the phone (by calling us at (866) 796-6017)."

healthsherpa.com/special-enrollment-period

Health Sherpa advertises that through their technology, agents are able to enroll clients for ACA plans that qualify for a special enrollment period. From what several agents are sharing they are doing it. At first this piqued my interest because like all agents these days, I'm looking for an easier way to help my clients.

Unfortunately I almost immediately noticed some red flags. There are things that just don't match up with what I know to be requirements of the process since I also at one point looked into being a web broker entity. My issue is that Health Sherpa, unbeknownst to the agents using their service, is engaging in practices which violate CMS rules and regulations and put agents and customers at risk.

Per CMS, the functionality does not currently exist for web-brokers outside of open enrollment to enroll people in ACA plans. That means there is no way that Health Sherpa could be enrolling clients without using some sort of a manual process.

Second, the Agent/Broker landing page for Healthcare.gov Web Brokers does not currently allow enrollments so they can't be doing it in that manner. This is another clue that Health Sherpa must be using a manual process.

Third, the process Health Sherpa shows to the agent is as follows – the agent inputs the data into the Health Sherpa website, the agent then receives a message that the application will be processed; there is no re-direct to healthcare.gov for the subsidy application or even creation of a customer profile as required. Proof again that some sort of manual process is happening.

Considering the connections are not available to enroll clients directly through the API's or Agent/Broker login, that only leaves two options on how a client could be enrolled through Health Sherpa:

1. Either a phone call into healthcare.gov (requiring the client to be on the line)

2. or by creating a client login on healthcare.gov.

The problems here are that Health Sherpa is never speaking to the clients so there is no possibility they are calling it into healthcare.gov and the clients are never creating their accounts on healthcare.gov yet are ending up with accounts. That only leaves one option; Health Sherpa is creating accounts on behalf of clients without any approval to do so, manually entering the applications on their own, and somehow directing the subsidy eligibility back to themselves to verify hours later (and sometimes days) to the agent that the enrollment has been completed. I can only guess that they must be entering fake email addresses in the system that point back to Health Sherpa and not the client as it should. What would the government find for those who enrolled outside of AEP via the healthsherpa website for the customers email addresses?

View the video health sherpa released, it shows that NO redirect to healthcare.gov occurs as is required by CMS!

youtube.com/watch?v=BhDpUT9vnV8

In a document published by CMS it states:

"The agent or broker may assist the consumer in creating his or her account if needed, but the consumer or a legally authorized representative must create his or her own Marketplace username and password and should not share this information with third parties, including agents and brokers."

That document can be found here: cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/R...r-5-1-2013.pdf

The CMS guidance is very clear; the client must create their own username/passwords and not share it with an agent. That means an agent is not authorized to do so for them. If, in fact, Health Sherpa is doing so for the client as I presume they are in violation of CMS regulations, privacy laws, and should be looked further into.

Even this thread has information in it that points to the issues.

It not only has comments from agents questioning the process but also Ning Liang of Health Sherpa making claims such as he makes in post number 35, where Ning says and quoted in italics:
_____

Ning from HealthSherpa here - I wanted to address some of the points quickly:

1) Up to 1 day delay in enrollment. Currently, most of our apps go through within the same business day, usually within a few hours. We are working on solving the cases where we hit bumps in the road during Special Enrollment.

During Open Enrollment, we use a different process where most of these bumps go away. This past Open Enrollment, we were able to process most applications within 1 hour.

2) We have briefed CMS on both variants of our process. They were encouraging on the progress we've made with the enrollment user experience.

3) The public facing link will be available during Open Enrollment - development is completed but we are holding off until OEP to release.

4) We are looking at building other tools to facilitate group business, including a tool for employers to manage plans and costs for their insured population. If you are interested in these tools, please send me an email at ning AT healthsherpa DOT com.

Thank you for the feedback so far - we will continue to improve on the product based on what you guys feel will give you the most value.

Cheers,
Ning
_____

His own comments prove they are violating federal law and their agreement with CMS and HHS.

1.) Up to 1 day delay in enrollment?! – Proof of the manual process that I presume. If using the technology provided by CMS it would be instant or very close to it.

2.) Really? They've been in contact with CMS. CMS is encouraging of the progress Health Sherpa has made? Even when Health Sherpa is breaking the law? Sorry, I seriously doubt that.

Try it yourself at healthsherpa.com as if you are a customer! Then set up an agent account via their Agent link at the bottom of the page. Put in bogus info and yup, they will say the customer's application has been submitted!