How Are People Canceling Previous Plans when Using Web Broker to Enroll?

[rugerred]

This is going to be a mess me thinks

----------

Has anyone been able do this schedule to terminate effectively? I don't see how.

 

[saintstigers]

You need to access their 2015 application. Choose terminate. A calendar will pop up asking if you are sure you want to terminate coverage. Choose December 31st as the date you want coverage to terminate. If you created a new application instead of updating and submitting your 2016 submission from the application that was auto generated by Healthcare.gov that application will be auto renewed based on information from the 2015 application. They say that the system will not recognize the duplicate application that was created. You will need to access the 2015 application and schedule it to be terminated on December 31st. If this is not done you could end up with clients being enrolled twice. They said that following these steps will nullify the auto renewal on the auto generated application.
I got this answer at least 5 times amongst other answers that made little sense.

----------


No they do not. If you updated their application using the auto generated 2016 application from HC.gov they are fine. The old plan will be cancelled and if they chose a new plan it will take effect January 1st. If you are concerned that the carrier will not get the memo especially if they change carriers go ahead and set the plan to terminate on December 31st.
I assume that the carrier will get the message since they get it when HC.gov set a termination date for lack of documents.

-------------

I had a client that signed up and enrolled for a 2016 with BCBS silver plan via a consumer facing link. I discovered that the client already had a BCBS exchange plan for 2015 (gold plan).

So when I rechecked their 2016 apps, there are 2 apps:

1) the 2016 BCBS silver plan they enrolled thru me

2) a 2016 app with eligibilty, but no plan selection which I assume will be used to auto-enroll on a Gold plan

So do I go to the client's 2015 app and term their Gold plan eff 12/31/15 and that will prevent the auto-enrollment? And double enrollment?

 

[TxOnline]

While agree with your statement, there's just 1 problem. The FFM errors out every time I try to cancel 12/31/2015 - I'm guessing due to the fact that the system already thinks the plan is terming on that day.......

Choose a termination date of 1/1/16.
I'm telling my clients to let their old plan lapse for non-payment IF they start getting a bill for 2016 coverage (from a passive renewal).
I still haven't figured out WHAT those passive renewals will actually DO on Jan 1st!

 

[saintstigers]

Choose a termination date of 1/1/16.
I'm telling my clients to let their old plan lapse for non-payment IF they start getting a bill for 2016 coverage (from a passive renewal).
I still haven't figured out WHAT those passive renewals will actually DO on Jan 1st!

I guess that would work for those that get a bill in the mail and pay it each month. The big headache would be for those on the bank draft or credit card. Getting charged for 2 plans! I bet this will happen alot this year. Imagine all the people that had an exchange plan for 2015. Got their renewal for 2016 didn't like the increase. Went to ehealth and got a new plan for 2016. Didn't cancel their 2015 plan and starts getting double billed!

 

[TxOnline]

I'm telling ALL clients to CANCEL their monthly bank drafting (after December draft occurs) IF they are NOT continuing their 2015 coverage.

 

[cadylou]

I'm telling ALL clients to CANCEL their monthly bank drafting (after December draft occurs) IF they are NOT continuing their 2015 coverage.

After the fallout from tax time last year, I've been advising everyone to pay a paper bill if at all possible. I had people who had their subsidy yanked when their 2014 income was out of range. They pulled the 2015 subsidy with no notification. One gal I had was using EFT with Blue Cross, and when they discontinued her subsidy (she was paying $150/mo for a $733/mo plan) - BCBS took $733/mo out of her bank account for May & June. She was never notified & didn't know until her rent check in June bounced. Horrible!

Just one more reason they should have had enrollment AFTER taxes were filed, so we'd be using actual income amounts, rather than hypothetical projections. The girl I referenced was self employed and although we did a good faith estimate of income - she broke her foot in Sept 2014 and couldn't work the rest of the year, so she came in under the necessary income for the APTC. I think Congress has never met a self employed person in their lives - income fluctuates, even when best laid plans are made. . . .

 

[AllenChicago]

The big headache would be for those on the bank draft or credit card. Getting charged for 2 plans! I bet this will happen alot this year. Imagine all the people that had an exchange plan for 2015. Got their renewal for 2016 didn't like the increase. Went to ehealth and got a new plan for 2016. Didn't cancel their 2015 plan and starts getting double billed!

I caught hell in the first Open Enrollment due to BCBS drafting January 2014 for the QHP assigned by BCBS AND the one chosen by the client on HC.gov. Since then, I've not put a single Exchange policy on bank draft...and advised everyone not to do it on their own either. I have off-exchange on draft, and they renew each year with no issues. There's something about government involvement that screws things up. Imagine that!

 

[Sherota1]

While agree with your statement, there's just 1 problem. The FFM errors out every time I try to cancel 12/31/2015 - I'm guessing due to the fact that the system already thinks the plan is terming on that day.......

I tried my first cancellation trying to pick December 31st for an application that a HC.gov CSR duplicated on one of my clients that could not be found through the lookup tool. We asked her more than once if she was updating from the 2016 because she was asking ALL of to questions again. When we checked there were two 2016 apps. So over their instructions I tried as others here had to term the 2015 app using the calendar. It worked before for any other date but not for December 31st. I did not get an error it just would not allow me to go forward. She changed plans so we hope the duplicate 2016 will cancel out the 2015 plan.

----------

After the fallout from tax time last year, I've been advising everyone to pay a paper bill if at all possible. I had people who had their subsidy yanked when their 2014 income was out of range. They pulled the 2015 subsidy with no notification. One gal I had was using EFT with Blue Cross, and when they discontinued her subsidy (she was paying $150/mo for a $733/mo plan) - BCBS took $733/mo out of her bank account for May & June. She was never notified & didn't know until her rent check in June bounced. Horrible! Just one more reason they should have had enrollment AFTER taxes were filed, so we'd be using actual income amounts, rather than hypothetical projections. The girl I referenced was self employed and although we did a good faith estimate of income - she broke her foot in Sept 2014 and couldn't work the rest of the year, so she came in under the necessary income for the APTC. I think Congress has never met a self employed person in their lives - income fluctuates, even when best laid plans are made. . . .

There should be a law that a company cannot auto debit an account for an amount higher than the amount previously agreed to without prior consent from the account holder. Getting a refund for some companies takes up to 90 days but the debit takes a few seconds.

 

[cadylou]

I tried my first cancellation trying to pick December 31st for an application that a HC.gov CSR duplicated on one of my clients that could not be found through the lookup tool. We asked her more than once if she was updating from the 2016 because she was asking ALL of to questions again. When we checked there were two 2016 apps. So over their instructions I tried as others here had to term the 2015 app using the calendar. It worked before for any other date but not for December 31st. I did not get an error it just would not allow me to go forward. She changed plans so we hope the duplicate 2016 will cancel out the 2015 plan. ---------- There should be a law that a company cannot auto debit an account for an amount higher than the amount previously agreed to without prior consent from the account holder. Getting a refund for some companies takes up to 90 days but the debit takes a few seconds.

Agreed, but that wasn't the way this went. She was told the money couldn't be refunded since she had coverage for those 2 months. They claimed "not their fault" that the subsidy $$ didn't come through when subsidy was yanked. Criminal. If an agent had left someone open to a mistake like that we'd have had an E&O claim. In this new world order the client is unprotected.

 

[HealthGuy]

Cadylou: Isn't there a reason the FFM yanked her subsidy? Blue Cross didnt yank the subsidy, the government did because she probably didnt send them something they were asking of her...Thats not Blue Crosses fault. Come on now.
If the government is being ridiculously generous with these tax credits its the responsibility of the policy holder to follow through with documents they are required to send to the FFM.

Maybe she was underreporting income or maybe she was behind on her taxes?
Maybe its HER fault ?