HHS Call: Plans Will Be Fine if No Income Change, Really?

[yorkriver1]

We have been told by carriers up until today, like it was last year, that if we don't recalculate the tax credit for 2017 via a life change, the old 2016 credit will be applied in 2017.

That's not what they said on the HHS/CMS phone call today.

I emailed the CMS presenter to clarify.

I am going to update all tax credit based apps. The quest for fully informed reps, any carrier, any FMO goes on.

 

[russelltw]

In NC, we have 1 carrier in 95% of the counties. CMS took UHC/Aetna clients and mapped them to a Blue plan that was the lowest cost silver plan in that rating area.

CMS is sending our blue 834s of the all the uhc/aetna clients. In some cases, the subsidy is updated and other cases the subsidy is not on there at all. Carrier said CMS is still working to get the subsidies on the 834 correct.

Comparing subsidies from clients' data for 2016 to what they are on the 834 for 2017, it looks like subsidies have been updated on about 40-50% of clients so far. So on those 40-50%, subsidies are higher than what they were last year.

 

[yorkriver1]

In NC, we have 1 carrier in 95% of the counties. CMS took UHC/Aetna clients and mapped them to a Blue plan that was the lowest cost silver plan in that rating area.

CMS is sending our blue 834s of the all the uhc/aetna clients. In some cases, the subsidy is updated and other cases the subsidy is not on there at all. Carrier said CMS is still working to get the subsidies on the 834 correct.

Comparing subsidies from clients' data for 2016 to what they are on the 834 for 2017, it looks like subsidies have been updated on about 40-50% of clients so far. So on those 40-50%, subsidies are higher than what they were last year.

When will clients know if their 834 is updated with 2017 tax credit, would be my question.

If their 2017 plan is showing on their account and the tax credit is updated, we could see it.

 

[russelltw]

Here, CMS is not letting the carrier contact those UHC/Aetna members until Nov 14th.

 

[yorkriver1]

Hmmm. Today I called the HC.gov broker/agent hotline. The rep there hadn't heard any news about automatic updating of apps to 2017 tax credits.

Her training is to update every app, just like last year. So, the CEO of the Health Insurance Marketplace may not have given us the correct information in the phone call yesterday. The rep acknowledged that not everyone in the organization seems to always be on the same page with information. I have learned to live with that in all organizations.

She also said that if agent info is in the app when an insured calls to make a life change, they don't remove the agent. At least not as a procedure, per the rep I talked to.

 

[TN_agent]

But they will remove your ability to call in on your client's behalf in a heartbeat if you ask to speak to a supervisor. Had one do that to me recently.

They were completely wrong what they were telling me, I ask to talk to a supervisor, the supervisor gets on, asks me for my name, then proceeds to say I am not authorized to speak on my client's behalf, there is no one with my name authorized on the app. That original rep removed me from the app before transferring me. My client was hearing the whole thing, listening in, and spoke up and told the supervisor not only was I authorized as of 30 seconds ago, I had always been authorized since 2014 and he would like to authorize me for another 365 days. These nameless faceless workers at HC.gov have zero accountability.