Blue Shield CA Not Paying Commissions

[mkortz]

Apparently Blue Shield of CA switched to a new commission system effective 8/1. THIS HAS RESULTED IN CUTTING COMMISSION PAYOUTS BY ALMOST 50%. Apparently this has affected many (maybe all) agents.

I spoke with a Blue Shield rep who said it had to do with the fact that the monthly commission cycles no longer include commission for premiums that are paid in advance. Example: If a client pays for three months upfront, you will receive commission as if they paid monthly. No problem. That does not account for the massive drop in payouts. The rep basically said "tough luck" and there's nothing you can do about it.

The State Insurance Commissioner's office said there's not much they can do because it is a business agreement between the agent and the insurance carrier.

Hopefully Blue Shield will correct this issue on their own. Not sure what else we can do, but move clients to a different carrier?

 

[rcduggan]

Can anyone else verify this? I want to believe my bs comp is the same but I'd have to look more closely

 

[Dave020]

Mine was about 1/2 of normal for August. Haven't received the commission statement yet to check as to why. Thanks OP for the update.

You have to get the statements online now.

 

[FLM2]

Blue Shield has an entire document related to the new commission process, here is part of it:

Direct Deposit: Sign Up Today!
Brokers mustsign up for Direct Deposit prior to September 1, 2016 in order to receive commission payments andview statements via our new broker compensation tool.
Beginning September 1, 2016, Blue Shield will only pay broker commissions via Blue Shield’s direct deposit payment method. Paper commission checks will no longer be issued.
–Brokers who registered for Direct Deposit by August 24th, will receive payment for any earned August commissions in September.
–Those who wait to sign up for Direct Deposit between August 24thand September 1st may not receive payment for August commissions until October 2016.
–Brokers who sign up for Direct Deposit after September 1st will receive all commissions they are due the month after they register for Direct Deposit.

There isn't anything in this document about commissions being lowered or eliminated-it's on all of their lines of business, not just individual health.

Don't you think claiming they are not paying commissions is jumping to conclusions? They have all of the information posted, it isn't like they are hiding from it.

 

[rcduggan]

OP since the change over in august i can confirm my september state is all f*cked up. i am seeing a "manual adjustment" where i am paying monies back!! none of these cases are chargebacks and i have no idea whats going on.

have you seen this?

 

[DS4]

If you have clients that cycle on the 15th of the month, you were shorted big time on these!
Under the old system, if you had a client on qtly billing, say 9.1 to 12.1 and the clients premium for this qtr was rec'd in August, you got the entire comm in Sept. Now, you will get one month each month.
This is what I was able to decipher.

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move clients to a different carrier?

When the Titanic was sinking, your saying swimming was an option?

 

[Dave020]

OP since the change over in august i can confirm my september state is all f*cked up. i am seeing a "manual adjustment" where i am paying monies back!! none of these cases are chargebacks and i have no idea whats going on.

have you seen this?

Yes, it's a mess and quite difficult to figure out. Between the Retro, Gross, Base and phantom chargebacks I have little idea what is going on.

 

[Rebeldog]

The same happened to me as well. August commissions were about 50% less, September were about 15% less and now October it looks like it might be back to normal.

It is almost impossible to figure out my commission statement with all the charge backs etc... When I challenged Blue Shield about a year or so ago regarding missing commissions on several clients over the stretch of several months, it took me days and days to figure out all of this and endless months for them to finally pay me an extra $1,500, which is not worth the time and effort to deal with. Blue Shield of California is notorious for making commission mistakes (of course always in their favor). Unless there is a class action lawsuit against them, they will never change.

Imagine the millions of dollars they owe us agents... it is always more convenient for them to blame some system issue or simply turn their back away and pretend that everything is ok.

 

[mkortz]

I can't verify this, but here's what I believe is happening.

Blue Shield does not intend to pay commission on annual increases in IFP premium. However, they did pay commission to some of us. Now they are recapturing those commissions via charge backs.

To add insult to injury... Blue Shield sent out a notice that they will be doing the same thing for retention bonuses. Watch for more charge backs on your Nov-Jan statements.

 

[Dave020]

Round 2 in 3 months. Charged back grandfathered HIPAA (GI) plans (terming 12/31) all the way back into 2015. All plans charged back are still active, paid up and on the books. Negative balance, no commission this month and they are supposedly "investigating this". I quit. Done and done.