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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Affordable Care Act..Obama admits "THERE MAY BE STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS.

...Hinges No Longer Squeak, They Are off the Doors....  California today announced the expansion of customer service agents for COVERED CALIFORNIA.

CoveredCA is hiring an additional 350 telephone agents to meet the continuing demand to enroll for Covered California. The California Medical Association also reported; Health Reform and Covered California News

The Treasury Department on Monday rolled out more tweaks to the health-care law's requirement that all large employers--those with 50 or more workers--provide insurance coverage to their workers. This is the part of Obamacare was supposed to take effect at the start of 2014, but was delayed by the White House this past summer as the White House was facing significant push back from employers.

Covered California is hiring more workers to fix service problems

California's health insurance exchange is racing to fix persistent service problems before it faces another surge of Obamacare applicants eager to beat a March enrollment deadline. The state is drawing on a $155-million federal grant it received last month to improve service ahead of the March 31 sign-up deadline under the Affordable Care Act. The Obama administration is counting on California to deliver another big wave of enrollment to compensate for a shaky rollout nationwide.

350 workers added to Covered California call lines
Hundreds of customer service representatives will be added to Covered California’s phone lines, to help cut wait times and to enroll more state residents into health care plans before a March deadline, state officials announced Monday

California health exchange pulls doctor directory again

California's health insurance exchange pulled its online doctor directory again after some physicians were wrongly listed as accepting patients' coverage plans, spurring a blame game between insurers and providers. A major error was made in the provider directorty for private insurers Covered California published the incorrect list of providers.  Many have not signed up to be providers under California law.  Covered California requires a different set of rules including unique reimbursement rates. Many providers do not even know they are llisted, and when they present themselves to the MDs office they will find the doctor' office unable to accept them.

For 3 million, 'affordable' health care might not be
The lure used to get uninsured Americans to sign up for health law coverage was the promise of generous premium subsidies.The promise comes with a catch for almost 3 million people earning three to four times the federal poverty rate: They may have to pay up to 9.5% of their income toward that premium before the government subsidy kicks in. That could take a substantial bite from their budgets — potentially as much as $600 a month for a family of three earning $58,590 to $78,120. As a result, some middle-class families may decide health insurance is beyond their reach and pay a penalty rather than buy coverage. 

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