SHOP, also known as the Small Business Health Options Program, is getting a “rebrand” on the Covered California website. The new name of the program for small business will be called Covered California for Small Business. According to some officials, the naming and marketing of the program was not as straightforward as other programs. Therefore, they are hoping that this rebrand will market to a broader audience and entice more businesses to enroll in coverage. About 2,289 small businesses are currently enrolled in Covered California for Small Business. One of the primary benefits of a small business enrolling in a Covered California health plan is the tax credits.

About 7 out of 10 or 70% of Americans take prescription drugs, which is why the discussions surrounding prescription drug costs are so important. Covered California officials recently proposed a limit on drug costs for consumers who have specialty prescriptions and purchase a 2016 health plan.Their goal is to give these individuals accessible and affordable coverage for their prescriptions. The proposal would: Place certain drugs in pricing tiers Require health plans to publish pricing information about the prescriptions online Mandate that there must be at least one drug for a particular condition in a lower tier For example, this would mean that the cost of

Since the initial launch of Covered California, nearly 1.4 million people have enrolled in the exchange (the goal set by Executive Director Peter Lee was 1.7 million enrollments). Still, there have been a few setbacks that have included special enrollment periods for the past two years to encourage last minute coverage. While last year’s special enrollment period was designed to get last minute signups because of the initial enrollment difficulties, the current special enrollment period is designed to help those who were “unaware of the tax penalty” receive coverage. Thus far, 18,000 people have signed up since the special enrollment period opened February 23rd. However,

As many of you already know, there is a tax penalty for being uninsured that was supposed to go into effect in 2015. However, Covered California is now extending the deadline to enroll in coverage for people who did not know or realize they would be penalized in 2015 for being uninsured. Therefore, California is allowing consumers to apply for health insurance thru April 30, 2015 during the “Special Enrollment” period only if they they can prove that they did not realize there was a penalty. How do you prove that you were unaware of the penalty? Consumers have to select “Informed of Tax Penalty Risk”

On November 15th, the Covered California open enrollment period kicked off. After website glitches and high call volumes last year, the Covered California team had new goals and hopes for this year. One of the primary goals was to decrease call abandonment in the customer call center. Last year, three out of every ten calls were dropped so the exchange had a goal of dropping less than 3% of calls. However, the abandon rate is still something they are struggling with as consumers seek answers to password resets, re-enrollment questions, ongoing open enrollment inquiries, and changes in their Medi-Cal status. Covered California Director Peter Lee