Insurers extend premium payment deadline
Health plans are voluntarily extending the deadline to Jan. 10 for consumers to pay their first month's premium and still activate their coverage Jan. 1 in order to meet demand in escalating enrollment as federal and state exchange websites perform better.
Individuals must still select their plans by Dec. 23, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) said Wednesday in a news release. Previously, those purchasing insurance had to pay the first month's premium by Dec. 31 before their coverage would activate.
The AHIP Board of Directors noted that the short turnaround in which to complete the steps, particularly around the holidays, and ongoing technical issues with Healthcare.gov increase the possibility that some consumers' coverage might not be able to begin on Jan. 1.
"Our community is taking an important step to give consumers greater peace of mind about their health care coverage," said Karen Ignagni, AHIP president and CEO, in the release.
The enrollment process for consumers has improved and the rush to sign up as the deadline approaches, as was anticipated, appears to be occurring. However, more work needs to be done to resolve the back-end challenges, particularly those related to processing enrollment files called 834s, to make sure that all consumers who selected a plan are enrolled in coverage.
Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 5, the number of consumers for whom 834s were not produced was about 15,000, said Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in a release last weekend. Since the beginning of December, missing 834s as a percentage of total enrollments has been close to zero due to the technical fixes put in place by the end of November.
