Tax Credit Errors Cause Incorrect Billing for Covered CA Members

Posted: March 10, 2017

by Wendy Barnett

Covered California confirmed that they gave erroneous tax credit information to insurers for approximately 25,000 policy holders. This resulted in members receiving incorrect bills for the month of January, 2017. Covered California has, since then, corrected the wrong tax credit information with the insurance carriers. They have also aggressively reached out to affected members to inform them of the error and their options.

How will this affect you as a Covered CA member?

• January’s bill may be wrong. In most cases the bill will be lower than anticipated.

• Expect a higher bill in February. Those affected by this issue will receive a corrected bill from their insurance carrier for February.  In most cases, the bill will be higher, in some cases considerably higher as the correct tax credit amount will be lower.

• It will be at your Insurance Carrier’s discretion whether or not to charge you the difference in price to make up for January.

What if you can’t afford your plan after you receive the premium correction?

• Affected members can re-apply for a less expensive plan within 60 days of the notice of the error. Members can use a Qualifying Life Event to re-apply with a Special Enrollment Period since “misinformation occurred during their enrollment.”

• Members can contact Covered CA at 800-300-1506 or 844-623-2070 with questions or to request changes.

• Contact your insurance agent who originally helped you with your enrollment. If you don’t have a health insurance broker in California and would like to discuss your options, you are welcome to call us at 877-752-4737.

• Enrollees can file an appeal if they think their tax credit has been calculated incorrectly or if they have not been able to get a correct resolution. Be aware that dealing with the red tape of filing an appeal can take anywhere between 2 to 4 months.

Sources:
How to Cope with Covered California Glitches
Subsidy for Consumers