With a new executive order, President Biden has opened a special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act from February 15 to May 15, 2021, giving those without employer-sponsored coverage an opportunity to sign up for health insurance coverage.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
Until January 31, 2021, HealthSherpa will pay $50 (in addition to your usual commission) for any off-exchange Ambetter applications you submit through HealthSherpa in these states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
There’s no limit to how many bonuses you can receive—you’ll get $50 for each application you submit.
These plans can be a great fit for:
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
The following information was originally released by Healthcare.gov.
CMS provides additional support to agents and brokers who are assisting their clients with a complex Marketplace application or enrollment issue. Consumer-specific complex cases are cases where a consumer has submitted an application for coverage and requires assistance in making a change to their application, plan coverage, reported income, and/or making profile updates.
In this situation, you must first attempt to resolve the case by contacting either the Marketplace Call Center or the Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) partner if you are assisting a consumer using an EDE partner’s website.
If you are unsuccessful in resolving the case with the Marketplace Call Center or the EDE partner and still require assistance, you should contact the FFM Agent/Broker Email Help Desk (FFMProducer-AssisterHelpDesk@cms.hhs.gov) and provide the following information:
If you have already attempted to resolve the case in another way such as an appeal or Health Insurance Casework System (HICS) case, please provide the Issuer or Marketplace appeal number or HICS case number assigned to the case.
The Help Desk will refer the information you provide to representatives from our Complex Case Help Center (CCHC) so they can respond to your issue. A member of the CCHC team will contact you via phone for additional information or to communicate the outcome of the case.
Check out this resource on the help desks available to agents and brokers, the types of inquiries handled, contact information, and hours of operation.
There are still opportunities to sell outside of Open Enrollment!
Consider reaching out to clients who may need a new plan due to a qualifying event such as:
Also, your clients may be interested in short-term health insurance and ancillary coverage solutions such as:
REMINDER: Have your ACA clients made their binder payments?
For your convenience, here are the carrier phone numbers that clients can use to make their payments and order their new ID cards:
Contact us today to find out how to maximize your selling potential in 2021!
Earn a one-time, per-member bonus for new Ambetter members you enroll during 2021 Open Enrollment.
NEW ENROLLMENT BONUS |
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All States* |
One-Time Bonus |
Number of New Enrollments |
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$25 per new member |
25–49 new members |
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$50 per new member |
50+ new members |
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*New Mexico policies are not eligible.
You must be the broker of record from 1/1/21 to 3/31/21 for a policy to count toward the new enrollment bonus.
Not appointed with Ambetter? Contact your Cornerstone individual team today to get started.
Cornerstone’s individual team has put together a convenient checklist and maps so you can easily track which carriers are in which Ohio counties for 2021.
The checklist and maps are consistently updated as new information is released. The most updated information can always be found on the Cornerstone Resource Center under the Document Search.
Not appointed with any of the carriers on this list? Contact Lead Broker Advisor Geoff Beglen to get started!
This article was originally published by Healthcare.gov.
The Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) pathway can help agents and brokers in many ways, but there are some common misconceptions about EDE. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) addresses four misconceptions about using EDE:
Capabilities may vary by partner. Check out the new and improved Issuer and Direct Enrollment Partner Directory to find approved partners you can work with!
As if insurance lingo was not quirky enough—PPO, HMO, ACO, EOB, PCP, etc.—now this? Before you get too frustrated, ICHRA may just be the answer for employers struggling with insurance administrative burdens and high costs. Remember, if you’re not ahead of the game, that means you’re behind and your competition might just steal your precious income.
What exactly is ICHRA? Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA)—whew, that’s a mouthful so we will just stick with ICHRA (“ick-rah”). In June of 2019, the U.S. Departments of the Treasury, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Labor finalized new regulations to expand the usability of HRAs. This emerging concept of the ICHRA model is based on reimbursing employees for insurance rather than purchasing it for them. The biggest benefit? ICHRA allows employers to reimburse employees tax-free for individual health insurance or Medicare.
HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project that by 2029, roughly 800,000 employers will offer ICHRA, covering more than 11 million employees. This is a projection we should all pay very close attention to.
ICRHA may be a good option for employers struggling to provide affordable coverage, who no longer wish to administer complex group health benefit plans, who are considering dropping their group plan, who want to “baby-step” into the world of benefits (i.e., start-up companies), who want to cover normally ineligible classes of employees (i.e., part-time workers), or those who are not meeting participation guidelines.
ICHRA provides budget control by implementing fixed costs and eliminating future rate increases. The responsibility of the employer for health risks is now transferred to the employee and there are no participation rules. Employees have the flexibility to choose coverage that best fits their needs and their plans are portable no matter where they go. The premiums reimbursed by the employer are tax free to both the employee and the employer and the plans are still serviced by an insurance professional who ensures that the set-up, administration, and compliance issues are properly addressed at all times.
But there are two sides to every story right? There may be some downsides to these types of plans. Although the individual market is slowly returning and more options are available today than in the past few years, network issues, plan benefits, and the impact to any possible subsidies must be carefully considered. There are a number of compliance and tax issues as well, many of which may require a third-party administrator to handle. These are just a few of the situations that a professional benefits consultant will still need to appropriately guide their clients through.
In any productive needs analysis situation, there are many important considerations, from the overall goals of the employer, to budgets, to unintended repercussions to employees, and more. If you would like to explore these new options further, consult your Cornerstone representative today.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will host the “Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements: Policy and Application Overview Webinar”.
The webinar will cover:
Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Time: 2:30 pm–3:30 pm
If you wish to register for this event, please log in to www.REGTAP.info and complete the following steps:
Join Oscar to learn about their 2021 Oscar Individual & Family plan offerings. Space is limited, and you won’t want to miss out! Click on the buttons below to register.
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Cleveland (NE Ohio) DATE: October 14, 2020 TIME: 10:00 am–11:00 am |
Columbus (Central Ohio) DATE: October 14, 2020 TIME: 1:00 pm–2:00 pm |
Not yet appointed with Oscar? Click here to get started.
