Yet another Obamacare deadline has shifted: California customers of the state exchange have until Jan. 15 to make their first month’s premium payments.
That adds more than a work week to the previous Jan. 6 deadline, which was itself an extension for first-month payments for coverage that began Jan. 1.
To no one’s surprise, the latest extension came amid consumer complaints of lack of billing from insurance carriers, problems with the state Affordable Care Act web site, and long wait times for help from Covered California and insurance carrier representatives.
The state Obamacare operation has been swamped with insurance-seekers for most of the month of December. It had extended the deadline for signups one last time, to Dec. 27, for those having trouble getting their applications finalized.
News of the extension broke late Saturday, on the Covered California Twitter feed. Payments affected are for health insurance policies that begin Jan. 1, and the coverage will be retroactive to that date.
Covered California does not collect payments for health insurance companies participating in the individual marketplace. “Payment for coverage taking effect Jan. 1 must be in the hands of the health insurance companies by Jan. 15 and not simply postmarked or in-transit,” Covered California’s blog said.
Kaiser Permanente announced an extension to Jan. 15 just before Covered California followed suit. Kaiser said payments had to be postmarked or submitted online by Jan. 15 (while the state exchange said they had to be received by that Wednesday).
(Update: Both Kaiser and Anthem Blue Cross announced further deadline extensions for January payments.)
Kaiser said it had “begun calling new members to inform them about the deadline extension and about the alternative to pay their premium online.”
Kaiser admitted it was “still processing enrollment files and expects all invoices to be mailed by the end of next week.” Covered California noted: “The extension also assures health care companies time to mail the invoices and for consumers to have received the documents.:
Covered California noted Jan. 2: “Many (insurers) are extending the deadline even further to accommodate the tens of thousands of consumers who signed up in the last few days before the Dec. 23 enrollment deadline.”
Even after the deadline was extended Jan. 4, the Covered California web page about payments said: “Some insurance companies may consider extending that payment deadline, so you should contact your insurer to find out when payment is due.”
Covered California had said in mid-December that the Jan. 6 deadline would not be extended.
Unlike individual (private) insurance payments, those for the small-business program SHOP are made by employers to the Covered California operation.
- View the Covered California page for payments to insurers.
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