MD Health Connection Emergency Enrollment Period Available Now!

MD Health Connection
Emergency Enrollment Period Available Now!

In an effort to prioritize health and safety and in response to Coronavirus, Maryland Health Connection opened an emergency special enrollment period for uninsured Marylanders.

You can enroll in a health plan through Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Coverage will be effective April 1, 2020, regardless of when a health plan is selected during that time period.

Medicaid enrollment is available all year.

How to enroll: 

Visit MarylandHealthConnection.gov or download the free "Enroll MHC" mobile app. When enrolling, consumers should request or select "Coronavirus Emergency Special Enrollment Period."

The online application is available daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Free consumer assistance is available by calling 855-642-8572 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Deaf and hard of hearing may use Relay.

While free, in-person assistance is still available in some areas of the state, we strongly encourage you to apply using the website, mobile app or by phone.

Is Coronavirus testing covered under a Maryland Health Connection plan or Medicaid? 

Yes. Health insurance companies are required to waive cost-sharing, including lab fees, co-payments, coinsurance, and deductibles for any visit to test for coronavirus at a doctor's office, urgent care center, or emergency room.

Can I qualify for the Coronavirus Emergency Special Enrollment Period even if I'm not sick?

Yes. All eligible, uninsured Marylanders may qualify for this emergency special enrollment period.

What do I need to apply?

Have these items ready when you apply. 

We encourage all residents to closely follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) for all health-related coronavirus questions.

Only nine Marylanders have signed up for the states retroactive health insurance

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By Jenna Johnson, Published: March 1 E-mail the writer

Only nine Marylanders have signed up for temporary, retroactive health insurance made possible by emergency legislation aimed at helping people who tried to get coverage through the state’s faulty online health insurance marketplace, encountered problems and were stuck with medical bills to pay.

Two months ago, state officials predicted that as many as 5,000 people might need the help, which would have cost the state millions of dollars. Since then, the four health insurance companies participating in the state exchange offered their own retroactive insurance, helping about 300 households — and turning the state’s option into a last-resort for special cases.

The small number of enrollees “is a sign that there are not so many people who are having so many challenges that they are going that route,” said Joshua Sharfstein, Maryland’s secretary of health and mental hygiene, at a budget hearing Wednesday. “We’ve been doing an enormous amount of work — a lot of elbow grease — to try to patch different parts of the system so that we can get through open enrollment.”

But at budget hearings and an oversight meeting this week, a few lawmakers questioned whether the low number of is really a sign of success. Some asked what the state is doing to promote the option. Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley(R-Frederick) said Monday that he has diminishing confidence in the exchange’s ability to make any accurate predictions.

On Friday, federal health officials announced they will bend some of their rules in the coming month to help those living in states where the exchanges that have not been working well, which could include Maryland. The government plans to help pay for certain health plans that consumers buy on their own — not through the exchange — and help make that insurance retroactive.

Maryland was one of 14 states that decided to build its own online health insurance marketplace, a key feature of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, rather than rely on the federal version. But Maryland’ssite crashed on its first day and has yet to work as planned, greatly hindering enrollment in private health insurance plans.

As of Feb. 22, 35,636 Marylanders had enrolled in a private health plan through the exchange, far behind the original goal of having at least 150,000 people signed up by the end of March. Earlier this week, state officials announced that their goal was based on faulty research and that a better estimation is 75,000 to 100,000 people. Enrollment for those plans opened Oct. 1 and will close March 31. The next enrollment period, for insurance starting in 2015, will open Nov. 15.

The exchange has been working better than when it first launched,with technology officials saying that they have fixed hundreds of glitches and continue to work on hundreds more. But when the New Year rolled around, thousands of Marylanders who needed health insurance were still without it.

In early January, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) asked lawmakers to help those people. The administration proposed legislation to expand enrollment in a state-run insurance program — called the Maryland Health Insurance Plan — that was established a decade ago to help high-risk individuals who couldn’t get coverage elsewhere. People in dire need of health insurance could enroll in this program and receive coverage that is retroactive to Jan. 1 or the first day of following months. The premiums of these plans are often higher than in private plans, which was expected to motivate people to not stay for long.

As lawmakers weighed that option, the four insurance companies participating in the exchange provided their own retroactive health insurance. For one week in mid-January, Marylanders could register to receive insurance that would be retroactive to Jan. 1. More than 1,300 households expressed interest. Of those, 562 were found to be eligible for Medicaid and nearly 300 households enrolled. All of those applications had to be manually processed and did not go through the exchange.

Once that happened, state officials said there was less of a need for the state to also offer retroactive insurance, but they said there could still be a few hundred people who require the help.

When O’Malley signed the legislation into law in late January, he said: “If it affects just one family, it is worth the effort, especially depending on the condition or the size of a hospital bill or other treatment bill incurred.”

Carolyn A. Quattrocki, the exchange’s acting executive director, told lawmakers Mondaythat about 7,000 applications are still stuck in Maryland’s system. As for the exact number of people who are not getting the health insurance they seek, a spokeswoman for the exchange said Friday that they do not have “any reliable estimate.”

------The primary reason people are going to the exchanges is because they are eligible for subsidies or credits.  Even with the financial help for lower income people in the Maryland Health Insurance Plan the costs are considerably higher than those through the exchanges.  It seems most are willing to wait for exchange plans instead.  If you are not eligible for a subsidy, and in need of coverage, there is NO reason to subject yourself to the hassles of going through the exchanges.....BBS

Carefirst Indvidual Medical Plans

Maryland Ends Contract with health exchange provider

Kelly Kennedy, USAToday

WASHINGTON — Maryland officials voted to end their contract with their health exchange provider and replace it with the company that fixed the federal health exchange.

"This transition will support the exchange's goal of enrolling as many Marylanders as possible in quality, affordable health coverage by the close of open enrollment on March 31," reads a statement from the board of the Maryland Health Exchange, which met Sunday night. "The exchange is preserving all rights to seek damages against Noridian and its subcontractors for problems with the IT system."

Noridian will be replaced by Optum/QSSI, the same company the federal government brought in to fix HealthCare.gov after its bug-filled rollout Oct. 1.

Open enrollment ends March 31, leaving the state little time, especially if the site is so problematic that it needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The site crashed on its opening day and has faced problems ever since, including frozen pages and lost applications. According to an enrollment report released this month, 33,000 people have enrolled in private health plans. The enrollment goal is 70,000.

Isabel FitzGerald, secretary of the Department of Information Technology, recommended the change of providers.

Some of the state health exchanges, such as California's and Kentucky's, have done well. California has already met its enrollment goals for the year.

Others, such as in Oregon and Hawaii, have had to turn to paper enrollment processes because their websites have been so problematic. Both states' exchange directors resigned in December. Hawaii's site opened two weeks later than planned and had only 257 people enrolled in the first month. Oregon's enrollments had to be processed by hand. Oregon launched a beta site this month that allows navigators to enroll people through a computer system. This month, Hawaii ranked last in the nation for enrollments.

--------Since the eschanges are a mess and you are trying to find a medical plan and having issues please try this link to Carefirst Individual Medical Plans ------BBS

Follow us on Twitter: brooksbenefit @brooksbenefit

Md. officials explore options for health insurance exchange

By Jenna Johnson, Published: February 10 (The Washington Post)

The Maryland health insurance exchange has so many structural defects that a key member of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Cabinet said Monday that officials are “actively investigating alternative options” for the next enrollment period, which begins Nov. 15.That would mean walking away from all or part of a system that has cost tens of millions of dollars to build.

The system has “serious IT defects” that have made it difficult for Marylanders to enroll in health insurance as part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and for the state to properly process applications, said Joshua M. Sharfstein, Maryland’s secretary of health and mental hygiene, at a Monday afternoon meeting of a newly formed oversight committee. That has resulted in “substantial manual work,” he said, and heavy reliance on call centers with more than 400 employees.

Maryland officials were some of the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of health-care reform, and O’Malley’s administration had bragged that its health-insurance marketplace would be one of the best in the country. Maryland is one of 14 states that launched their own exchanges instead of relying on the federal one, and its experience has been one of the worst.
State officials had estimated that 150,000 to 180,000 Marylanders would sign up for private health plans during the first enrollment period, which started Oct. 1 and will end March 31. As of Friday, the tally was at 29,059.

The struggling health exchange has become a focal point in the state gubernatorial race. Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), who is running for governor, was tasked with implementing the Affordable Care Act in Maryland. Brown has said that it was his job to set up a legislative framework for the exchange, and that he entrusted the creation of the system to the exchange’s governing board, staff and contractors.

The exchange is expected to cost more than $260 million over four fiscal years, according to documents given to lawmakers Monday. That estimated total includes not only the cost of building the system, but also the salaries of exchange administrators and employees, the call centers and other operational costs. Much of this funding came from the federal government, but Maryland is expected to pick up $47 million of the total estimated cost.

Maryland hired Noridian Healthcare Solutions, based in North Dakota, to build the system and signed a contract worth more than $193 million over five years. So far Noridian has billed the state for nearly $78 million, and Maryland has paid the company nearly $65 million.
Noridian took off-the-shelf health-care software sold by IBM and hired a technology company, EngagePoint, to stitch it together into one system. Some of the most serious problems with the system are caused by defects in core software, said Isabel FitzGerald, Maryland’s secretary of information technology. Those problems have caused applications to lose chunks of data or become lost in the system, she said. The system also doesn’t provide real-time status updates for applications, so some people are left wondering whether they are actually enrolled.
Clint Roswell, a spokesman for IBM, said in a statement on Monday that the company continues to work with Noridian, subcontractors and exchange officials to “enhance the performance of the state’s health insurance marketplace.” He noted that Noridian “is responsible for the overall implementation,” and that the latest statistics show that more than 95 percent of consumers now entering the site are having a “positive experience.”
Sharfstein said these software problems are a “significant reason” for the bungled launch of the state exchange on Oct. 1 and the ongoing problems it faces. But he also placed blame on Noridian.

“The contractors have not delivered what they said they would deliver,” Sharfstein said. “There’s no question about that.”  Sharfstein said it would not be beneficial to the state to drop Noridian before the first enrollment period ends. He would not say if the state plans to take legal action to recover money from the companies involved with the building of the exchange, but said that “all options against any and all vendors remain on the table.”  A spokeswoman for Noridian did not return a request for comment.  Noridian and EngagePoint are suing each other in a fight over money and employees. In court papers filed Friday, EngagePoint alleged that Noridian “concealed its lack of relevant expertise” when it bid on the contract. Noridian’s president and chief executive, Tom McGraw, responded by saying in a statement that the accusations are “false, unsupportable and will be contradicted by evidence that we present in court and arbitration.”

Maryland will continue to use the system for the remainder of the current enrollment period, which ends March 31. Switching systems now would only cause more turmoil, state officials have said. After that, the state will have just seven months to either overhaul its system — which, officials say would require rebuilding substantial segments — or partnering with the federal government’s marketplace, swapping out parts for superior technology from other state systems or joining a state consortium.

“This will be a critical decision and requires due diligence and fair consideration of all the options,” FitzGerald said. “At the same time, we recognize the earlier that we can make that decision, the more time we will have to prepare for next fall’s open enrollment.”
Sharfstein and FitzGerald did say that hundreds of fixes have been made to the exchange, and they will continue to work to improve it.

Although some users, especially those who are tech-savvy and have simple applications, are able to sign up for health insurance relatively quickly, FitzGerald said that there are “significant” problems that will continue to remain once enrollment ends March 31.

----Unfortunately, the people who are getting hurt in this case are those who are trying to abide by the rules under the ACA.  With Governor O'Malley now offering the "Bridge Plan" to fill the gap.  This plan allows those people who weren't able to get coverage on the exchange revert back to the MHIP (Maryland Heath Insurance Plan) as a stop-gap until they are able to finally be processed through the Maryland Health Exchange.  (Brooks Benefit Services)

WEREN'T ABLE TO GET COVERAGE THROUGH THE EXCHANGE? O'MALLY INTRODUCES THE BRIDGE PLAN

Maryland Health Insurance Plan Bridge Program

On January 30, 2014 Governor Martin O’Malley signed Senate Bill 134 - Maryland Health Insurance Plan – Access for Bridge Eligible Individuals. The bill allows “Bridge Eligible Individuals” as defined in § 31-101 of the Maryland Insurance Article to obtain temporary health insurance through the Maryland Health Insurance Plan (MHIP) with retroactive coverage.

MHIP Bridge Program Policies and Procedures

• Individuals eligible for health insurance through Medicaid, Medicare or an employer sponsored plan are not eligible for the MHIP Bridge Program.
• Applications must be submitted by March 31, 2014 (a postal date mark constitutes the submission date).
• MHIP Bridge coverage will be terminated on the effective date of a Bridge Eligible Individual’s enrollment in a qualified health plan (member must provide notice in writing to CareFirst for voluntary termination to occur).
• A MHIP member whose coverage was terminated December 31, 2013 or thereafter and are eligible for the Bridge Program will be reinstated in their last MHIP plan option with no deductible reset.
• Bridge Program applicants must submit the following documents for enrollment consideration:

1. Proof of Maryland residency
2. MHIP Standard enrollment application form
3. Tax return document and/or other proof of income if applying for enrollment in one of the MHIP+ plan options
4. MHIP Bridge Program Application Addendum (Addendum must contain applicant’s signature, a written description of when and how the applicant attempted to enroll through the Maryland Health Connection (MHC) and coverage effective date choice to be considered complete)

Enrollment Coverage Choice Will Be as Follows:

Date Application Received       Effective Date of Coverage Options
Jan. 1 – Feb. 15, 2014                  January 1, 2014 or February 1, 2014
Feb. 16 – Mar. 15, 2014               February 1, 2014 or March 1, 2014
Mar. 16 – Mar. 31, 2014               March 1, 2014

• All MHIP Bridge Program enrollees’ coverage will be terminated on March 31, 2014, unless that date is extended by the MHIP Board of Directors.
• Bridge Program application forms can be downloaded from Marylandhealthinsuranceplan.net
• A paper copy will be mailed to the individual upon request by calling 1-888-444-9016.
• Enrollment applications must be mailed to CareFirst at Maryland Health Insurance Plan, Enrollment and Billing, 10455 Mill Run Circle, RR-380, Owings Mills, MD 21117-9685.
• CareFirst will process applications within 3 business days of receipt of a complete application.
• If the application is incomplete, CareFirst will notify MHIP staff daily and MHIP staff will reach out to the applicant to obtain the missing information in a timely fashion to facilitate a prompt enrollment.
• CareFirst will mail an approval letter and a payment slip to the individual.
• Upon receipt of payment from the individual, CareFirst will effectuate coverage and mail an ID card. Coverage is not effective until full payment is received.
• Members and providers can confirm coverage with CareFirst prior to an ID card being received by calling 1-888-444-9016.
• Certificates of Coverage will be mailed to new enrollees with terms of plan and coverage dates.
• MHIP and the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) will work together to assist Bridge Program enrollees in getting coverage through the MHC. An existing MOU and data sharing agreement between MHIP and MHBE will facilitate this process. Bridge Program eligible individuals will be placed on a priority list and given assistance with transitioning, as soon as possible, into a qualified health plan through MHC. MHBE will manage the priority list.
• MHBE will use social media, direct contact and other communication outlets to inform individuals of the MHIP Bridge Program as an option of choice should other options not be available for the individual.

*From MHE-2/2014

INDIVIDUAL MANDATE DEADLINE DELAYED

With the roll-out of the Health Exchanges on October 1, 2013 came a host of problems and computer glitches that kept would-be participants from enrolling in Exchange Plans through the Maryland State and/or Federal Websites.  Due to these hurdles, the Administration is pushing the Individual Mandate Date (date which most citizens must have coverage or face a penalty) back from January 1, 2014 to March 31, 2014.  Many senate democrats are also calling for a push-back on the "Open Enrollment" time-frame as well.  

AN EASIER WAY TO FIND RATES AND POTENTIAL SUBISIDES FOR REFORM PLANS

Anyone tried to get on the Maryland Health Connection website to see how affordable the health plans are?  From time to time I was successful and generated a couple scenario plans for clients.  What I found was that you needed to input a lot of information to find out if there were any Advanced Premium Tax Credits (APTC/Subsidies) available as well as the cost of the various "Medal" plans (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum).  In addition, I also found that Carefirst, in many age bands, appeared to have the most competitive rates. Below is a link through our Portal (Brooks Benefit Services), that allows you to search, review, and see if you are eligible for APTC/Subsidies and apply for coverage if you don't. If you do qualify, you can only get those APTC's/Subsidies through the Maryland Health Connection Website. The Carefirst website is much easier, less time consuming, and will not log you off in the middle of doing a search.  Here is the Carefirst Medical Plan link. Please note that when you input the plan start date you should choose January 1, 2014.  If you do qualify for the "Subsidies" please feel free to contact me, Ben Brooks,  for assistance at 410-239-5009 or ben@brooksbenefit.com.  

MARYLAND HEALTH CONNECTION, SORT OF UP AND RUNNING

What a day.  We have had a partial government shutdown and the Maryland Health Exchanges are up and running, well sort of.  Trying all day to get into the exchange to compare rates, plans and features was met with absolutely no success. What I do know from some of my clients who were able to get rates, they were not very happy.  In fact very disappointed to find out that they were going to be paying the same or higher rates for inferior plans than they currently have.  It is important to remember that the Affordable Care Act is suppose to make plans both more affordable, accessible and provide decent coverage to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain medical insurance in the individual market. 

Most brokers/consultants have taken the appropriate training to become certified to sell these plans both inside and outside of the Maryland Health Connection.  We are trying hard to educate not only the employers but the employees as well. Below please note the Maryland Health Connection logo and our reference ID which we would appreciate the employees using when completing applications as this not only credits our firm but also keeps the employees connected to our clients through Brooks Benefit Services.  In the upcoming weeks/months we will be reaching out to offer a time to set-up educational meeting for your employees.   If you would like to schedule a meeting in the meantime or request a copy of the PowerPoint Presentation, please do not hesitate to contact us at 410-239-5009 or ben@brooksbenefit.com.

Brooks Benefit Services, LLC

Benjamin Brooks

Consumer Assistance Reference ID: 9000054278