Apparently, insurance companies don't want to let customers cancel policies.
"Kaiser, the state’s third largest provider, doesn’t allow users to post directly to its Facebook page. It’s also where some callers complained they were receiving a pre-recorded message that ended with a dial tone when they called customer service."
Sadly, long before the new health care law went into effect, Kaiser was preventing patients from making complaints.
DMOC isn't likely to do much. There's a long history between DMHC and Kaiser.
Health Insurance Complaints Skyrocket in CA
Having trouble reaching your health insurance company? You're not alone. State regulators say in January alone, they've seen a 53% jump in complaints, in part because calls about Covered California. A little known state hotline can help
By Vicky Nguyen, Felipe Escamilla, Liza Meak, and Scott Pham
NBC News
Apr 22, 2014
The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies. Vicky Nguyen reports in a video that aired on April 21, 2014.
Even if you aren’t one of the 1.2 million people signing up for Covered California, chances are you’re feeling the pinch when calling your insurance company. The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies.
For some health insurance companies, the influx of calls is so bad, they’re hanging up on customers after a pre-recorded message, while others put callers on hold indefinitely.
“I’ve been put on hold anywhere from 15-40 minutes,” said Don Tran, a full-time grad student at San Jose State.
Tran said he wanted to cancel his individual health plan with Blue Shield of California because he was eligible for less expensive coverage through his employer. But getting in touch with Blue Shield turned out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. “It’s been over a month and a half and I still haven’t been able to reach anybody,” Tran said.
Tran's story is a familiar one to Marta Green, spokeswoman for the California Department of Managed Health Care. The agency regulates [or at least, it collects a lot of money from the taxpayers in exchange for promising to regulate] health care plans and protects consumers.
“We have seen our call volume go up quite a bit,” Green said. She attributes much of the increase to the sudden spike in health insurance enrollment due to Covered California.
The rise in complaint volume was so extreme, the department began tracking the number of complaints from people who said they couldn't even reach their insurance providers.
“It was never an issue before this year,” Green said. But the department is only tracking “can’t reach plan” complaints for customers enrolled in Covered California. Of the roughly 1,000 complaints received between January and March of 2014, 1 in 10 people said they were trying to cancel or couldn’t reach their plan.
Green said there’s little consequence at this point for health plans that aren’t responsive to consumers. “If a health care plan is found to have violated the law, they can face enforcement action…[but] there is no specific law in relation to wait times.” Green said consumers can call, email or even send postal mail to the department regarding any issues with their health insurance. She said the department is committed to helping consumers resolve their problems, a process that can take anywhere from a day to a month.
“Every complaint we receive is investigated,” Green said. She encouraged consumers to call the department’s hotline, 1-888-466-2219, where they are guaranteed to reach a human being during business hours.
Don Tran took his complaint online, joining dozens of others NBC Bay Area found on social media, who are posting pictures of their wait times and airing their complaints on Facebook and Twitter. A check of the Facebook pages for the two largest providers in California—Anthem and Blue Shield – revealed new complaints daily.
Kaiser, the state’s third largest provider, doesn’t allow users to post directly to its Facebook page. It’s also where some callers complained they were receiving a pre-recorded message that ended with a dial tone when they called customer service.
“It’s a real hassle,” Tran said, adding that Blue Shield only responded after he posted several comments on social media. Now, more than 2 months later, he finally has his cancellation notice, but didn't get a reimbursement check until a few days ago.
Blue Shield of California spokesman Sean Barry said via email the company has expanded its customer service staff, adding, “We’re committed to delivering a high-quality customer experience. We have put several measures in place to reduce the delays in resolving issues by phone, receiving new ID cards and making payments.”
He directed customers to this customer service home page with a list of contacts to help resolve issues.
Darrel Ng echoed a similar sentiment. In an emailed statement, the Anthem Blue Cross spokesman said, “At the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of Californians were added to the insurance rolls on Jan. 1 as our nation’s health care delivery system went through a complete transformation. Because of that, in the first two business days of January, our company received a million calls nationally. Since then, we hired and trained hundreds of additional customer service agents and reassigned hundreds of other internal assets to assist on our phone lines. Through those efforts, the average hold time for customer service was under 3 minutes in March and is down to less than 90 seconds thus far in April.”
Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Karl Sonkin emailed this statement. "Prior to the deadline for Affordable Care Act Kaiser Permanente experienced a higher volume of calls to our Member Services Call Center during peak hours than we typically receive in the first part of the year, and that had resulted in longer than normal hold times. However, now that the enrollment deadline has passed our call volumes have returned to more typical levels and we are no longer experiencing delays."
[Maura Larkins' comment: This seem to be Kaiser's way of saying that patients will be experiencing the same treatment that they received for years before the Affordable Care Act.]
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