Covered California, which on Wednesday announced 59,000 enrollments had been completed up to Nov. 12, just started transacting enrollment information to insurers at the beginning of November. One broker thinks it’s likely that no consumers have paid for plans yet.
“I know because I talk to [carriers] every day,” says broker MD Sam Smith, president of the California Association of Health Underwriters and president of Encino, Calif.-based Genesis Financial and Insurance Services. “If the data transmission is successful on [or around] November 15, how long will it take the carriers to upload information, establish a person’s account, generate a bill and receive a payment?” He says the exchange had originally estimated that transactions to insurers would begin Nov. 15 and that the first bills will go out around Dec. 1 — and then need to be returned with payment.
