For many of you the process to get your health insurance cards for 2020 has not been as smooth as past years. The insurance carriers were not prepared for some reason. We are here to assist, yet wanted to walk you through a few steps on how to help.
If you have already made your first payment from a personal checking or credit card and received your member ID cards that is great. Yet there are a few additional tips if you need them below.
First of all, if you ever have any immediate medical needs get to the emergency room ASAP, even if you do not have insurance cards. If your insurance is active you will be okay. Keep the bill and you will get it reimbursed for the in-network facility once it all comes through.
KEEPING IN TOUCH: We recommend you LIKE our Facebook page, we post relevant and interesting insurance info, tips on ways to save money on a regular basis or (such as blog posts like this).
PAYMENTS: All payments to individual health insurance carriers MUST be made from a personal checking or credit card. If payments are made from a business account they will send it back (especially for LifeWise, Premera and Kasier). It has always been the law under the ACA to make premium payments for individual and family health insurance from a personal account, however more carriers are strictly following this rule. If you do make payments from a business account just be aware they may at any time refund the payment and terminate your plan or require you to make a payment from a personal account. I don’t make the rules, just here to help notify you of the process. Insurance carriers are giving extra time to make the January 1st payment due to some delays in processing.
INSURANCE CARDS: Once you make the first payment the insurance carriers will send you insurance cards. If you have already made the first payment, yet not received insurance cards I would double check to make sure the first payment actually processed and came out of your checking/credit card. At this time it is taking insurance carriers about one or two weeks to get cards to you once a payment has been made.
AUTO PAYMENTS: We strongly recommend you set up auto pay from a personal checking account and not bill-pay or a credit card. If for some reason your credit card gets canceled and your autopay cannot draft from your account, the carriers will cancel your insurance if your premium payment is not made within 30 days of the monthly due date. If your plan is cancelled you won’t be able to sign up for a qualified health plan again until 2021. If you are set up on bill pay and the amount sent to the insurance carrier is even one dollar below you will get canceled as well, as premiums can change up or down depending on income for some people.
PHONE NUMBERS: Scroll all the way to the bottom of this blog post to see a list of the health insurance carriers and how to contact them.
OTHER INSURANCE: We are a full service independent insurance agency, if you have questions about Auto & Home Insurance, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Medicare or other coverage’s we can help or point you in the right direction.
Gary Franke and Tamara Chandler
Independent Broker
Achieve Alpha Insurance LLC
12505 Bel-Red Rd, Ste 106
Bellevue, WA 98005
425-802-2783
health@achieve-alpha.com
www.achieve-alpha.com
AM Better
To pay online, log in to your Ambetter account or create an account using your full Ambetter member ID and date of birth
Pay By Phone: 877-687-1197
8 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday – Friday
To pay by phone, you will need your Washington Healthplanfinder subscriber ID or Ambetter member ID
LifeWise
LifeWise All Individual Plans 2020 number: 800-817-3056 (exchange or direct).
Premera
New to Premera? Make your binding payment at www.premera.com/wa/pay
Existing Premera customer? Log in for reoccurring or one-time payments
Have questions about payment options? Go to www.premera.com/bill-pay
Pay By Phone: 800-607-0546 (best number from what we have heard)
You will need your Payment ID located on your monthly invoice.
Premera Customer Service: 800-722-1471
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday
Molina Marketplace
www.molinahealthcare.com/payment
Pay By Phone: 888-858-3492
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday
Customer Service: 888-858-3492
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday
Kaiser Permanente (formerly Group Health)
Pay By Phone: 888-687-9004 (Automated 24/7 system)
To pay by phone, you’ll need your Kaiser Permanente subscriber number or Washington Healthplanfinder subscriber ID and zip code or the last four digits of the subscriber’s Social Security number. Electronic check (ACH), debit card, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover accepted.
Customer Service: 800-290-8900
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday