Health Net CA Blackout Coming Up (HHS)

Health Net CA Blackout Coming Up
Health Net of California has announced a blackout for individual & family coverage plans (IFP) in a couple of weeks. The blackout will be lifted when the new PPACA-compliant plans are approved and available for January 1, 2011.

The blackout will occur on November 18th (online quoting), and the last day to submit applications for December 1, 2010 start dates will be November 22nd. Any applications received after 11/22 will not be processed.
Any application submitted on or before 11/22 that is not approved and enrolled by 12/10/10 will be cancelled and returned to the applicant.
Health Net CA will advise agents as to the progress of the PPACA-compliant plans and at what point applications and online quoting will be made available after the blackout.
This blackout does not effect HIPAA plans, only underwritten coverage plans.

PCIP Premium Decrease (HHS)
According to recent press, the federal government has indicated that it plans to decrease the premiums for the federal PCIP (temporary risk pools) by 20% in order to encourage greater enrollments.

Apparently enrollment in the new PCIP has been lackluster at best. I do not yet know if the decrease will be applied to the CA PCIP as it is being run by the state (MRMIB) and not a direct federal risk pool. Unless the government can find more $$$ to pump into the pools, this is going to likely create a reduced number of enrollment slots meaning less people will be able to be covered at the lower premium. California's PCIP is scheduled to hold an average of 23,100 people at any given time with a possible increase in two years if scheduled federal funding is available. Obviously a 20% premium decrease under existing funding ($761MM) would likely lower the number of subscribers by that same percentage.