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California Individual Changes Effective January 1, 2011
Anthem is writing to let you know about rate changes and other important updates for your new and existing clients on certain Anthem Individual and Family Medical Plans. These updates include:
- Existing members
- Gender neutral rate adjustments at renewal
- CoreGuard rate change
- New Sales
- New effective date policy
- Trend rate change
- Short Term plans gender neutral rate adjustments and rating area changes
Gender Neutral Rate Adjustments
To comply with recent state legislation, Anthem is eliminating gender-specific rates on all of its Individual medical plans for new sales and for current members at their policy renewal. The nature of this adjustment means an increase for some clients and a decrease for others, with variations by age and gender. This affects Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance plans, including Short Term. Our Anthem Blue Cross plans, which include our PPO Share and HMO plans, are already gender-neutral. Our pending Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance plans were filed with gender neutral rates and are waiting for final review by the California Department of Insurance
CoreGuard
For the first time since launching this plan on 1/1/10, Anthem is increasing CoreGuard rates by an average of 12% to offset increased costs. This will impact your clients upon renewal, and will be combined with their adjustments for gender neutral rating.
Rating (Trend) Adjustment Effective January 1, 2011
Rather than an annual rate increase, Anthem is implementing trend rate adjustments throughout the year. The first will take effect January 1, 2011, when we implement a 2.58% trend rate adjustment for new business on the following Individual medical plans.
- PPO Share 3500 (06BX)
- PPO Share 7500 (06BY)
- Individual HMO (06C0)
- HMO Saver (06C1)
- Select HMO (06C2)
You will receive advanced notification of future trend rate adjustments and will be able to view your list of clients on the AgentServices website along with updated rate guides.
New effective date policy for new sales
For Individual applications received January 1, 2011 and later, the earliest policy effective date available will be 15 calendar days after receipt of the application. The application receipt date is the date Anthem loads the application into our system. For online and faxed applications, this happens automatically, upon receipt. Although mailed applications aren't loaded automatically, they are typically loaded the same day we receive them in the mail. Please note that this effective date change does not apply to Short Term plans. A temporary broadcast message regarding this change will appear on PlanFinder this week, and a permanent message will be added to PlanFinder and other quoting sites in mid-December.
New rating areas for Short Term plans
Beginning January 1, 2011 Short Term plan rating areas will be reduced to 7 instead of 14. The rating areas are the same as Anthem's other medical policies. The new Short Term brochure will reflect these changes.
Agent Tools
In late November you will be able to view a list of your clients whose rates will be changing in January by logging on to AgentServices and selecting Rate Action Client Reports, Jan 01, 2011.
New gender neutral rates for Short Term plans and new PPO Share and HMO plan rates are now on PlanFinder for effective dates of 1/1/11 and later. Quotit and Norvax rates will be updated soon. Key documents about the rate action will be posted on our secure agent website in late November under the January 1, 2011 Rate Actions link. These include the new Short Term brochure, plan rate sheets and sample member letters.
The current plan option table may still be used. Changemycoverage.com is currently unavailable; it will be updated and activated upon final CDI review of Anthem's new plans.
Overview
The following table is an overview of how these various actions will affect your existing and/or new clients.
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Plan
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Type of Change
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Impact to Existing Clients
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Impact to New Clients
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Pre 9/23/10 plans
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Gender neutral rate adjustment
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In renewal month in 2011
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N/A
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CoreGuard
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New rates effective January 1, 2011 (inclusive of gender neutral rate adjustment)
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In renewal month in 2011
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N/A
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Short Term
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Gender neutral rate adjustment and new rating areas
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N/A
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January 1, 2011
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PPO Share 3500 and 7500; Select HMO, HMO Saver, Individual HMO
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Trend rate adjustment for new business
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Receive current rate and age adjustment in their renewal month
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January 1, 2011
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New effective date policy
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Earliest effective date 15 days after receipt of application (excluding Short Term plans)
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N/A
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Applications received on and after January 1, 2011
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Questions?
Contact broker services by emailing us at Agent.support@wellpoint.com or calling 800-678-4466.
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