Cobra Control Services, LLC (“CCS”) is pleased to announce an easy method of updating premiums for age and tobacco rated medical plans. This special alert is intended to provide useful information for administrators of small group health plans about an enhancement to the Automated Rate Update Program in MyEnroll.com.
Background
Under health care reform, health insurers in the small group health plan market must treat all plan enrollees as part of a single risk pool when determining rates and premiums. Insurance companies may vary the premium rate only for the following factors: family size, geography, age, and tobacco use. A small group health plan is one that insures fewer than 50 lives.
New Enhancement
CCS has enhanced its online COBRA Automated Rate Update Program to pre-load age and tobacco-banded rates for the Independence Blue Cross (IBC) health plans. Administrators can simply select a plan tier and coverage option from a table of pre-loaded rates to update COBRA premium information for the upcoming plan year.
Automated Rate Renewal Program
CCS’ Automated Rate Update Program in MyEnroll.com is an online tool which allows any individual on an employer’s email distribution list to update COBRA premiums.
- 30-days in advance of the employer’s plan renewal date, MyEnroll.com sends an email requesting the user to click through a hyperlink to the Automated Rate Update Program.
- Upon completion of the rate update, new premiums are loaded in MyEnroll.com, instantly. Each person on the employer’s email distribution list is sent a confirmation of the rate update.
Premium Rating
Effective January 1, 2014, the Automated Rate Update Program began to accept manual entry of age-banded and tobacco-banded premium rates. Administrators may enter the various rates directly in the Rate Renewal Editing Page.
CCS is now offering an additional programming feature to streamline the rate updating process for administrators with IBC small group health plans.
How it works
- A user clicks the hyperlink in the rate renewal request email to access the Automated Rate Update Program.
- Once in the program, the user selects the button, “Add another medical plan.” The user will see the option to select from one of the pre-populated Independence Blue Cross (IBC) plans.
- The user will select one of the following options: Gold Plan, Silver Plan, Bronze Plan or Platinum Plan.
- Next, the user will choose the applicable plan from the list of identified plan names.
- Once the plan is selected, the rates will populate, automatically.
- The user will then click “Save.”
A user will still have the ability to update current plans, remove old plans and add plans that are not impacted by health care reform. Upon clicking “Save and Finalize,” MyEnroll.com will be updated with the new information.
Contact us
We look forward to working with you in implementing this new, enhanced rate renewal process. As always, please contact service@CobraControl.com or call us at 888-887-6187 if you have questions or comments.
