Open Enrollment Tip #4: It's a Disco Party!
Are you ready to Disco? Unfortunately, this isn't the white-leisure-suit-dance-party type of disco. Disco is short for discontinuation, or discontinuation letters - in other words, the letter that is sent to you when your insurance plan will no longer be offered next year.
Insurance carriers are required to send disco letters to all members who have a plan that will not be renewed. They must give you 90 days notice, so if this applies to you, you should have received a letter already (did it get recycled with the junk mail?).
What will happen if you received a disco letter?
You will need to pick a new plan for next year.
In some cases you may need to pick a completely new insurance carrier because your current carrier is pulling out of your county or state.
In some cases you can stay with your carrier, you just have to pick a different plan.
If you bought your insurance directly from the company, you should create an account on WAHealthplanfinder.org to see what your 2018 options are
What if you didn't receive a disco letter?
Hooray, you can keep your plan next year!
You can still choose to switch plans or carriers - you contract ends on December 31, 2017 and you have the freedom to consider other options that will start on January 1, 2018.
What's the inside scoop?
There are NO individual PPO plans offered in Washington in 2018
There will be fewer options for HSA plans
King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties: BridgeSpan, LifeWise, and Regence will no longer offer individual plans in 2018
Kaiser Permanente is discontinuing all of it's individual Access PPO plans.
Molina and Ambetter will NOT be offering Bronze plans
XXXX will not be offering any individual plans in 2018
Tip Reminders:
1. Logon to WAHealthPlanFinder.org and verify your user name and password
2. Verify your personal contact information is up to date on the My Profile tab
3. Start thinking about your household income now.
4. Check to see if you got a disco letter that means you must pick a new plan
Bonus Points!
Download the new app, WAPlanFinder.
Remind a friend about Open Enrollment.
