Anthem Health Plan Blackout (California IFP)

Anthem Blue Cross of California has today suspended it's online application program for individual & family health plans. The application will be unavailable until approximately October 1. I will update when it becomes available.

For those seeking quotes for Blue Cross coverage plans (non-HIPAA), currently over 75% of the plan portfolio is not available for sale pending Dept of Insurance approval of plan designs and rate changes. The PlanFinder tool will still work via my web site (www.davefluker.com) however it is currently only quoting the DMHC registered plans that have been approved (the expensive plans). I will update as soon as I receive word as to the availability of the new DOI-registered PPO plans.

These plans are currently being changed to meet PPACA guidelines including elimination of lifetime caps and addition of no-cost preventive services.

Currently Anthem is pending approvals for the following plan portfolios:

-SmartSense PPO
-Clear Protection PPO
-Core Guard PPO
-Premier PPO
-Lumenos PPO (HIA and HSA)
-3500 HSA PPO plan

These represent the lower-cost and non-maternity plans in the California market.

Should you use the PlanFinder tool, you will only be able to view the HMO plans and the two Share PPO plans (3500/7500) at this time.

Anthem Blue Cross Security Breach (Individual Health)

Anyone who has recently applied for individual health insurance with Anthem Blue Cross and been assigned an online application tracker link needs to be aware of the following unauthorized security breach. Affected applicants will receive notification with details and one year of free identity protection services. No agent has been or likely will be notified of specific applicants (if any) who were affected.

PHI Breach by Individual Applicant, Attorneys

Anthem Blue Cross recently learned of a situation in which a small number of individuals manipulated the web address within the website we use to allow people to track the status of their Individual insurance applications. Through this manipulation, some of these individuals gained unauthorized access to certain private information.

The vast majority of the manipulation and the resulting unauthorized access occurred at the hands of certain attorneys, who were representing an applicant. We believe that this manipulation was conducted to support a class action lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross or its parent company - over the very breach they were committing.

The ability to manipulate the web address (URL) was available for a relatively short period of time following an upgrade to the system. After the upgrade was completed, a third party vendor validated that all security measures were in place, when in fact they were not. As soon as the situation was discovered, we made the necessary security changes to prevent it from happening again.

Anthem has worked since discovery of this matter to analyze the data in an effort to identify all individuals whose information may have been impacted and prepared to communicate directly to affected members and applicants as soon as possible.

We have received no indication that any information has been used in a way that is detrimental to the applicant; however, out of an abundance of caution, all appropriate applicants will receive a detailed notification from Anthem explaining what happened, and will be offered identity protection services for one year at no cost.

Note: This does not impact Group, Senior or State-Sponsored Business.