Medical
Management has over 18 years experience in helping the House Staff at LAC+USC Medical Center, Martin Luther
King (King Drew) Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center's obtain
individual
medical and dental insurance in lieu of the plans offered by Los Angeles County. If you are
a House Staff physician at one of these hospitals, please continue
below. Listed below are 5 reasons why it make sense to
obtain your own individual health insurance.
5
Reasons to Waive The L.A. County Health Coverage
1.
Individual coverage is portable and may be taken with you when you
finish training.
2.
If you have a change in health while in training, you may be limited to
an employer sponsored plan, a COBRA plan or a state sponsored plan at
increased rates.
3.
Obtaining individual coverage will allow you to have access to many HSA
qualified health plans that are not available through LA County.
Please see our health insurance page for more information on HSA's.
4.
If you do not require maternity benefits, individual plans include
options that do not include maternity benefits, thereby reducing the
costs of your insurance. If later, you do require maternity benefits,
you always have the option to re-enroll in one of L.A. Counties health
plans or obtain an individual plan that meets your maternity needs.
Currently, the Blue Shield Spectrum 2400 plan has the best benefits for
maternity with an out-of-pocket maximum for in network physicians at $
3,200 per year. The Blue Shield Spectrum 2400 plan is also a tax
advantaged plan.
5.
With the extra funds you receive by switching to an individual plan, you
may want to obtain your own individual disability policy that includes
"Specialty Specific" benefits and/or fund your Health Savings
Account. If you fully fund you HSA each year and remain healthy,
you will have over $ 7,800 in your account when you are finished with
training. This assumes that your training program is only 3 years.
If your program is longer than 3 years than you will have additional
monies in your account by the time you complete your training.
As
you may already know, the cost of health care is rising and at the
same time the cost of health insurance premiums are increasing as
well. If you notice in your benefits decision planner, the basic
health plan provided by L.A County costs a couple hundred dollars. If
you are new to California or have lived here, you should be pleased to
know that you have many alternate health insurance plans available to
you. Plans are available from Aetna, Blue Cross of California, Blue Shield of
California, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, Nationwide Health Plans and
Pacificare Health Plans.
By
helping you obtain individual health and dental coverage that fits your
needs, the County of Los Angles will contribute an additional $
244.00 per
month to your paycheck, minus taxes, so long as you waive your
benefits including your medical and/dental coverage during Orientation, July
of 2008 and Open Enrollment
(October 1, 2008 through October 31, 2008). As well, you may take
your coverage with you as it is portable. If you develop a
pre-existing condition you will not have to go on COBRA when you finish
training. For ways to spend your
savings to improve your future financial position, see Ten
Financial Tips For Residents.
Instructions
for Waiving Coverage
During Open Enrollment
you must either return your completed and signed Medical/Dental Waiver form to LA
County by regular mail or complete the waiver form on line. You must make sure your
address is current with LA County otherwise you will not receive your LA
County Benefits Decision Planner or your Medical Waiver Form. If you need to update LA County with
your new address, you can fax your updated information to fax number (213)
637-0821. You must include on the fax your name, address,
phone number, page number, employee I.D. number, a copy of your drivers
license and your
signature.
Waiving
the County of Los Angeles health and dental benefits is not for everyone. You must
submit an application and go through medical underwriting. If you
have pre-existing medical conditions you may not qualify or you may have
to pay an additional premium. It may by advantageous
for you to remain on the County plan due to your specific situation,
however this is not always the case. Please discuss
your health history and situation with us before you make a decision.
During
Open Enrollment (October 1 thru October 31, 2008), you may obtain the increase in your monthly stipend,
by completing the following.
Waive
your medical and dental coverage online or by completing your telephone
enrollment by calling (888) 822-0487 and follow the prompts. You
will need to enter your Employee I.D. number and your pin number.
You must continue through the open enrollment prompts until you
receive your confirmation number. Write this number down, as
you may have to refer to it. Also, if you apply for the County
coverage by mistake, you have up to 10/31/08 to change your choices
through the telephone enrollment system. You may also enroll
online by clicking the following link. http://www.buckhrsolutions.com/countyla.
Mail
your completed Medical Waiver form to LA County. You will receive
your Medical Waiver Form 10 days from the date you complete your
Telephone Enrollment.
Apply
for your health/dental insurance on-line or request an
application to be emailed to you. If you are waiving your coverage
during open enrollment, request a January 1, 2009
effective date for your new coverage. Your County coverage ends
12/31/2008.
Complete your telephone
enrollment early so have enough time to fix any errors with receiving
your Medical Waiver Form. Without completing these steps you will be re-enrolled in
the County health plan and you will not receive the increase in your monthly
stipend. To save you
time, we can help with waiving your county benefits. If you
would like us to waive your benefits for you, please call our office and
provide us with your employee I.D. number. This number can be
found on your pay-stub. We will obtain
your confirmation number and all information for your records.
Please provide us your email and all information and documentation will
be forwarded to your email address. Please contact our office so
we many help you pick a plan that suits your needs. To speak to a health insurance
specialist, please call (800) 501-8078.
To
obtain information on the health plans available in California or to
apply for a health plan, please click on one of the links found below.
Health plans are available from Aetna, Blue
Cross of California, Blue Shield of California, Health Net, Kaiser
Permanente, Nationwide, or PacifiCare Health Plans.
If you
would like us to review the various health plans with you, please call
our office to schedule an appointment. Otherwise, please
continue.
If you have any questions
regarding waiving your benefits with the County of Los Angeles, you
should call L.A. County Human
Resources at (213) 388-9982. If you need to update LA County with
your new address, you can fax your updated information to LA County
Human Resources at at (213) 637-0821. You must include on the fax your name, address,
phone number, page number, employee I.D. number and your
signature. You may also change this information on-line at the
link found above. Medical Management is not in any way
associated with the County of Los Angeles.
Please
email this page or remind the other interns and residents to visit this
website so they too can increase their monthly stipend.
Click
the link to apply for the plan of your choice
