Health
SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on Thursday announced the removal of 10 private health insurance Web sites that misled Californians by imitating Covered California, the state’s official insurance marketplace for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Attorney General Harris also released tips to help consumers avoid insurance scams.
“These Web sites fraudulently imitated Covered California in order to lure consumers away from plans that provide the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” Attorney General Harris said. “My office will continue to investigate and shut down these kinds of sites. I urge Californians to avoid health care scams by visiting www.coveredca.com .”
In September, the California Attorney General’s office began an investigation into Web sites that imitate the state’s Covered California Web site ( www.coveredca.com ).
Multiple Web site operators were sent cease and desist letters informing them that their Web sites were in violation of state law and demanding the immediate removal of the Web site or transfer of the domain name to the state’s official exchange.
These Web sites were operated by private health insurance brokers or companies that were not affiliated with Covered California.
The Web sites have domain names similar to the state’s official health care exchange and contain unauthorized references to the official exchange’s trademarked logo and name. In several cases, Web sites used the phrases “Get Covered,” “Covered California” and “California Health Benefit Advisers.”
The California Affordable Care Act forbids individuals or entities from claiming to provide services on behalf of Covered California without securing a valid agreement with the State Exchange (Gov. Code, § 100510.).
State law also prohibits solicitations that falsely imply a governmental connection (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17533.6), the use of a domain name that is confusingly similar to another entity (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17525), making or disseminating untrue or misleading representations with the intent of selling goods or services (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17500) and unfair competition through untrue or misleading advertising (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200).
To date, all Web site operators who have been contacted by the Attorney General’s Office have complied, and the following Web sites have been either deactivated or redirected to the official exchange Web site:
www.californiabenefitexchange.com
www.californiahealthbenefitexchange.com
www.coveredcalifornia.com
www.shopinsuranceexchange.us
www.shopinsuranceservices.com
www.healthexchangeinsurance.com
www.shopforhealthcare.org
www.taxcreditinsurance.com
www.smallbusinesshealthoptionsprogram.com
www.stateexchanges.org
The California Health Benefit Exchange is charged with implementing the ACA and is the operator of California’s online health insurance marketplace known as Covered California. California consumers who purchase health insurance policies through this marketplace receive protections guaranteed by the ACA that may not exist in policies outside of the exchange.
Health insurance plans sold outside the official exchange on the individual market before January 1, 2014 do not qualify for federal subsidies and do not have the guarantees provided by the ACA’s consumer protection provisions. Major consumer protections include: no denials based on preexisting conditions; no rating differences based on factors other than age, geography, and family size; issuers may not impose any annual dollar limits for covered services; and all qualified plans must cover essential health benefits identified under the ACA.
The California Attorney General’s Health, Education and Welfare Section, in conjunction with Covered California and the California Department of Insurance, will continue to monitor these and other potentially fraudulent sites.
To avoid scams related to California’s health insurance marketplace, Attorney General Harris has released the following tips for consumers:
California’s only official health insurance marketplace is www.coveredca.com , which is where individuals, families and small businesses can get information, compare plans and enroll.
Be wary if you receive a call from a representative claiming to be a government official asking for your personal information like Social Security number or Medicare card number.
You should not provide personal or financial information over the phone and should instead contact Covered California directly.
If you are approached by someone offering assistance from Covered California, verify that they are a Certified Enrollment Counselor by asking to see their required ID badge or by contacting Covered California directly.
Never pay someone for assistance with health care enrollment. Free enrollment assistance is available by contacting Covered California directly.
If you believe that you have been the victim of a scam, please report it by contacting Covered California directly or by filing a consumer complaint with the California Attorney General’s office at http://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company .
To contact Covered California directly, call 800-300-1506 or email
Assistance by phone is also available in the following languages:
Arabic: 800-826-6317
Armenian: 800-996-1009
Chinese: 800-300-1533
Farsi: 800-921-8879
Filipino: 800-983-8816
Hmong: 800-771-2156nie
Khmer: 800-906-8528
Korean: 800-738-9116
Lao: 800-357-7976
Russian: 800-778-7695
Spanish: 800-300-0213
Vietnamese: 800-652-9528
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County students are returning to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport for the “Student Volunteen” program.
The students, in their teal colored uniform shirts, shadow a variety of hospital departments such as, admitting/reception, emergency, family birthing, family medicine clinic, information management, technology management, intensive care, laboratory services, imaging, medical and surgical nursing, outpatient care, physical therapy, surgery center, and purchasing and material management.
Students are required to complete multiple hours of shadowing in each of the departments to successfully complete the program.
Upon their completion, students may volunteer additional hours as their schedule allows, possibly including some evenings, weekends and holidays.
The Student Volunteen program allows students to get hands-on and shadow experience in a variety of professional medical areas and hopefully helps them make informed decisions about their future medical training and career opportunities.
Participation in the program comes with many requirements of the students. Among those requirements are an application and recommendation process, mandatory participation in an all day orientation, current basic life support (CPR) certification, HIPAA training, proof of immunizations, and hospital procedures training.
Only students who meet the requirements and have a clear disciplinary record at their high school are allowed to participate.
On Oct. 9, 18 students from Lower Lake High and one from Upper Lake High School participated in the first orientation of the year.
Lower Lake High instructor Nina Gibson has had the largest population of students attending this program, with 11 graduates of the program last year.
As part of her medical pathway program, she encourages student participation and provides transportation to and from the event to ensure success.
Other schools are encouraged to participate, however transportation is the responsibility of each school and/or student.
This is the third year of the Lake County Volunteen Program. It is open to all high school students, including homeschooled students, in the county who are in good standings with their school and complete the above requirements.
It is expected that more than 30 students will participate as Student Volunteens during this school year.
For more information on the Student Volunteen program, contact Jacolyn Moore RN at Sutter Lakeside Hospital, 5176 Hill Road East, Lakeport, 707-262-5000, Extension 5473, or at
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