Guidelines for completing
California Small Group Forms
Now that you’ve made your
decision on the health plan, the
California Health Small Group
insurance carrier,
the Employer Contribution
amount, and your New Hire
Employee Waiting Period,
it’s time to sit down and
complete your forms for
submission. The forms
themselves are both applications
and contracts. It’s easy to
gloss over the various fields as
it can be a little time
consuming and overwhelming if
you let it get to you. It’s
important to make sure you pay
attention to the questions and
get each field completed.
Incomplete forms will likely
result in a delay of coverage at
worst, or a returned application
at best. So get comfortable,
pull up a chair by the fireplace
and settle in with your
enrollment form until it is
done.
Employee Signature
Dates It is best if
the Employee signature dates is
inside 30 days, and some
carriers allows 60 days
typically from the requested
enrollment effective date after
any Employee new hire waiting
periods. If an Employee
signature date is beyond the 30
or 60 day mark the California
health insurance carrier can
delay enrollment and request a
new application. If you have
issues with remote state
Employees, or Employee who work
on jobsites that are difficult
to reach you can shop the
California Small Group health
insurance market a bit to see
which companies offer the most
flexible enrollment form
standards.
Application
Modifications Only
the Employee may make
modifications to the
Employee enrollment application.
Changes must be marked,
initialed, and dated by the
Employee. Only the Owner,
Corporate Officer, or company
designated Plan Administrator
may make changes to the Employer
level forms and documents.
These must be initialed and
dated as well.
Language Employee
and Employer level enrollment
forms come in several languages
. When an Employee is not
available exception forms can be
sumitted which are completed by
designated family members or
translating representatives.
Formats Depending
on the size of your business
Human Resource system
integration can be made
available to upload employee
census data. Online internet
enrollment systems are also now
available at certain health
carriers if desired. This is an
easy way to make sure the forms
are completed in full and
reduces the paperwork
processed. The Internet systems
force the Employees to complete
every mandatory field
correctly. Finally, fax
submission and regular mail of
course are the most standard
formats of submitting an
enrollment form.
Time Frames You are always
in good shape for a requested
effective date if you submit
your application packet prior to
the first of the month your
desired start date. Most of the
California health insurance
carriers will allow you to
submit your enrollment packet up
to the 5th of the
month an still maintain a 1st
of the monthe effective date. A
few of the California health
carriers will allow 15th
of the month requested effective
dates which usually will include
additional submission days. If
an incomplete application packet
is completed eventually, but
beyond standard timeframes you
can request a modified effective
date or in worse case a
withdrawl to keep your rights to
re-apply.
Other
important
resources:
California
Small Group
health quote
California
Small Group
online
doctor
listing
California
Group
Enrollment
and
Eligibility
Center
