So we’re in the throes of open enrollment – Have you signed up for your insurance portal?

It is important to remember during open enrollment, that other than using a broker who is going to help you pick a plan, you also need to set up your portal as soon as you have received your welcome letter from the insurance company.

I cannot stress enough, that you need to set up your portal, because there are some carriers where I cannot set up auto-pay for you, you have to go in there and do that yourself. It’s super important that you set up auto-pay so you don’t lose coverage. Even though we’ve made your first payment, your portal needs to be set up.

Why else do you need to set up your portal? There you have access to your digital ID cards, you will have access to see your coverage and plan details, and you will have access to when claims are paid, as well as, you can see the explanation of benefits in the portal showing exactly how the claim was paid. We can then figure out if it was paid correctly.

You can also search for providers.

I know I’ve talked about this a little in the past and people tend to do their searches for providers backward. 20-30 years ago, if you had health insurance, you just walked into the doctor’s office and showed them your card. Well, it doesn’t work that way anymore.

Doctors want to use networks, and some are in-network, some are out-of-network. The best plan is to:

• Go to your Blue Cross portal (for example if that is your coverage).
• It is tied to your specific plan.
• Your provider search will be tied to your specific plan and network.
• BCBS has hundreds and hundreds of plans. No doctor takes all the plans, I have yet to see one doctor accept every single plan, that Blue Cross or any other carrier offers.
• You can do a provider search based on specialty or zip code.
• Then you’ll get a list.
• I suggest comparing that list to recommendations from friends and family
• Then you need to call to confirm at the doctor’s office that they do in fact take your insurance because sometimes lists are wrong

This way, you can be assured you are using an in-network doctor.

In summary, set up those portals! If you need help with your health insurance please feel free to reach out to me.