LA HAP Bulletin for 2/15/18

Medicare premium payments

Several of our Medicare clients have experienced an issue where their Part D or Medigap insurance company has enrolled them in a billing program to automatically withdraw premium payments from their bank account or from the HIP bank account without their knowledge or full understanding. In several instances, we’ve verified that this was also done without documentation of either client or HIP consent. In some cases premium payments have been debited from the client and HIP accounts at the same time, resulting in double payments. So far, the companies with which we’ve noticed this issue are AARP (administered by United Healthcare) and Aetna.

While HIP and LA HAP are working directly with these insurers to ensure that no withdrawals occur without documented consent of the account holder, we are requesting that our case management community make their Medicare clients aware of this issue and prepare them to navigate the conversation should they be contacted by a representative from their insurance company.

Clients who pay their own Parts C, D, and/or Medigap premiums may find an auto-debit system more convenient and should make whatever payment decision works best for them. However, one factor to consider is that if they wish to elect HIP premium assistance in the future, it may be difficult to undo the auto-debit option to allow for HIP payments.

A reminder that all Medicare clients receiving premium assistance from HIP, but particularly clients affected by the issue described above, should ensure that they have sent updated 2018 premium information to HIP. Several 2018 premium payments are still pending while HIP awaits the receipt of accurate premium information.

Deactivating Ramsell user accounts

Ramsell user accounts are automatically set to periodically expire in order to avoid misuse by users who may no longer be employed at an HIV service organization. If you receive a message that your “web access has expired,” please email servicedesk@ramsellcorp.com to restore your access.

If you are a supervisor: please inform LA HAP whenever staff leave your agency so we may deactivate their Ramsell user account. You may submit the Ramsell User Request Form (fill in staff member’s name and mark “Remove User”; other fields can be left blank) or call us directly.