Although the Open Enrollment Period has ended for most of us, the provider networks are still changing and that can be very frustrating for policy holders.

Some policyholders who have chosen a specific health plan that allows them to visit their current doctors are surprised to learn that their doctor is no longer contracted with the network of the insurance companies, although he/she was at the time of their enrollment in the network. Furthermore, doctors made the assumption that the same laboratories are covered as last year.Suddenly policy holders are hit with large medical costs.

 Unfortunately, it is the obligation of the policyholders to verify prior to using any medical services that the doctor and the laboratory are  still in the network. So please get familiar with the insurance network site and regularly check that your doctor is still in the network. While the system is constantly  changing the provider networks. I hope this will be improved for 2015. However, until those improvements are implemented, it is your responsibility to verify that your doctor and laboratory are within the provider network.

 Anthem & Blue Shield will sent in June new ID cards to all individual policy holders.