Uploading documents to Covered California

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Release Note: Verification Documents can now be uploaded to the Documents & Correspondence page regardless of eligibility or case status.

Previously, documents could only be uploaded on the Documents and Correspondence page if the case was in a Conditionally Eligible status only. Now, documents can be uploaded on the Documents and Correspondence page regardless of eligibility or case status (even if case is terminated).

There are also two new buttons on the Documents and Correspondence page: Upload New Document and Link to ECM Document. The ‘Link to ECM Document’ is used to link Documents mailed or faxed in by the consumer to the Covered California back office. Certified enrollers should access the ‘Upload New Document’ link to attach documents to the consumer’s case.

Covered California, Employer, Address, Contact, Application, Health, Insurance, Subsidy, ACA

Covered California consumers can now upload documents through the Documents and Correspondence page of the Summary section.

Open Enrollment 2015

As of November 2014, Covered California customer service representatives acknowledged that there was a known issue with uploading documents. For Some consumers and agents the button to start and upload is not present. For other people the system indicates that the file type is not acceptable. There is no estimated date as to when this will be correct. (11/25/2015)

A variety of other issues and known problems are addressed in Covered California Job Aids and technical guides. You may have to switch internet browsers as not all of them can display or handle certain Covered California program pages, pop up windows, or sliders.

New document upload process

This is a short primer on uploading documents as of the end of 2014. Covered California may change or edit the procedure. Because the screen shots are numerous and large, I’ve put them in a slide show for you to view.

From your Covered California account, find Actions right side bar box.
Click on Manage Verifications .
On the Manage Verifications page click on Submit Verification .
Scroll down to find the Required Documents .
Click on the Upload link.
On the next screen select Upload Documents .
Select document category, type and document name from Browse, click Upload .
If you get a File type not supported error message.
In some documents you will need to change the file extension from all capital letters, such as JPG, to lower case letters like jpg. You can do this from your computers file and folder application. Changing the file extension doesn’t always hold. I had to change the extension several different ways in my Windows Explorer until the computer really changed the extension to lower case letters.
Navigate Back to Submit Verification page.
Leave a required description in the Comments section, click Submit .

The designers of the Covered California CalHEERS online enrollment system were hoping to reduce or eliminate paper by allowing requested documents to be uploaded for verification. Many Californians are finding that uploading documents isn’t as easy as sticking the bank card in the ATM.

Necessary documents to verify eligibility

Covered California may request a variety of documents to verify household eligibility for either the premium assistance or Medi-Cal. If an individual or family can’t upload the documents, Covered California will send a letter requesting copies be sent to them. However, most people are not comfortable sending personal, private, sensitive and confidential information to any warehouse address so uploading the documents is a more secure option.

Upload before you forget

Uploading my driver

Uploading my driver’s license to Covered California.

The best time to upload documents is right after the online application has been submitted and the CalHEERS systems as determined eligibility. Right on the screen is the link to “Submit Documents”. The system will allow you to upload documents or manage verifications after a health plan is chosen or at a later date, but finding the screen sequence can be confusing. The Covered California system is not very good at giving the consumers or agents updates, alerts, or warnings on follow-up steps necessary to complete the application.

Scan or point-shoot-click

You can either scan your documents into your computer hard drive using combo printer-copier/fax machine or you can do it the old fashion way and take a picture. Well, take a picture with your smart phone or camera that connects to your computer. Johnny Bone, famed independent acoustic guitar player, travels across the nation performing sold out venues nationwide sent me his document from the road, literally. Johnny snapped a picture of his driver’s license on his knee while driving his VW micro bus through Weed on I-5 traveling to a gig in Ashland, Oregon.

Johnny’s email from the road

Johnny then emailed the picture of “verification document” for me to upload to his online application for health insurance. The camera phones give amazing detail and should capture the necessary information on the document for the government to verify citizenship, residency or income. I purposely blurred Johnny’s details because he already has a crush of fans swarming his modest residence in Marin when he’s not on the road.

Upload document redundancy

You can email the photo to yourself or agent (like Johnny “The Blues” Bone sent me), and then save it to your hard drive. Once you click on submit you’ll be taken to the Document Category with a list of the documents that will meet the verification. Click on Upload Document that will take you to (surprisingly enough) another screen called Upload Document where you again click on Upload Document. Finally, you will be presented with a pop-up window where you can select the type of document. You can then browse your hard drive for the right image and “really” upload the document to Covered California.

No alerts or notifications sent

The last page will give you a verification ID number and I have no clue what it means. The CalHEERS system is great at generating numbers that don’t seem to have any relevance to the agent or applicant. For the all the e-commerce savvy of the Covered California website it absolutely fails at providing any notifications via email. Heck, when you buy a book on Amazon.com they send 10 emails telling you that “Robert” in shipping received your order and is now wrapping it up. While Covered California has provided a very efficient manner to submit documents, there is no communication on what is happening with the application.

Ground hog day

My gut tells me for Medi-Cal that applicants will get a document demand letter requesting the same information they’ve already uploaded. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but since each county handles their own Medi-Cal cases, it’s possible that Mono County considers an Upload to be a volcanic event and not digital correspondence. If all works correctly, the uploading of documents to Covered California will save load of paper requesting documentation of eligibility.

Document Types that can be uploaded:

MS Word, Excel, PDF, JPG, TIF

Maximum file size is 5MB