Former member of the DC Council Reana Kovalcik tries to forestall what has become a health insurance debacle. Despite her best efforts, she has now entered her third month without health insurance, faced a bill for more than $ 600 for unused coverage, and continues to await responses from the DC Department of Human Resources.
Kovalcik left At-Large councilor Elissa Silverman‘s office in December 2020. She signed up in February to temporarily continue her health insurance through the COBRA program. In late April, the former communications director reached out to DCHR to ask how she could insure her health insurance premiums under the Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The legislation covers health insurance premiums for COBRA beneficiaries from April to September from year to year.
By this point, Kovalcik had received instructions from a previous employer on how to sign up for federal aid and was requesting the same guidance from the DC government. A DCHR customer service representative had no answers on the phone, so Kovalcik emailed the agency and Ward 1 councilor Brianne Nadeau, your community representative. In both emails, Kovalcik expressed concern that DCHR had embarked on the same path as the employment agency, which continually stumbled on its responsibility for unemployment insurance during the pandemic.
Shortly after, on May 4, a representative from DCHR replied that the agency was working to ensure it was complying with federal law. They promised to give instructions by May 31st. Meanwhile, Kovalcik asked what she should do if she got a bill for April or May if the FBI were to collect the bill. The DCHR representative emailed them asking them to pay the bills, “and we will work to reimburse you accordingly”. This guideline appears to contradict guidelines approved by the US Department of Labor, the US Treasury Department, and the Internal Revenue Service.
On May 7, Kovalcik received notification that her health insurance plan was canceled effective March 31 because she had not paid the April and May premiums. She tells Loose Lips in an interview that she has not received any bills for these months and assumes that federal aid has started. Kovalcik again reached out to the DCHR for help restoring her cover, and a representative emailed her to repay the premiums back for April and May. She owes a total of $ 622.52.
“As you can imagine, the unemployed or recently unemployed like me can’t just raise more than $ 600 and hope that DCHR will eventually make a refund,” she replied to DCHR.
The DCHR representative assured Kovalcik that the agency “takes this matter very seriously” and has recently corresponded with the IRS.
“We need a specific interpretation of the regulations governing the responsibility of the district,” the DCHR representative wrote in an email. “Especially since it corresponds to COBRA, the district does not clearly fit under the identified employer designations.” The representative reassured her that they would give instructions by May 31.
That date has come and gone and Kovalcik has still not received any instructions. In an email dated June 8, DCHR representative encouraged Kovalcik to “take appropriate steps to maintain” [her] Health while we continue to work on this matter. ”On June 10, the representative found that her insurance cover had been terminated because she had not applied to be treated as an“ authorized person ”as required by federal law. Kovalcik says it was exactly the kind of advice she was looking for when she first contacted the agency in April.
“The administrative part of the pandemic and federal guidelines has been a stress test and the DC agencies are failing,” she says. “It’s clunky, there’s a bad chain of command, bad customer service, and it gives the money to marginalized populations.”
Neither Nadeau nor DCHR spokesman Clarissa Rucker would answer LL’s questions about Kovalcik’s specific situation, citing privacy concerns. Unable to say how many former employees might be in Kovalcik’s position, Rucker suggested that LL file a Freedom of Information Act motion, which he did. He will update this post when the agency complies with the request.
Rucker emailed that DCHR is working with an outside contractor to draft mailings that will give Kovalcik and other former DC government officials the guidance they need to get federal aid.
“We hope to be able to provide guidance within the next week,” she writes.
For her part, Kovalcik is cynical of the DC government. She admits that Nadeau and her staff quickly replied to their emails and pushed the agency, but to no avail.
“Yes, they can ‘express concern’ and use their bullying pulpit, but that is not the government’s job,” she says. “They oversee these agencies, but neither do they. You have no real power. Council members are basically interlocutors. “
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/former-d-c-council-staffer-loses-health-insurance-after-dchr-delay/
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