DMHC licenses first

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The Family Care plan will offere discounted access to a rangeof physician, outpatient (such as physicao therapy and mental health), radiology and imaging, dental, chiropractic, vision and hearing-car e services. The program will offer membership to a household fora $99 enrollment fee and a monthl charge of $99.95, according to with discounts ranging from 5 to 40 percent for most However, the Houston-based health plan’s initiapl license is only valid for two years, reflectinvg caution on the part of the Sacramento-based which previously has cracked down on various discounyt health-care card companies in the state.
Family Care is licensed to operatsethroughout Alameda, Marin, San San Mateo, Santa Clara, Napa, Santa Solano, Orange and San Diego counties, as well as the most populatede areas of Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and 41 other counties, according to the department, and a numbed of local providers are alreadgy listed on its www.familycarecalifornia.comk web site. The DMHC said the economic environmentt played a role in its decision to approveFamily Care’sw application for a Thanks to the continuing economic which has resulted in many individuals and families losing health coverage, “it is in the best interesr of consumers to regulate and license legitimates discount health plans,” Cindy Ehnes, the DMHC’s said in a June 9 statement.
She addeed that licensure will ensure that consumers will get promiser discountsand “fully understand that these products are not healtb insurance.” In the last six years, the agency’ds Help Center has received more than 925 complaint from consumers who were victims of fraudulent discount healthg card companies, the DMHC said. Those consumersa were misled into thinkingt they were purchasing regular health insurance or were unable to find doctorsz who supposedly had contracted with the discount The DMHC said it has issuer several Cease and Desist orders in an ongoingv investigation into thisgrowing industry, whicjh in turn led to settiny up a licensing structure to protect consumers and provide statwe oversight.
As a result, some companiess decided to seek licenses provingh they metregulatory standards. The current licensing requirements include verification ofdiscounts offered, legitimate contracts with doctors and other health care truthful advertising, and a process for consumers to resolves disputes with the plan, accordingb to DMHC. Plans also must prominently discloses that they are notoffering insurance, but rather a discounyt product through which memberws pay providers a discounted fee, usually at the time of Family Care’s web site displays such a statemeng at the bottom of each web page.