Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Extend Deadline to Pay Insurance Premiums

By April Dembosky and Lisa Aliferis

If you signed up for a Covered California plan by the Dec. 23 deadline, Wednesday is the official deadline to pay your January premium.

That is, unless you are an Anthem Blue Cross or Kaiser Permanente customer -- in which case you have a little more time.

• If you're a Kaiser member, you have until Jan. 22 to pay your January premium
• If you're an Anthem Blue Cross customer, you have until Jan. 31 (Update: On Jan. 16, HealthNet also extended its deadline to Jan. 31.)

If you're in one of the other nine plans available statewide, you must pay your premium by midnight Wednesday night.

Darrel Ng, a spokesman for Anthem, says the company changed the deadline at the end of last week to give people adequate time to pay their premiums. He said if people have not received their insurance cards, they can call Anthem to request a temporary card or an ID number they could use at the doctor's office. People can also pay out of pocket and seek reimbursement later.

Kaiser Permanente spokesman Mark Brown also says that all new members will be able to "receive the care they need when they need it" even if they have not yet received their ID cards. He also said Kaiser has started proactively calling customers to assist them in making payments.

"It's important to note that the overwhelming majority of those who enrolled in coverage for January 1 have already received their invoices and paid for their coverage," Brown said in an email.

Wednesday is also the deadline for uninsured people to enroll to receive coverage starting Feb. 1. For people who file an application and pick a plan by midnight Wednesday must pay their Feb. premium by Jan. 28.