Transition to your Blue Shield medical plan through Covered California

Make sure you have the information or documents below ready when you call Covered California to enroll in a new medical plan:

• Employer and income information (employment, self-employment, income tax deductions, or other types of income)
• Social security numbers for all applicants
• Immigration documents for non-citizens
• Federal tax information for head of household and any dependents
• Have the initial payment for the first month's premium of your new medical plan paid*

*When you enroll in your new Blue Shield medical plan through Covered California, a new policy and ID number will be issued, and you will need to pay the first month’s premium (initial payment) for your new coverage. Once your initial payment is received, you will receive a welcome letter that confirms your enrollment is complete and includes the date your new medical plan will be effective. 

In the meantime, you will also need to continue to pay your monthly premium for your current medical plan through the last month of coverage. 

For example, if you purchased a new medical plan through Covered California for a January 1, 2025 effective date, you must continue to pay for your current coverage through the end of December 2024 to remain covered. The January premium for the new plan through Covered California must be paid to activate coverage, and then your next bill will be sent for February coverage.

Within ten days of paying the initial payment, you will receive a new subscriber ID number and a new ID card for your new plan. Your new 2025 ID card will include the Covered CA logo. You will need to provide your new ID card when accessing care and filling a prescription in 2025. 

Keep your current subscriber ID number and ID card to continue to access care through the end of the month before your new effective date. If you have a separate Blue Shield dental or vision plan associated with the same ID number, you can continue to use this ID number for the next year for access to your Blue Shield dental or vision plan.

If you enroll in a new Trio HMO plan through Covered California, you should double check that the primary care physician (PCP) listed on your new ID card is your preferred physician. Starting January 1, 2025, if you don’t choose a PCP at enrollment, you will be assigned a virtual PCP through Accolade Care, a virtual medical group. If you’d like to make a change before your plan is effective, call Shield Concierge at (844) 250-2872 (TTY:711). Once your new plan is effective, you can log in to your online account to make future changes. For more details on changing your PCP, visit blueshieldca.com/triopcp.

Because you are receiving a new subscriber ID number for your new medical plan, you will need to register for a new online account using your new subscriber ID number and a different email address. This new online account registration will be associated with your new Blue Shield medical plan through Covered California. You can register for this new online account up to 90 days prior to your plan’s effective date. 

Please be sure to keep your current login credentials associated with your previous medical plan to access your claims history online for up to two years. 

If you also have Blue Shield dental or vision coverage under the same login and subscriber ID number as your previous medical plan, you can continue to use that same login to access your dental or vision plan information.

Any existing autopayments will only be applied to your current coverage. These autopayments will not be transferred to your new medical plan, and they will continue unless you proactively cancel them or cancel your coverage. 

To continue automatic payments for your new medical plan through Covered California, you will need to re-enroll in autopay after your new medical plan is effective, using your new subscriber ID and new login credentials. 

Also, because you had to make an initial payment for the first month’s premium during enrollment, your next autopayment withdrawal will be made when the premium for the second month of coverage is due.* 

If you have a dental or vision plan already set up with Autopay under the same subscriber ID as the medical plan you will no longer need, you may continue to use the current autopay program and current login credentials to access your bills remain in place. Automatic payments will be adjusted to reflect the monthly premium due for your dental or vision plan once the medical plan is cancelled. 

*Timing for autopayment withdrawal is dependent on when you re-enroll.

You must call Customer Service, (855) 836-9705 (TTY:711), to have them cancel your current medical plan because, legally, Blue Shield cannot cancel your plan without your authorization. Failure to cancel your plan will result in you having two active plans and two sets of bills. 

Be sure to cancel by calling: 

• The month before your new medical plan is effective, and 
• After you have paid for the last month of coverage on your current medical plan.

When you switch to a new Blue Shield plan through Covered California, make sure you do the following is in place to continue your access to care: 

• If you are receiving care or have any prescriptions that require prior authorization, you can call Customer Service and they will make a request with your provider to transfer the prior authorization to your new Blue Shield plan under your new subscriber ID number.
• When your new medical plan is effective, fill your prescriptions using your new medical ID number. 
  • Provide your new medical ID number to your pharmacy. Prescriptions and authorizations set up with the previous medical plan will not automatically transfer to the new plan. 
  • Contact your provider if you need a new prescription order for any drugs or medical equipment.
  • Make sure to double check any mail order prescriptions by providing your new medical ID number to the mail order pharmacy. 

The advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC), also known as a subsidy, only applies to medical plans. If you have a Blue Shield dental, vision, or life insurance plan, these plans do not qualify for premium assistance. 

Blue Shield offers dental, vision, and life insurance direct to members. Consumers cannot purchase a Blue Shield dental, vision, or life insurance plan through Covered California. If you already have one of these types of plans from Blue Shield, you can keep that plan even if you make changes to your Blue Shield medical plan. When you enroll with Covered California for a medical plan, you will be given the opportunity to enroll in a dental plan through Covered California, but you can skip that page during the enrollment process and keep your current Blue Shield dental plan. Just continue to pay your bills. 

If you don’t currently have a Blue Shield dental plan, you can also purchase a Blue Shield Family Dental plan through Covered California. Consumers cannot purchase a Blue Shield vision or life insurance plan through Covered California.

If you choose to purchase a new Blue Shield medical plan through Covered California, you will receive a separate bill for your Blue Shield dental, vision and/or life insurance plan(s). This means you will have a separate login to access your new medical plan from your dental or vision plan (as noted in "Register for online access for your new medical plan" above). This will be the case whether you purchase dental through Covered California or through Blue Shield. You will also have to manage separate autopayment programs for your medical plan from your dental or vision plan (as noted in "Manage Autopay for your new medical plan" above).

*Underwritten by Blue Shield of California Life & Health Insurance Company