The department of Insurance has released the proposed rates for next year for individuals and small groups. I have put them together into our easy to use spreadsheets and are looking forward to being able to quote new policies soon. There seems to be some interesting trends. Anthem has decided to decrease their rates and offer totally new products, including an actual PPO product this next year. Sierra Health is staying with their product line up with relatively low increases and they are even introducing some lower cost alternative plan options. Assurant health, who last year was a big player has decided to join Humana at higher than market rates with increases as high as 30%+. Golden Rule is also putting their hat into the ring again this next year with rates equivalent to Assurant and Humana. Aetna has decided to stop offering Coventry plans, but they have kept the same kind of rates amongst the new Aetna plans that were similar to Coventry offerings with very strong low rates in the Bronze and Silver levels. Humana has also decided to increase their product offerings to expand into Platinum and Gold, but rates are still slightly higher than the lower priced Anthem, Sierra Health, and Nevada Health Coop Products. The Nevada Health Coop has introduced a whole lot of new offerings. They have expanded their Southern Simple and neighborhood plans to include platinum coverage and are introducing a whole new set of plans. Their rates are still amongst the least expensive.
Some big news for people who shop for coverage with subsidies is Assurant is going to be offering the first true PPOs on our exchange. This is good news to people who want more freedom and more choices f doctors. We are still yet to hear what provider network these plans will be using, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Aetna Signature Administrators network they used mostly last year.
As we get more updates about how our new federally facilitated marketplace will work, I hope to port more about those changes and hopefully we will be seeing some fixes to some of the biggest headaches we have been dealing with.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Going on vacation this summer?
Going on vacation this summer? Does your insurance have a network in the area you are traveling to?
As many people travel during the summer it is important to check with
your insurance carrier or broker to be sure you will be covered in that
area.
Couple things to remember:
- HMO: Most will cover emergencies only when you leave the service area or state. Any other medical bill you may incur that’s not an emergency will be your responsibility and you will pay out-of-pocket.
If an emergency arises, make sure and notify your HMO provider
immediately. If this does not happen, the HMO may decline payment.
- PPO: If you the provider is not contracted with the insurance, no matter what the circumstance, all costs will go towards your out-of-network deductible. You would need to pay cash and/or bill the insurance carrier directly as that provider does not have a contract with your insurance carrier. Make sure to keep detailed receipts so you can bill the insurance correctly.
This
is why it is important to plan ahead. There are options if your
insurance carrier does not cover the area you are traveling to. You can
always look into travel insurance and Nevada Benefits can definitely
help you with that. Below is a link found on our website regarding
travel insurance.
https://www.sevencorners.com/
https://www.sevencorners.com/
Be safe, be prepared, and have a wonderful summer!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Las Vegas Metro Chamber trying to delay ObamaCare
http://eepurl.com/W_wJL
This sounds all great and wonderful on the outside. I too would like to keep my premiums as low as possible for as long as I can. Bill Wright is a great guy and I see where he is coming from. The problem is, the Chamber Health Plan is no longer going to be paying them commissions when things change, unless the chamber can get more people on their new program.
We cannot keep delaying the inevitable. If we keep trying to enact new legislation that allows people to keep their current health plans, then those few select people will never fully understand or appreciate the new healthcare law. It will also cause more troubles later on for those people. The main trouble being they will continue to elect officials who have no clue of what to do about the law and never get things fixed in a timely manner. We will see people trying to apply fixes that don't need to happen because someone only saw the law from an outsider point-of-view.
One example of this would be how many Nevadans went onto NevadaHealthlink.com to sign up for insurance in Oct-Dec for insurance to start in January but failed to select plans and make payment and expected those accounts to work for April and May start dates. Yes, I know the technology should have allowed it, but people kept complaining and instead of starting fresh, got frustrated and made the Nevada Health Link apply fixes to these old accounts that crashed every other new account and payment for April through June! If only people got smart and realized the issue, things would have gone smoothly. If people were not given so many extensions, we would have seen real progress.
By nature we are procrastinators. We cannot put off what we need to do today. The sooner we face our challenges the sooner we can overcome them. Accept challenges and move on.
This sounds all great and wonderful on the outside. I too would like to keep my premiums as low as possible for as long as I can. Bill Wright is a great guy and I see where he is coming from. The problem is, the Chamber Health Plan is no longer going to be paying them commissions when things change, unless the chamber can get more people on their new program.
We cannot keep delaying the inevitable. If we keep trying to enact new legislation that allows people to keep their current health plans, then those few select people will never fully understand or appreciate the new healthcare law. It will also cause more troubles later on for those people. The main trouble being they will continue to elect officials who have no clue of what to do about the law and never get things fixed in a timely manner. We will see people trying to apply fixes that don't need to happen because someone only saw the law from an outsider point-of-view.
One example of this would be how many Nevadans went onto NevadaHealthlink.com to sign up for insurance in Oct-Dec for insurance to start in January but failed to select plans and make payment and expected those accounts to work for April and May start dates. Yes, I know the technology should have allowed it, but people kept complaining and instead of starting fresh, got frustrated and made the Nevada Health Link apply fixes to these old accounts that crashed every other new account and payment for April through June! If only people got smart and realized the issue, things would have gone smoothly. If people were not given so many extensions, we would have seen real progress.
By nature we are procrastinators. We cannot put off what we need to do today. The sooner we face our challenges the sooner we can overcome them. Accept challenges and move on.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Nevada's exchange confusion to get worse
http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/confusion-likely-nevada-health-exchange-switches
The thought of this whole exchange stuff getting changed over just scares me. After the long 9 month wrestle I had with our current system, now I get to do it all over again next year. Not only that, but now I have to rely upon them transferring all of my client's data over from the current system to the federal system.
As a Nevada resident, I feel a little ripped off on this. We spent $15 million building a website that we have now decided to just scrap. Instead of just hiring a new company to fix the broken site, which actually works sometimes, we would rather call it quits. Now in less than 5 months we have to rely upon someone else trying to build a new one completely.
This could all become a great blessing for brokers though. It is important for people to find professional, knowledgeable people to work with. People tend to find this value more appealing when they themselves feel overwhelmed. This whole process has shown that shopping for health insurance isn't really something people do on their own. The new law isn't very easy to understand and how it can affect people has yet to be seen. I am actually a little concerned about people who did everything on their own. They might get a real awakening during tax season.
The thought of this whole exchange stuff getting changed over just scares me. After the long 9 month wrestle I had with our current system, now I get to do it all over again next year. Not only that, but now I have to rely upon them transferring all of my client's data over from the current system to the federal system.
As a Nevada resident, I feel a little ripped off on this. We spent $15 million building a website that we have now decided to just scrap. Instead of just hiring a new company to fix the broken site, which actually works sometimes, we would rather call it quits. Now in less than 5 months we have to rely upon someone else trying to build a new one completely.
This could all become a great blessing for brokers though. It is important for people to find professional, knowledgeable people to work with. People tend to find this value more appealing when they themselves feel overwhelmed. This whole process has shown that shopping for health insurance isn't really something people do on their own. The new law isn't very easy to understand and how it can affect people has yet to be seen. I am actually a little concerned about people who did everything on their own. They might get a real awakening during tax season.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Death, Money, and Life
I just met with a wonderful woman about her health insurance and just had to blog about her story. I did not sell her any insurance as what she was being offered was much better and less expensive, but she gave me more than I could have asked of her.
In her sixties, she recently lost her husband. Throughout their life her husband had really good jobs. He was phenomenal at what he did. He even got involved at one point with a financial services MLM and sold life insurance and financial planning. They had set up a few IRAs and even had purchased Term Life insurance to subsidize the small amount he was given through his job. Unexpectedly he past away in his sixties, before his full retirement age and his wife was left to fend for herself. A few years back as the economy took a dive, this couple had to use their retirement accounts to live on. The wonderful term life insurance they had been paying on had the term expire a year prior and they had to lapse the policy as costs went up way too much. The wife was left with a small life insurance policy and a fairly dismal retirement account.
Having no choice, she was left to do what a lot of seniors do at her age and took her Social security widow's benefit. This helped save her in providing just enough income to live, but it has crippled her at the same time. She was able to find work and make some additional income, but if that income rises too high she will have her widow's benefit reduced. Due to her age, finding work can be even more difficult and finding a job where she gets paid what she is worth even more difficult. She is now stuck. Making the same amount of money every moth and not able to lift herself above where she is.
This really made me think about how life does this to each one of us. Trials come and we lose our footing. Whatever plan we made when things were good, quickly gets eaten up when things are bad. It reminds me of the dreams Pharaoh had during Joseph's time in the Old Testament. If you recall, there were 7 fat cows and then 7 lean ones and the lean cows ate the fat cows. So it tends to be in life.
Some things that might have changed their circumstances that come to mind. First off- she said they had some debt. Getting out of debt sooner in life can have lasting effects later on. Imagine if they had no debt, how much easier it would have been to live and be able to not worry when income was lost, as expenses could be minimalized. This also would have allowed them to save more throughout their life.
Life Insurance. I kind of wonder if when they were younger and sold insurance policies, how much a $100k whole life policy would have cost that would have been paid off in 10 years. Would that life insurance policy, that wasn't costing them a dime after all those years, been replaced to pay those bills a few years ago, or could it have been a life line at the end when she got a check to save the day?
Everyone has different circumstances. Life throws everyone different curve balls. It is just a good idea to think ahead. During those good times, are we maybe spending too much, or are we saving? I know Pharaoh enlisted Joseph as one of the first financial advisers to save grains. That investment brought money and life during the times of famine. We too can do the same.
In her sixties, she recently lost her husband. Throughout their life her husband had really good jobs. He was phenomenal at what he did. He even got involved at one point with a financial services MLM and sold life insurance and financial planning. They had set up a few IRAs and even had purchased Term Life insurance to subsidize the small amount he was given through his job. Unexpectedly he past away in his sixties, before his full retirement age and his wife was left to fend for herself. A few years back as the economy took a dive, this couple had to use their retirement accounts to live on. The wonderful term life insurance they had been paying on had the term expire a year prior and they had to lapse the policy as costs went up way too much. The wife was left with a small life insurance policy and a fairly dismal retirement account.
Having no choice, she was left to do what a lot of seniors do at her age and took her Social security widow's benefit. This helped save her in providing just enough income to live, but it has crippled her at the same time. She was able to find work and make some additional income, but if that income rises too high she will have her widow's benefit reduced. Due to her age, finding work can be even more difficult and finding a job where she gets paid what she is worth even more difficult. She is now stuck. Making the same amount of money every moth and not able to lift herself above where she is.
This really made me think about how life does this to each one of us. Trials come and we lose our footing. Whatever plan we made when things were good, quickly gets eaten up when things are bad. It reminds me of the dreams Pharaoh had during Joseph's time in the Old Testament. If you recall, there were 7 fat cows and then 7 lean ones and the lean cows ate the fat cows. So it tends to be in life.
Some things that might have changed their circumstances that come to mind. First off- she said they had some debt. Getting out of debt sooner in life can have lasting effects later on. Imagine if they had no debt, how much easier it would have been to live and be able to not worry when income was lost, as expenses could be minimalized. This also would have allowed them to save more throughout their life.
Life Insurance. I kind of wonder if when they were younger and sold insurance policies, how much a $100k whole life policy would have cost that would have been paid off in 10 years. Would that life insurance policy, that wasn't costing them a dime after all those years, been replaced to pay those bills a few years ago, or could it have been a life line at the end when she got a check to save the day?
Everyone has different circumstances. Life throws everyone different curve balls. It is just a good idea to think ahead. During those good times, are we maybe spending too much, or are we saving? I know Pharaoh enlisted Joseph as one of the first financial advisers to save grains. That investment brought money and life during the times of famine. We too can do the same.
Monday, May 12, 2014
did you buy the right health plan?
Great article posted here http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/05/12/4-signs-you-have-the-wrong-health-insurance-plan about some of the mistakes people made when getting their health plan. As an adviser, we make sure and go over each one of these concerns before we put you with a plan. May Americans just purchased a plan on their own. They had no clue what they were doing and hope they are covered when they need it. In Nevada, all of the plans available in the state exchange have limited Nevada only doctor networks. A lot of people don't know that there are plans available in the state that meet all requirements, but are just not sold on NevadaHealthlink.com website. Thats' why it's good to work with a broker that knows all the options.
Read the article above, and make sure you ask yourself those same question.
Read the article above, and make sure you ask yourself those same question.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
healthcare spending up...great news folks!
http://archive.delawareonline.com/usatoday/article/8570053
My first thoughts when I see this- demand is up. In economics, when demand increases, price increases. We have more people trying to access the same amount of medical services and providers as there were when demand was lower. In order to compensate for larger traffic, doctors and facilities need to increase what they charge to coordinate their wait times and get people to think twice about using that care. Also when we have insurance taking care of the bill, that means more claims are being processed and the premium dollars are going to be going sooner.
The big problem with healthcare, is people don't know what it actually costs. Insurance companies keep that a bit of a secret until after the services are complete. What's worse, is the costs vary across providers, and since you have no clue what each provider charges until after the fact, there is no real market power happening. In short, can costs really go up when there is no market movements? All we have is more people using a system . Maybe that system was under utilized before. There could actually be an economy of scale happening. Now a doctor who saw only 10 patients in a day and twiddling his thumbs and making people wait while he talks to a pharma rep, now has 12 patients and that pharma rep can't schmooze as long. Now that doctor gets to make more due to higher patient loads and gets to work for just as many hours. What a win. There are so many ways to look at this, but boy is it interesting. Little do most Americans know that with the new healthcare law, people who get subsidized costs due to their income, will not see any cost increases or decreases like those who actually pay full price for their insurance. Higher income earners and tax dollars take the brunt of all increases in premiums and will be the ones highly affected.
I think the lesson to be learned is that if we want to be insured, expect to pay more when you earn more and live your live the best you can financially so you don't go bankrupt paying for healthcare.
My first thoughts when I see this- demand is up. In economics, when demand increases, price increases. We have more people trying to access the same amount of medical services and providers as there were when demand was lower. In order to compensate for larger traffic, doctors and facilities need to increase what they charge to coordinate their wait times and get people to think twice about using that care. Also when we have insurance taking care of the bill, that means more claims are being processed and the premium dollars are going to be going sooner.
The big problem with healthcare, is people don't know what it actually costs. Insurance companies keep that a bit of a secret until after the services are complete. What's worse, is the costs vary across providers, and since you have no clue what each provider charges until after the fact, there is no real market power happening. In short, can costs really go up when there is no market movements? All we have is more people using a system . Maybe that system was under utilized before. There could actually be an economy of scale happening. Now a doctor who saw only 10 patients in a day and twiddling his thumbs and making people wait while he talks to a pharma rep, now has 12 patients and that pharma rep can't schmooze as long. Now that doctor gets to make more due to higher patient loads and gets to work for just as many hours. What a win. There are so many ways to look at this, but boy is it interesting. Little do most Americans know that with the new healthcare law, people who get subsidized costs due to their income, will not see any cost increases or decreases like those who actually pay full price for their insurance. Higher income earners and tax dollars take the brunt of all increases in premiums and will be the ones highly affected.
I think the lesson to be learned is that if we want to be insured, expect to pay more when you earn more and live your live the best you can financially so you don't go bankrupt paying for healthcare.
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