http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfk9fpgn_5gv7j35dn
This link will take you to a Google document presentation by Partners Insurance out of Arkansas. Please note the focus is on wellness and claims errors.
I believe that a shift to the consumer driven/one deductible plans will encourage the insured to monitor their costs and their bills. Once we take the waste out of the health delivery system we can start to control costs and, therefore, premium.
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Short Term Disability
By J. Keith Johnson
One of the most overlooked coverages in America today is disability. We protect our home, our vehicle, our health, even our life, but we do not protect the one thing that pays for all of that, our paycheck.
Does this make sense?
One of the most overlooked coverages in America today is disability. We protect our home, our vehicle, our health, even our life, but we do not protect the one thing that pays for all of that, our paycheck.
Does this make sense?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Benefits Solutions
Benefits Solutions to Health Insurance Dilemma
by J. Keith Johnson
Benefits Representative- Olathe, KS
Colonial Life
Rapidly rising health care costs and the plight of the uninsured have reached the status of nearly daily mention in most news media. As health care costs continue to increase, many businesses are moving toward high-deductible major medical plans in an effort to better manage benefits program costs. Yet this approach can put employees at greater financial risk, forcing them to pay the expanding difference between what their health insurance covers and what their medical care costs. In addition, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 2000.1
While that’s bad enough news for workers with health insurance, it’s a potential disaster for those who don’t have health coverage to help buffer these costs. A recent Census Bureau report estimated 47 million Americans have no health coverage.2 Still more worrisome is the fact that most uninsureds belong to a family with at least one working member. 3
The good news is employers have access to two solutions to meet this health coverage dilemma:
§ A voluntary supplemental health insurance plan can help fill gaps in coverage under a high-deductible major medical plan, such as increased deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
§ A group limited benefit hospital confinement indemnity insurance plan for employees who don’t have access to major medical insurance through their workplace or their spouse’s workplace.
Voluntary Supplemental Health Insurance
With voluntary supplemental health insurance, businesses can offer their employees a solution to help fill coverage gaps and protect employees against increasing out-of-pocket expenses. These products typically pay lump-sum benefits for medical expenses resulting from inpatient hospitalization and rehabilitation unit or outpatient services, diagnostic testing, doctor’s office visits and wellness checkups. For example, an employee who has to go into the hospital may have to pay a $1,500 deductible before health insurance kicks in — money the employee has to pay up front. With voluntary supplemental health insurance, the employee would receive a lump-sum benefit payment for the inpatient confinement and could use it to help pay for the deductible.
Group Limited Benefit Hospital Confinement Indemnity Insurance
This type of insurance is a group product that provides benefits to help insureds pay many routine, noncatastrophic health care expenses. It’s not major medical coverage, and it isn’t a replacement for major medical coverage. Offered through the workplace at group rates, this plan can meet the need for affordable, limited and clearly defined health benefits for full-time and part-time workers who don’t have access to major medical insurance and need some coverage for basic, routine medical expenses. Coverage is available for:
Doctor’s office visits
Outpatient diagnostic and lab tests
Inpatient hospital stays
Surgery
Prescription drugs
With either plan, benefits communication plays a critical role in successful implementation. Consistent, clear communication through group and one-on-one meetings with employees helps ensure they understand what their plan covers and what it doesn’t. This leads to much greater satisfaction with the benefits plan. A quality voluntary benefits provider can deliver this service at no direct charge to the employer.
Rising health care costs and the resulting plight of the working uninsured are not likely to go away anytime soon. But innovative products like voluntary supplemental health insurance and group limited benefit hospital confinement indemnity insurance provide workable solutions for the health care cost issue.
About the Author
J. Keith Johnson is an agent for Colonial Life. A veteran of more than six years in the insurance and benefits industry, Mr. Johnson is responsible for marketing Colonial Life’s products, programs and services in the Kansas/Missouri area.
Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company is a market leader in providing insurance benefits for employees and their families through their workplace, along with individual benefits education, advanced yet simple-to-use enrollment technology and quality personal service. Colonial Life offers disability, life and supplemental accident and health insurance policies in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Similar policies, if approved, are underwritten in New York by a Colonial Life affiliate, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company. Colonial Life is based in Columbia, S.C., and is a subsidiary of Unum Group.
For more information about Colonial Life’s products and services or opportunities with the company, call J. Keith Johnson 913-205-6396 or visit www.coloniallife.com.
# # #
1 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2006 Employee Health Benefit Survey, September 26, 2006.
2 U.S. Census Bureau report, Aug. 28, 2007.
3 California Health Care Foundation, 2005.
4 “Growth Potential of Small Business Markets,” LIMRA, 2006.
5 “Statistics of U.S. Business,” U.S. Census Bureau, 2004.
by J. Keith Johnson
Benefits Representative- Olathe, KS
Colonial Life
Rapidly rising health care costs and the plight of the uninsured have reached the status of nearly daily mention in most news media. As health care costs continue to increase, many businesses are moving toward high-deductible major medical plans in an effort to better manage benefits program costs. Yet this approach can put employees at greater financial risk, forcing them to pay the expanding difference between what their health insurance covers and what their medical care costs. In addition, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 2000.1
While that’s bad enough news for workers with health insurance, it’s a potential disaster for those who don’t have health coverage to help buffer these costs. A recent Census Bureau report estimated 47 million Americans have no health coverage.2 Still more worrisome is the fact that most uninsureds belong to a family with at least one working member. 3
The good news is employers have access to two solutions to meet this health coverage dilemma:
§ A voluntary supplemental health insurance plan can help fill gaps in coverage under a high-deductible major medical plan, such as increased deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
§ A group limited benefit hospital confinement indemnity insurance plan for employees who don’t have access to major medical insurance through their workplace or their spouse’s workplace.
Voluntary Supplemental Health Insurance
With voluntary supplemental health insurance, businesses can offer their employees a solution to help fill coverage gaps and protect employees against increasing out-of-pocket expenses. These products typically pay lump-sum benefits for medical expenses resulting from inpatient hospitalization and rehabilitation unit or outpatient services, diagnostic testing, doctor’s office visits and wellness checkups. For example, an employee who has to go into the hospital may have to pay a $1,500 deductible before health insurance kicks in — money the employee has to pay up front. With voluntary supplemental health insurance, the employee would receive a lump-sum benefit payment for the inpatient confinement and could use it to help pay for the deductible.
Group Limited Benefit Hospital Confinement Indemnity Insurance
This type of insurance is a group product that provides benefits to help insureds pay many routine, noncatastrophic health care expenses. It’s not major medical coverage, and it isn’t a replacement for major medical coverage. Offered through the workplace at group rates, this plan can meet the need for affordable, limited and clearly defined health benefits for full-time and part-time workers who don’t have access to major medical insurance and need some coverage for basic, routine medical expenses. Coverage is available for:
Doctor’s office visits
Outpatient diagnostic and lab tests
Inpatient hospital stays
Surgery
Prescription drugs
With either plan, benefits communication plays a critical role in successful implementation. Consistent, clear communication through group and one-on-one meetings with employees helps ensure they understand what their plan covers and what it doesn’t. This leads to much greater satisfaction with the benefits plan. A quality voluntary benefits provider can deliver this service at no direct charge to the employer.
Rising health care costs and the resulting plight of the working uninsured are not likely to go away anytime soon. But innovative products like voluntary supplemental health insurance and group limited benefit hospital confinement indemnity insurance provide workable solutions for the health care cost issue.
About the Author
J. Keith Johnson is an agent for Colonial Life. A veteran of more than six years in the insurance and benefits industry, Mr. Johnson is responsible for marketing Colonial Life’s products, programs and services in the Kansas/Missouri area.
Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company is a market leader in providing insurance benefits for employees and their families through their workplace, along with individual benefits education, advanced yet simple-to-use enrollment technology and quality personal service. Colonial Life offers disability, life and supplemental accident and health insurance policies in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Similar policies, if approved, are underwritten in New York by a Colonial Life affiliate, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company. Colonial Life is based in Columbia, S.C., and is a subsidiary of Unum Group.
For more information about Colonial Life’s products and services or opportunities with the company, call J. Keith Johnson 913-205-6396 or visit www.coloniallife.com.
# # #
1 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2006 Employee Health Benefit Survey, September 26, 2006.
2 U.S. Census Bureau report, Aug. 28, 2007.
3 California Health Care Foundation, 2005.
4 “Growth Potential of Small Business Markets,” LIMRA, 2006.
5 “Statistics of U.S. Business,” U.S. Census Bureau, 2004.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Wall Street Journal article, Beware the pitfalls of early retirement.
Almost everyone fantasizes about swapping the cubicle and BlackBerry for a life of leisure while they're young enough to enjoy it.
Millions work long hours to make the fantasy a reality, and in these rough economic times, others have simply taken buyouts. But America's patchwork health-care system is making those transitions harder.
Too young to qualify for Medicare and rarely covered by employers, early retirees can face premiums they never dreamed of -- triple or more what they paid while working.
And that's for the healthy ones. Others, who suffer from middle-age ailments like arthritis or back pain, wind up paying far more -- if they aren't simply rejected. Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund found that in 2007 about 35% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 were uninsured or underinsured, up from 26% five years ago.
Bought Out, Left Out
In the decades after World War II, most retirees could count on generous health perks. But over the past two decades, the situation has changed. Today, just 29% of large private companies provide insurance to younger retirees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This spring, the Society for Human Resource Management found that less than half of workers laid off or bought out were offered health benefits.
That leaves many younger retirees with only one place to go: the individual-insurance market, which is hardly friendly terrain for fiftysomethings.
Unlike in employer plans, where all members pay similar premiums, here each consumer gets examined for risk. Insurers often react to minor pre-existing health conditions the way an auto insurer reacts to accidents -- by charging steep rates or rejecting the applicant.
Health-care advocates have documented instances of older people being denied coverage because of high blood pressure or mild depression after the death of a spouse. "I used to joke that just living past 45 was a pre-existing condition," says Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California.
Higher Age, Higher Risk
Insurance executives defend underwriting practices as necessary to keep up with the costs of care, pointing out that age makes customers riskier to insure. "It's not like we're running a pirate ship," says Richard Collins, president of UnitedHealthcare's individual-insurance unit.
Although states prohibit insurers from dropping consumers who develop health problems after enrollment, they do let insurers purge those who allegedly commit fraud on applications -- leading some companies to comb patients' medical records for signs they should have known a problem was looming.
Fortunately, some younger retirees tame the frontier. Holding on to group coverage helps: Retirees willing to work self-employed can get group rates in 13 states.
For those with health issues who must use the individual market, Carolyn McClanahan, a financial planner in Jacksonville, Fla., recommends applying for a special insurance pool that each state holds open to consumers for the 36 days after they exhaust their COBRA coverage -- while benefits there can be spotty, the pools can't reject anyone.
Early retirees also can boost their underwriting odds by losing belly fat and going over their medical records with physicians for errors.
Email: letters@smartmoney.com
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit
www.djreprints.com
Millions work long hours to make the fantasy a reality, and in these rough economic times, others have simply taken buyouts. But America's patchwork health-care system is making those transitions harder.
Too young to qualify for Medicare and rarely covered by employers, early retirees can face premiums they never dreamed of -- triple or more what they paid while working.
And that's for the healthy ones. Others, who suffer from middle-age ailments like arthritis or back pain, wind up paying far more -- if they aren't simply rejected. Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund found that in 2007 about 35% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 were uninsured or underinsured, up from 26% five years ago.
Bought Out, Left Out
In the decades after World War II, most retirees could count on generous health perks. But over the past two decades, the situation has changed. Today, just 29% of large private companies provide insurance to younger retirees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This spring, the Society for Human Resource Management found that less than half of workers laid off or bought out were offered health benefits.
That leaves many younger retirees with only one place to go: the individual-insurance market, which is hardly friendly terrain for fiftysomethings.
Unlike in employer plans, where all members pay similar premiums, here each consumer gets examined for risk. Insurers often react to minor pre-existing health conditions the way an auto insurer reacts to accidents -- by charging steep rates or rejecting the applicant.
Health-care advocates have documented instances of older people being denied coverage because of high blood pressure or mild depression after the death of a spouse. "I used to joke that just living past 45 was a pre-existing condition," says Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California.
Higher Age, Higher Risk
Insurance executives defend underwriting practices as necessary to keep up with the costs of care, pointing out that age makes customers riskier to insure. "It's not like we're running a pirate ship," says Richard Collins, president of UnitedHealthcare's individual-insurance unit.
Although states prohibit insurers from dropping consumers who develop health problems after enrollment, they do let insurers purge those who allegedly commit fraud on applications -- leading some companies to comb patients' medical records for signs they should have known a problem was looming.
Fortunately, some younger retirees tame the frontier. Holding on to group coverage helps: Retirees willing to work self-employed can get group rates in 13 states.
For those with health issues who must use the individual market, Carolyn McClanahan, a financial planner in Jacksonville, Fla., recommends applying for a special insurance pool that each state holds open to consumers for the 36 days after they exhaust their COBRA coverage -- while benefits there can be spotty, the pools can't reject anyone.
Early retirees also can boost their underwriting odds by losing belly fat and going over their medical records with physicians for errors.
Email: letters@smartmoney.com
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit
www.djreprints.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)