Health Care Reform Impacts Indiana Maternity Coverage
Starting in the fall, all new health plans must cover certain preventive screenings and other services for pregnant women at no additional cost to the patient. Those include folic acid supplements, which reduce the risk of neural tube defects in developing fetuses, and counseling to help pregnant women stop smoking. Medicaid will also begin to […]
Enrollment Declines With Top Health Plans in 2009
Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), a leading provider of market data and intelligence solutions to the health care industry reported a huge decline in member ship among eight top health insurers: Aetna, CIGNA, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Health Net, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint. Enrollment declines continued for most of the nation’s leading health […]
Medicare Physician Payment Cuts May Increase Cost Of Private Insurance
Right now there are a lot of people predicting that if the Medicare cuts are not fixed then health care providers will cost shift to private carriers. This means that if the 21% reduction in Medicare reimbursement is not fixed the hospitals will charge private insurance more money. I find this hard to believe. Hospitals can try to […]
Golden Rule Will No Longer Offer Stand Alone Children’s Policy
This is the first result of a carrier telling the Federal Government we just won’t sell that product anymore. As of Sept 23rd 2010 of this year all Children under 19 will be eligible for guaranteed Issue on a stand alone health plan. This means they can not be declined or pre-x. Golden Rule which […]
Simple Cafeteria Plans Changes
A cafeteria plan is an employer-sponsored plan that allows employees to choose certain pre-tax benefits or cash. For example, an employee may choose to pay his or her share of premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance before taxes through the plan. A cafeteria plan must have a written plan document governing the plan and may not […]
Industry Groups Comment to HHS on Medical Loss Ratios
The Medical Loss Ratio is very critical to the health insurance industry. This MLR is going to have a huge effect on carriers profits and how they operate. In fact we could see some carriers drop out of certain markets reducing the already limited choices of carriers. The HHS has to clarify the laws on the […]
Indiana Gap Insurance Policies
Group Gap Policy for Major Medical plan Group Gap Policies can help to offset health insurance premiums. Instead of complete cost shifting a high deductive the employer can pay for a gap policy that will pay a portion of the insured’s deductible. Typical Plan Overview and Benefits Gap policies have been specifically designed to pay […]
Indiana Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS)
Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) This act is a government sponsored long-term care plan that offers a basic level of guaranteed issue coverage to working Americans. It works like social security where you pay in advance for the benefit. Many of the details are still in development. As of right now the plan: […]