Increasing Non-Medical Benefits For Indiana Small Group
As we move forward with health insurance reform small group plans with under 50 employees may be dropping health plans all together in 2014. There is still going to be a need and desire for employee benefits. These future employee benefit packages are going to come in the form on non-medical benefits. This would Long […]
Physician-Rating Measures
The major health carriers have developed a kind of efficiency rating for doctors and hospitals. These rating systems are directly communicating with the consumer. The rating systems show price of a procedure and quality of care. So if an insured wants to look up how many times a doctor has performed a certain procedure they […]
Preventive Care Services Required By Law For Indiana
With the health care reform we are now going to see plans required to cover preventive care. It should be very interesting to see what kind of impact these coverages have on premium. There is no doubt that these additional coverage will increase premium. The problem right now is no one knows what kind of […]
Update on the NAIC’s Role in PPACA Implementation
The medical loss ratio (MLR) is the most important aspect of healthcare reform. This interpretation of this law is going to determine if the private industry stays in business. The one positive thing is the NAIC is in charge of interpreting the MLR. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners was charged by Congress with considerable […]
Indiana Hospital Compare
The Government website www.healthcare.gov has just released a free service for comparing hospitals services. This tool provides a listing of Indianapolis hospitals, and 44 quality measures. This kind of information is cutting edge when it comes to healthcare. Recently companies like Anthem and Unitedhealthcare have released these kinds of tool to their clients. Now everyone can access this type […]
The Changing Cost of Healthcare in Indiana.
Last week there was an article in the Indianapolis Star called Do your home work or pay the price. http://www.indystar.com/article/20100629/BUSINESS/6270392/1003/BUSINESS It was a very interesting article because it address what has been going on in the health care industry locally and the rest of the country. What we are are seeing is hospital groups buying up smaller medical practices. […]
Keeping Grandfathered Health Plans?
The Grandfathered clause of the new health care reform gave individuals and group plans the right to keep their current plans. To keep that grandfathered status you can not make any changes to the plan. So that means you can not raise the deductible or coinsurance to lower the premium. From a employer standpoint the […]
The Repeal Of The McCarran-Ferguson Act
The McCarran-Ferguson Act that created that antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry has been repealed through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This will prevent the health and medical malpractice insurers from being exempt from antitrust regulation. An example of how the health industry has had problem is in a case in […]
Half Of Employer Health Care Plans May Lose Their Grandfathered Status
The White House on Monday will issue new rules that strongly discourage employers from cutting health insurance benefits or increasing the costs of coverage to employees. The administration said this was just one goal of the legislation, allowing people to “keep their current coverage if they like it.” It acknowledged that some people, especially those […]
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 […]