R&R Insurance Blog

It starts off just like any other telemarketer phone call: "We are sending out new Medicare cards and have just a couple simple questions for you. Can you confirm you name, address, and phone number."

You easily reply "yes, that is correct."

The telemarketer starts listing off numbers and asks "please confirm that is your bank routing number."

RED FLAG!

Health insurance scams are increasing every day across the country. Many are preying on the mass confusion over the health care system. And unfortunately Senior Citizens are often the targets: they are home more often to answer the phone and generally have larger retirement savings for scammers access.

Due to the confusion with healthcare, other scams include offering fake health coverage, bare-bones policies being sold as full coverage, and fake Obamacare coverage.

Tips to help avoid falling victim to a scam:

• Don't answer the phone too quickly - check caller ID if possible
• Think about the question they are asking
• Think before you answer the question
• NEVER give out personal or financial information over the phone
• Just hang up the phone

Wisconsin residents with questions on how health care reform will affect you, please contact knowledgebroker Pete Frittitta.

With Obamacare, there are 1,500 pages of regulations being created every week that will forever change the way the individual and small businesses pay for health insurance.

In the largest redistribution-of-wealth scheme this country has ever seen, 'Obamacare' will begin a series of annual assessments and taxes on insurers to the tune of over $14 billion in 2014 and $18 billion in 2018.

Exploring creative strategic alternatives like private insurance exchanges, self-funding and co-employment partnerships are wise considerations. As well, businesses need to make sure that they are receiving more than just health insurance from their broker. Risk management, compliance, health and wellness, communication and education as well as individual insurance options should be on your radar.

Join our group on LinkedIn: Obamacare: Strategies for Business to Survive. We welcome you to join in the conversation with our LinkedIn group dedicated to discussions for business owners on Obamacare: Strategies for Business To Survive. Read articles, download documents, join the conversation, and add your expertise!

NorthBay Adventure, a small Maryland adventure camp for 6th graders with 30 employees, is making then news because they became self-insured last year. As a result, they are saving 45% on their health care insurance costs, and they have basically removed themselves from the ACA requirements. As noted in the article from Kaiserhealthnews.org, self-insuring is a loophole for the small employer to get out of the ACA requirements.

Credit: KAISER HEALTH NEWS / Kyle Grantham for USA TODAY

More and more small businesses like NorthBay are avoiding the health act's requirements through self-insuring coverage.Self-funding in the past has been more typical for larger employers. Self-insured employers pay for most worker health costs directly, though they contract with an insurer or other company to administer claims. The employers also buy coverage known as stop-loss for claims exceeding a certain amount.Free Download: Loopholes for Self-Funded Plans document

For more information about WellCompForLife, about self-funding your health insurance plan, health care reform or basic employee benefits questions, contact knowledgebroker Riley Enright.

Join our group on LinkedIn: Obamacare: Strategies for Business to Survive. We welcome you to join in the conversation with our LinkedIn group dedicated to discussions for business owners on Obamacare: Strategies for Business To Survive. Read articles, download documents, join the conversation, and add your expertise!

Learn how Voluntary Benefits are impacting small businesses and their ability to attract and retain employees during this time of benefit change.

As we move forward through the stages of healthcare reform, one thing is for certain: employers need to continue to attract and retain the best employees... this has long been true. Today, differentiation will be the key. Enter Ancillary benefits also known as Voluntary benefits!

Voluntary benefits enable employers to offer their employees the ability to choose from a menu of benefits that meet the employee’s needs, even if the employees pay the full cost of those benefits.

Offering voluntary benefits for your employees through a group purchase platform can be better for both you and the employee. Here are 3 great reasons to purchase ancillary benefits through a group platform:

1. Higher guarantee issue limits
2. Fewer underwriting hassles
3. Usually lower premiums
   BONUS: many of these benefits can be paid with pre-tax dollars, which is a plus for both the employee and the employer.

Voluntary benefits could very well be the rescue employers are looking for - and in the very least - your employees will have extra protection, and it will continue to set you apart from other employers.

Would you like to know where your company fits in regard to your benefits offering? Do you have a plan for Obamacare and reform? Have you considered self-funded? We have the answers to these questions and more. Contact knowledgbroker Riley Enright for an up-to-date discussion of your benefit concerns.

Join our group on LinkedIn: Obamacare: Strategies for Business to Survive. We welcome you to join in the conversation with our LinkedIn group dedicated to discussions for business owners on Obamacare: Strategies for Business To Survive. Read articles, download documents, join the conversation, and add your expertise!

Related Article:
Ease Pain of Reform for Employees: Offer Generationally Attractive Voluntary Benefits

April 30^th was the deadline for the Wisconsin health insurers to motion if they will join the exchange. While Gov. Scott Walker rejected a state run exchange, insurers still needed to file their plan designs for the federally run exchange. However, information on their plan designs and rates will not be released by the Office of Commissioner of Insurance until July. With enrollment for the exchange scheduled to start in October for January 1, 2014 renewals; this information is essential to companies considering whether to continue offering medical benefits or to send their employees to the exchange.

Companies with 50+ employees are those mainly looking toward the exchange. The penalty for not providing health insurance is $2000-$3000 per employee per year; much less than paying for health insurance with double-digit increases on the horizon.

Reasons for the high premiums may be because of the following inclusions:

• High risk profiles for those in the exchange that other insurers won't cover.
  • Pre-existing conditions
  • Members in the Wisconsin Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP)
• New limit on ratings based on age.
  • Instant hike rates for people younger than 50

Wisconsin Business; for more information regarding R&R’s Play or Pay calculator; contact Jane Shevey.

A recent survey of insurers estimates that pemiums will almost triple for a 27 year-old man in 2014 as a result of the federal health reform law. Those in the health insurance industry would like to see those restrictions loosened making insurance more affordable for younger adults.

The facts: it costs six times as much to insure a 64 year-old than an 18 year-old. Simply tripling the insurance cost for an 18 year-old to help subsidize older individuals will be unaffordable and thus they will elect to be uninsured (not helping subsidize for the older age pool).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) regulates the health insurance market in three ways:

1. All Americans must secure health coverage.
2. Because everyone must carry coverage, the law requires insurers to sell policies to whomever wants to buy them. There is also "guaranteed issue" meaning insurance carriers cannot deny coverage because of health status or history.
3. In an attempt to control the cost of coverage, there is "community rating": the law prevents insurers from charging older individuals more than three times what they charge younger individuals.

Providing a perspective from health insurance underwriters, Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, has outlined the affects of health care reform: How to Help with Healthcare "Sticker Shock".

For questions on how PPACA affects the State of Wisconsin, please contact knowledgebroker & WAHU President Pete Frittitta.

When shopping for health insurance, businesses receive more advantages. Companies typically purchase insurance for an entire group thus giving more room for negotiating to keep costs down. This is a direct correlation as to why 63% of Americans were satisfied with coverage provided by their employer - it is affordable.

Today, the money an employer spends on health insurance is untaxed. So every dollar an employer spends, the employee receives a dollar's worth of benefits. However, individuals buying their own health insurance do not receive such tax breaks. They are paying for their own insurance AFTER taxes and NOT receiving a dollar's worth of benefits.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is starting to change the employer-paid coverage landscape. Providing a perspective from health insurance underwriters, Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, has outlined the affects of health care reform: Preserving What Works: The Perks of Employer-Provided Coverage.

For questions on how PPACA affects the State of Wisconsin, please contact knowledgebroker & WAHU President Pete Frittitta.

Individual market claims costs, and in turn insurance costs, will soar as a result of Health Care Reform! Research sponsored by the Society of Actuaries predicts health care reform-driven changes in individual market composition could drive up underlying claims costs by an average of 32 percent nationally by 2017. The research also predicts high variability among states, with as many as 43 states experiencing a double-digit claims cost increase.

Check out what’s predicted for the Wisconsin individual market and in other states.

We welcome you to join in the conversation with our LinkedIN group dedicated to discussions for business owners on Obamacare: Strategies for Business To Survive. Read articles, download documents, join the conversation, and add your expertise!

We've started a new group on LinkedIn to conglomerate all the information we have been publishing on Obamacare. As well, we will give pointers for business owners to survive the exchange nightmare, keep employees happy, continually offer great benefits for recruitment talent and most importantly for everyone's sake - keep your profit!

Please join our LinkedIn group : Strategies for Business to Survive Obamacare. Read the discussions, download our materials and share with your fellow business owners. We are all in the same boat, and we are glad to help!

Obamacare: Strategies for Business to Survive

One thing's for sure - you have to have a strategy. We will share strategies for controlling the cost of health care insurance + ways businesses can take control of their profits and take care of their employees. You'll be surprised at what some of the options really are - and the control you still have!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4907076

Click the link, log in and join the conversation………add your expertise!

I though that this was only something that insurance companies did? Et tu, CMS? What makes anyone think that health care reform is going to deliver a better, more affordable health care reality? You don't have to "wait and see" for the federal government to build the house when the foundation they have been laying is already cracking! I am comforted to learn, though, that the government is doing everything it can "to avoid running out of money." Welcome to the risk business! That's why the states have insurance regulators! Who's regulating you?

Link to full article to Obama Administration Cuts Benefits to Those in High Risk