AHCP Blog | AHCP (22)

A Creative Way to get Individual Clients

Published: February 1, 2019

One thing we learned from the 2019 open enrollment period is that the government’s outreach efforts are coming up short. Marketplace enrollment was down this year, and that corresponds with a huge 90 percent reduction in the marketing budget for Healthcare.gov.

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Understanding Facility Copayments

Published: January 24, 2019

Most of us understand what a copayment is, right? It’s a fixed dollar amount that the insured pays for certain covered services on a health plan before benefits are paid by the plan. Usually, but not always, benefits that apply these copayments, or copays for short, are paid before the calendar-year deductible has been met and after the copay has been paid by the insured. Some HSA-qualified plans, though, do have copayments for prescriptions that kick in after the deductible has been met.

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Surprise Medical Bills

Published: January 18, 2019

Not everyone likes surprises. And not all surprises are good. Take surprise medical bills, for instance—it seems that nobody is happy to receive one of those in the mail. Unfortunately, they’re more and more common these days, and that means you should prepare your clients in case they receive a surprise bill following a medical procedure.

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A different way to think about HSAs

Published: January 4, 2019

A couple questions:

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Medicare Plan F is Being Eliminated

Published: December 27, 2018

If you sell Medicare supplements, you may have heard that Medigap plans C and F are being eliminated in 2020. Since that’s just over a year away, and because Medigap Plan F is the most popular Medicare supplement plan, you’ll probably start getting some questions from your Medicare-eligible (and near-eligible) clients. Here are a few short-and-sweet answers to some of the more common questions.

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What the Mid-Terms Mean for the Health Insurance Debate

Published: December 21, 2018

The 2018 mid-term election is over, and, as many expected, Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives. The incumbent party normally loses seats in the mid-terms, making the last two years of a President’s four-year term a bit more challenging than the first two. For the first time in the Trump presidency, there will be a divided congress. This means one of two things: 1) the two sides will work together and pass legislation on a bi-partisan basis, or 2) very little will get done from a legislative standpoint. Most are putting their money on the second option—there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for compromise inside the Beltway right now.

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Do you create employee packets for your group clients?

Published: December 14, 2018

These days, employee communication is more important than ever. Obviously, the government requires that certain information be communicated and notices be provided to employees, but, even without that requirement, it’s critically important that employees understand their benefits. If they don’t, they won’t appreciate them, and the employer will not get the return on investment he or she was hoping for by offering benefits in the first place.

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Let Your Clients Do The Selling

Published: December 3, 2018

Every agent likes getting referrals. They’re easier to sell—and certainly less expensive—than leads you buy online, and talking to someone who actually wants to talk to you is far more enjoyable than cold calling.

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Short, Fun HSA Quiz

Published: November 29, 2018

As premiums continue to increase, more and more people are purchasing plans with higher deductibles and no up-front copayments. Most of these plans are HSA-compatible, so we thought it might be fun to test your HSA knowledge. Below are five questions that you could get from clients relating to Health Savings Accounts. See how you do.

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How much is a client worth?

Published: November 16, 2018

Some larger firms that focus primarily on employee benefits will only work with clients that meet a minimum group size or annual revenue amount. Other brokers will spend hours with an individual client knowing that the commission they’ll receive will never fully compensate them for their time. Most brokers are somewhere in-between—they’ll accept most customers who want to do business with them, but they try to make a profit off every client.

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