We’re getting more and more questions from agents asking what they can sell right now. We know that the fourth quarter is the busy time of the year, but the other nine months can leave brokers twiddling their thumbs.
Back in October, President Trump issued an executive order that, among other things, asked the Department of Labor to re-write the rules for Association Health Plans. On January 4, the DOL honored that request and issued proposed rules. After a comment period, those rules were finalized on June 19. Because the final rules are 198 pages long, we figured we’d save you some time and give you the high points.
The Internal Revenue Service has announced the 2019 deductible, out-of-pocket, and contribution limits for Health Savings Accounts (HSA). Here they are:
Salespeople who want to edge out their competition need some sort of hook, something they do differently than everyone else. In health insurance, that can be difficult to do since agents neither design nor price the products that they sell; the plans are the plans and the rates are the rates.
If you’re a fan of Health Savings Accounts, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of trying to explain to clients why a High Deductible Health Plan with no up-front copayments is a MUCH better deal than a traditional plan with copayments for doctor visits and prescriptions, only to have the client ignore your advice and select the more costly plan that will not allow them to pay with tax-free dollars.
As you know all too well, most people find health insurance confusing. Very confusing. Otherwise intelligent people seem completely baffled by deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance, and they frequently use the terms interchangeably. There have been surveys that find people would rather have a root canal than shop for health insurance—to them, it would be less painful.
You may have seen the news that the Department of Justice is no longer defending the Affordable Care Act against a challenge that, now that the penalty is being eliminated, the individual mandate is unconstitutional including certain protections for people with pre-existing conditions. We wanted to provide a quick explanation of what’s going on to help you better explain the developments to your clients.
If you’re a regular reader of the AHCP blog, you know that we frequently stress the importance of client communications. Whether you focus your attention on employer, individual, or Medicare products, your customers need to understand their policies and keep up to date with important changes that could affect their coverage.
In our last couple posts, we explained that CMS has extended the transitional relief for small employers until the end of 2019, giving healthier small group clients an opportunity to save on premiums for another year and avoid some of the rules applicable to ACA metallic plans. We also explained that taking advantage of this option may require these small groups to continue renewing their same plan year after year without the option of tweaking their benefits at renewal/re-issue time. For employers looking for greater flexibility in plan design, self-funding provides a great alternative; small-business employers with self-funded plans often save money by avoiding the modified adjusted community rating rules, and they have multiple plan options to choose from.
On April 9, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that individuals and small employers can continue their transitional policies to the end of 2019; previously, these “grandmothered” plans were set to expire at the end of this year.
