Posts from: August 2016

With over 69% of all employer sponsored health plans renewing January 1, 2017 it’s time to get ready for your employees Open Enrollment period; but are you going to be ready? 2017 holds new legal changes affecting the design and administration of your plans. You should review your plan documents to confirm that they include the required changes. Do you have a Summary Plan Description “SPD” or summary of material modifications “SMM”? This is different […]

I recently read an article in the SHRM newsletter that discussed the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association revealing that consumers who were “newly insured under the Affordable Care Act were sicker, used more medical care and had higher medical costs than those who already had coverage.”  We all had assumed that those who had not been sold individual plans due to “Pre-existing Conditions” would be high utilizers of their new plans.  Why, because they […]

So, I just had surgery a couple months ago.  I was caught off guard when the outpatient surgical facility asked me to pay my portion of the bill “up front”.  This seemed odd to me when I didn’t even have a High-Deductible Health Plan.  Nonetheless, they advised that this is how they handle their billing at many facilities now.  So, I requested they divide it into 3 installments, and payed the first before I went […]