by L.A.S. --
The following is a list of the major insurers offering supplemental insurances which employers may choose to offer instead or as an alternative to standard group coverage. You may also wish to investigate other companies such as AdminiStaff, which offers supplemental insurance in addition to payroll services.
AEGIS ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES INC.
888-881-2307
www.mini-meds.com
Offered as Limited Health Benefit Plans. Offered in ALL states. Issue ages 18-65. No deductible. Guaranteed issue. Details: defined benefits for inpatient hospital, surgery, outpatient, office visits, pharmacy, dental.
AIGILIS CORP.
407-324-3921
www.Rethink-Healthcare.com
Offered as eHealth Companion. Offered in ALL states. Issue ages not stated, but available to all employees. No deductible. Details: intended to be a personal health care management system to help you transition to a Consumer Directed Health Plan. Compatible with HSA, HRA.
AIGILIS CORP.
ALSO offers another plan called Way2SaveRx which is a discount pharmacy card. Minimum age 18. Available in all states. No deductible. Over 53K participating pharmacies. No enrollment or membership fees.
ALTERNET BENEFITS
877-815-2121
www.Alternetbenefits.com
Offered as Fusion. Offered in all states EXCEPT ID, MN, NY, VT, WA. Issue ages 18-70. Deductible $750 to $15,000 on catastrophic medical. Guaranteed issue. Details: Voluntary major medical.
AMERICAN FIDELITY ASSURANCE CO.
877-967-5748
www.afadvantage.com
Offered as Hospital GAP Plan. Offered in all states EXCEPT ID, MD, MN, NH, NJ, NY, ND, WA. . Issue ages 18-69. Details: supplemental coverage to cover your out-of-pocket costs. Not portable.
AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE INSURANCE CO.
800-256-6736
www.ampublic.com
TWO PLANS: One is offered as Hospital Indemnity. Available in all states EXCEPT NJ, NY, VT. Issue ages 17-64. NO DEDUCTIBLE. Details: includes Rx discount, flexible plan designs, options for surgery, outpatient, emergency, wellness, etc.
The other is offered as MEDlink. Issue ages 18-69. No deductible on inpatient. This is not portable.
AMERICAN WORKER PLANS INC.
866-215-9300
www.theamericanworker.com
Offered as The American Worker Plan. Available in all states EXCEPT HI, MA, NY. Issue ages 18-70. Not portable. Limited benefit, critical illness, dental, disability, mini-med.
EQUITABLE LIFE & CASUALTY
800-352-5121
Offered as EquiChoice. Available in states EXCEPT AK, CA, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HI, ME, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA, WI. Issue ages 65 and up. Guaranteed renewable. Designed as a Medicare Supplement.
GREAT AMERICAN SUPPLEMENTAL BENEFITS GROUP
866-459-4272
www.gasbinsurance.com
Offered as Medicare Supplement Plans. Offered in all states EXCEPT AK, DC, HI, MA, NJ, NY. Issue ages 65-99. Guaranteed issue, with pharmacy discount card.
HARBOR INSURANCE MARKETING
866-424-2167
THREE PLANS, first is Offered as the Gap Plan. Offered in all states EXCEPT CA, CT, FL, MN, MT, NJ, NY, ND, VT. Issue ages 18-70. No deductible. Not portable but can be continued under COBRA. Details: hospital benefit, fills gaps, flexible with several optional riders like surgery, outpatient surgical facility, office visits, diagnostics, wellness, ambulance, ER, accident, Rx card, etc.
Second plan is called Hospital Indemnity. Issue ages 18-64. No deductible. Covers expenses up to $1000 per day. Optional riders include AD&D, diagnostics, emergency, ICU, outpatient, private duty nursing, surgical, wellness, etc.
Third plan is called The Answer Plan. Issue ages 0-63. No deductible on inpatient. Covers medical expense inpatient and outpatient up to $250,000 per covered person per injury.
HEALTHPLAN SERVICES
800-545-6441
www.healthplan.com
Offered as Golden Rule Medicare Supplement. Available in AK, AR, CO, IL, IN, IA, LA, MD, MI, MS, MO, NE, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV. Issue ages 65 plus. Deductible varies.
KEY BENEFIT RESOURCES
877-907-5511
www.keybenefitresources.com
Offered as Keygap and KeySelect. Available in all states EXCEPT CA, CT, DE, FL, MA, NH, NY, WA. Issue ages 18-no limit. COBRA eligible. One is a group supplemental policy, the other is a limited benefit group plan.
MAGNA BENEFITS SOLUTIONS INC.
616-949-1199 or 800-278-2323
www.magnabenefits.com
Offered as Retiree Group Health and Prescription Drug Plans. Available in ALL states. Issue ages 65 unless already retired and Medicare eligible. Options include dental, vision, identity theft.
TRANSAMERICA WORKSITE MARKETING
800-400-3042
www.transamericaworksite.com or transchoiceplus.com
Offered as TransChoice Plus. Available in all states EXCEPT CA, CT, HI, NH, NJ, NY, VT, WA. No age restrictions for issue. No deductible. Limited group benefit for full or part-time employees. Options include diagnostics, surgical, inpatient, wellness, ambulance, hearing, pharmacy, etc.
UNUM
207-575-4942
www.unum.com
Offered as MedSupport. Available in all states EXCEPT CT, FL, KS, MA, MN, NJ, NY, WA. Issue ages 17-64 and spouse. No deductible. Inpatient confinement and outpatient surgery, diagnostics, ER.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
What is in the New ARRA Law that Obama signed? Some details on COBRA changes, while we wait for details on implementation.
by L.A.S. --
While the thousand-page ARRA law (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) became law on March 1, 2009 when President Barack Obama signed it on Feb. 17, your employer was awaiting the details on the law in order to be in compliance with it. This means as a practical matter that thousands desperately waiting for help in keeping up their former employer's insurance under COBRA provisions could not be assured of a smooth transition to the emergency provisions of the law.
The law itself is written rather vaguely and so employers are scrambling for guidelines on implementation of the new rules. Granted, the ARRA law was written under pressure and so some parts are less defined than others.
THE OLD COBRA LAW: a qualified beneficiary who elected to continue health insurance coverage under his former employer's group plan had to pay the full premium, plus a small percentage (two percent) toward handling fees.
THE NEW COBRA LAW: Employees who were terminated between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 “due to an involuntary loss of employment” will have 65 percent of the premium subsidized by the federal government for a period of UP TO nine months. Included in the group of employees covered by this new provision are those former employees who already declined COBRA coverage. Former employees will be covered for a total of 18 months: nine months of subsidized coverage and nine months of unsubsidized coverage.
The subsidy is NOT available to employees whose modified adjusted gross income exceeds $145,00 (or $290,000 for joint filers). Those with incomes between $125,000 and $145,000 will see a proportional decrease in their subsidy.
The subsidy is supposed to paid out of credits against the employer's payroll tax liability. In other words this is an immediate tax exemption for the employer and should not be a crushing burden to them financially. Anyone who claims otherwise is not understanding the ARRA provisions.
To restate it more simply: eligible individuals pay 35 percent of the total premium while the employer pays the other 65 percent, which is then reimbursed to the employer as a tax credit.
Some confusion may exist over some proposals that did not become part of the final bill. One major item that was changed was the proposal to allow those former employees over age 55 to re-enter the COBRA umbrella of coverage, at least until they became Medicare eligible or obtained coverage through another employer. Again, that proposal failed to become part of the final bill.
Other proposals that died in the talking phase includes one that would have extended coverage under COBRA ; it would have been far too costly and would have essentially rewritten the whole COBRA program. While we might discuss such issues again one day, it was deemed entirely inappropriate for emergency or stimulus legislation.
Will the sickest former employees likely rush to get covered under this new COBRA provision? It is likely that the answer will be yes, just because of the fact that people with ongoing health issues need uninterrupted checkups and medications. People do not elect COBRA unless they already have health issues that make it difficult to be accepted for other health insurance policies.
Nevertheless, one must bear in mind that for most people, even those with serious health challenges, do recover and return to the realm of the healthy.
The other significant part of the ARRA bill which impacts health care costs is the provision to speed up conversion of medical records to an electronic, computerized form. Nineteen billion dollars was earmarked for this huge effort. We already have the proven example of the VA which has converted its medical records to an electronic format, and has seen it raise levels of accuracy and speed of transmission to other providers.
A major barrier to this conversion is agreeing on a format that is compatible with the majority of providers, and observing the laws regarding privacy and security of medical records as per HIPAA requirements. While the impetus for writing the HIPAA law was to maintain security of medical records when electronically submitted to insurers, it is at times used to block or deny proper access to those medical records.
While the thousand-page ARRA law (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) became law on March 1, 2009 when President Barack Obama signed it on Feb. 17, your employer was awaiting the details on the law in order to be in compliance with it. This means as a practical matter that thousands desperately waiting for help in keeping up their former employer's insurance under COBRA provisions could not be assured of a smooth transition to the emergency provisions of the law.
The law itself is written rather vaguely and so employers are scrambling for guidelines on implementation of the new rules. Granted, the ARRA law was written under pressure and so some parts are less defined than others.
THE OLD COBRA LAW: a qualified beneficiary who elected to continue health insurance coverage under his former employer's group plan had to pay the full premium, plus a small percentage (two percent) toward handling fees.
THE NEW COBRA LAW: Employees who were terminated between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 “due to an involuntary loss of employment” will have 65 percent of the premium subsidized by the federal government for a period of UP TO nine months. Included in the group of employees covered by this new provision are those former employees who already declined COBRA coverage. Former employees will be covered for a total of 18 months: nine months of subsidized coverage and nine months of unsubsidized coverage.
The subsidy is NOT available to employees whose modified adjusted gross income exceeds $145,00 (or $290,000 for joint filers). Those with incomes between $125,000 and $145,000 will see a proportional decrease in their subsidy.
The subsidy is supposed to paid out of credits against the employer's payroll tax liability. In other words this is an immediate tax exemption for the employer and should not be a crushing burden to them financially. Anyone who claims otherwise is not understanding the ARRA provisions.
To restate it more simply: eligible individuals pay 35 percent of the total premium while the employer pays the other 65 percent, which is then reimbursed to the employer as a tax credit.
Some confusion may exist over some proposals that did not become part of the final bill. One major item that was changed was the proposal to allow those former employees over age 55 to re-enter the COBRA umbrella of coverage, at least until they became Medicare eligible or obtained coverage through another employer. Again, that proposal failed to become part of the final bill.
Other proposals that died in the talking phase includes one that would have extended coverage under COBRA ; it would have been far too costly and would have essentially rewritten the whole COBRA program. While we might discuss such issues again one day, it was deemed entirely inappropriate for emergency or stimulus legislation.
Will the sickest former employees likely rush to get covered under this new COBRA provision? It is likely that the answer will be yes, just because of the fact that people with ongoing health issues need uninterrupted checkups and medications. People do not elect COBRA unless they already have health issues that make it difficult to be accepted for other health insurance policies.
Nevertheless, one must bear in mind that for most people, even those with serious health challenges, do recover and return to the realm of the healthy.
The other significant part of the ARRA bill which impacts health care costs is the provision to speed up conversion of medical records to an electronic, computerized form. Nineteen billion dollars was earmarked for this huge effort. We already have the proven example of the VA which has converted its medical records to an electronic format, and has seen it raise levels of accuracy and speed of transmission to other providers.
A major barrier to this conversion is agreeing on a format that is compatible with the majority of providers, and observing the laws regarding privacy and security of medical records as per HIPAA requirements. While the impetus for writing the HIPAA law was to maintain security of medical records when electronically submitted to insurers, it is at times used to block or deny proper access to those medical records.
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