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Health Insurance Marketplaces: Enrollment Begins October 1st

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On October 1st, 2013, the new health insurance marketplaces will open for enrollment across the country for the first time. These new marketplaces (or exchanges) were a major component of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Healthcare Reform, Obamacare, etc). The main objective of these exchanges is to extend coverage to those who cannot afford (or cannot obtain) health insurance. 

If you’ve been following along, in past blog posts we’ve described some of the characteristics of these new exchanges. We’ve discussed the general nature of these marketplaces (specifically the California state marketplace called “Covered California“). We’ve also talked a little bit about eligibility (ie: Federal Poverty Level), and the individual tax penalties involved if someone decides not to purchase health insurance.

That all being mentioned, we won’t go back into those types of topics in this blog post. Instead, this post is intended to be more of a “checklist” for you, so you can decide if you’re prepared for the new exchanges to open up.

These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself before the new marketplaces open in October:

Do I currently have health insurance? 

  • If the answer is no, it’s most likely for a few different reasons: A) It’s not affordable. You just flat-out can’t pay the expensive premiums. B) It’s not easily accessible. You want health insurance, but you can’t get it. You could be self-employed, between jobs, unemployed, or you may have a preexisting condition. C) You really don’t care. You can afford some kind of health insurance plan (and you have access to one), but you don’t want to spend your money on health insurance premiums. If these examples sound like you, you’ll want to take a very close look at the new health insurance exchanges.  

If the answer is “yes I do have health insurance,” you want to ask: Where am I currently getting my health insurance?

  • This is an important question. You’ll want to know if you’re buying your own plan, or if you’re getting it through an employer. Regardless of which one it is, you may want to take a look at the health insurance marketplaces because your premiums might be cheaper if you are eligible to receive premium subsidies (which will be many, many people… so make sure to take a look). However, if your employer currently has affordable health insurance coverage in place for you at work, or if your spouse has access to an employer plan, you may not be eligible for subsidies in the exchange.

Does it make more sense for me to buy a health insurance plan…?… or pay a tax penalty.

  • By January 1st, 2014 it’s got to be one or the other. You’ve either got to buy a minimum essential coverage health insurance plan, or you’ve got to pay a tax penalty. You’ll want to decide which one will make more sense in your situation (in certain cases, it may make more sense to pay the tax penalty, especially the first year).

Are the health insurance plans inside of the marketplaces the same as the ones outside of them?

  • The answer to this is yes. The plans inside the exchange will be the same as those outside of it (both are plans from private companies like Kaiser, Health Net, Anthem, etc).

Should I shop in a health insurance exchange?

  • You can always purchase an individual health insurance plan outside of a state health insurance marketplace (and starting on January 1st, 2014 you can’t be denied coverage for preexisting conditions inside or outside of an exchange). This means you don’t have to shop for your plan inside the exchange. However, the big advantage to shopping in the exchanges: you may qualify for substantial subsides that will reduce your monthly premium by quite a bit. The disadvantages: there is some additional administration (tax forms, etc). Also, certain plans and physician networks may not be available through the exchange (ie: not all insurance companies offer plans in the exchanges).

How (and where) can I apply for a plan in the exchange?

  • Eventually, the easiest way to take care of this will be online. You’ll be able to jump online and shop & compare insurance rates right at the state marketplace website. We say “eventually,” because states are still getting online accessibility prepared. Until then, you can apply in person, over the phone, or with a trained “assister/navigator” (these are people that are certified by the state’s Department of Insurance to help you enroll. IE: a Certified Insurance Agent). We can help you, please contact us.

Although these are not all of the questions you should be asking yourself, they are a very good start. They should help you begin to understand and make decisions about participating in a state health insurance marketplace.

Remember: on January 1st, 2014, you need to have a health insurance plan in place, or pay a tax penalty. The state health insurance marketplaces will be a big source of insurance for those who are currently uninsured. Make sure to take a good look at them, especially if you don’t currently have health insurance.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

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Benefits Chalk Talk: Registered Health Underwriter® (RHU®)

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Welcome back to another edition of “Benefits Chalk Talk.” In this series at our blog, we provide you with valuable, up-to-date, relevant information about health benefits planning so that you can put the things in place that make the most sense for yourself or your company. At Policy Advantage Insurance Services, we feel that informed consumers can make a really big difference in our industry.

Today we’re going to talk a little bit more about the Registered Health Underwriter® (or RHU®) designation. If you’ve been following along here at the blog, we’ve talked a little bit about insurance professional designations in the past. Instead of going back through what we covered in that previous blog post, we’re going to tell you more about the specific knowledge that a Registered Health Underwriter® has acquired in order to help clients.

Remember, as we had mentioned in the past blog post, these are robust designations. The holder of these designations has demonstrated a significant and advanced understanding of the concepts which apply. According to NAHU ( the National Association of Health Underwriters):

The Registered Health Underwriter® designation is the undisputed professional credential for persons involved in the sale and service of disability income and health insurance. Individuals earning the RHU designation demonstrate a high level of knowledge about the principles and practices governing the disability income and health insurance business.

Here is some of the specific knowledge that holders of the Registered Health Underwriter® (or RHU®) designation have obtained:

  • Federal Regulation: Assisting clients with things like COBRA, HIPAA, and ERISA.
  • Individual Health Insurance: Providing health insurance consultation outside of the workplace (ie: individual and family plans).
  • Employer Self-Funding: Advanced knowledge about administration, the TPA environment, and stop-loss coverage.
  • Group Health Benefits: Planning and design of group health insurance programs, benefits structure, tax incentives, Section 125 cafeteria plan administration, etc.
  • Consumer Directed Healthcare: Explaining how Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), and High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) work together to help consumers retain funds.
  • Federal and Social Programs: A knowledge of things like OASDI (Social Security), Medicare, Medicaid, FEHBP (Federal Employees Health Benefits Program), TRICARE, etc.
  • Ancillary Benefits: Vision, dental, and hearing.
  • Voluntary Benefits: Hospital indemnity, accident indemnity, specified health event (critical illness), cancer indemnity, small face value term life (final expenses protection). Supplemental health insurance fits into this category.
  • Managed Care Organizations (MCO’s): PPO’s, HMO’s, POS plans, EPO plans, physician contracting, hospital contracting, accreditation, case management, disease management, managed behavioral health, performance based incentives, integrated health care delivery systems (IDS’s), hospital networks, physician networks, basic compensation of physicians, medical/surgical utilization, quality management.
  • Disability Income Insurance: Short term & long term disability.

As you can see, a Registered Health Underwriter® (RHU®) can be a valuable resource. These individuals have a wide variety of knowledge they can make available to you, to help you make good decisions when it comes to health benefits planning.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

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Insurance Brokerage Explained: An “Insurance Store”

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Hi, and welcome back to another blog post here at Policy Advantage Insurance Services. Today we’re explaining the concept of the insurance broker, and how a broker can benefit you as an individual or business.

As explained in one of our past blog posts: “5 Reasons to Give Yourself the Advantage,” we described the different ways that our clients can really benefit from the services of a health benefits broker. Your broker can be a very valuable asset.

So, instead of repeating what we went over in that blog post, we’re going to conceptualize the broker concept in this one. When we say conceptualize, we mean we’ll put it into everyday terms for you.

The first important thing to understand is the actual definition of “broker.” Here it is:

A broker is one that negotiates insurance contracts on behalf of the insured, therefore representing the client’s interest, not the insurer’s.

With that definition on-hand, you now understand that brokers are working in the interest of the client, and not the insurance companies. Two of the biggest goals of an insurance broker:

  1. Help the client save money.
  2. Help the client improve coverage.

If we can achieve both in a single case (whether at the individual or group level), we’ve hit a home run. It’s what we try to do for our clients every single time.

Now, we’ll move on to the conceptualization of the term “broker.” Our goal is to make it familiar to you, by comparing it to everyday things.

So, let’s keep it simple: a broker is really an “insurance store.” It’s just like any other store where you purchase goods or services.

For example, a sporting goods store will carry items from Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Louisville Slugger, Rawlings, and others for their customers to choose from. Or, a grocery store will carry items from Quaker Oats, Chiquita Bananas, Kellogg’s, Frito-Lay, and many other food brands. A customer goes to these stores, and shops for the items that they want.

An insurance broker is no different. Effectively, a brokerage is a place where customers can shop the different insurance brands like: Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, Aflac, HealthNet, and many others. There can also be accessibility to the new state health insurance exchanges (ie: Covered California) through brokers.

A brokerage is a place where selections can be made based on preferences like:

  1. Type of coverage.
  2. Cost of coverage.
  3. Network access.
  4. Coverage and costs that fit your business’ (or family’s) specific needs.

You’re able to “one-stop-shop” for the coverage that fits you best. An insurance brokerage customer also gets the added value of licensed professionals that can assist with specific questions when selecting coverage (persons with the RHU® or REBC® designations can also be very valuable to you).

Thanks for stopping by today, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

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Insurance Alphabet: Letter F

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F is for:

“Full Time Equivalent Employee”

Full Time Equivalent Employees (FTE): are employees who do not work full-time (defined as 30 or more hours per week) in your business or organization, but do count towards the full-time equivalent employee count. In other words, YES… part-time employees do count towards your overall employee grand total.

“Full Time Equivalent Employees” is extremely important because it is the sole factor in healthcare reform that determines which employers are mandated to provide health insurance coverage, and which employers are not mandated to provide health insurance coverage. Starting on January 1st, 2015, employers with 50 or more “full time equivalent employees” must provide adequate health insurance coverage to their employees, or face a tax penalty.

For additional detailed information about Full Time Equivalent Employees, please read this blog post.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

Word Press: http://www.policyadvantage.wordpress.com

Department of Labor: Insurance Exchange Notice to Employees

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Today’s blog post is about the insurance exchange notices that need to go out to employees of nearly all employer groups in the United States. The Department of Labor is calling this correspondence the “model notice.” It contains information about the upcoming health insurance marketplaces.

There are provisions in the healthcare reform bill that were designed to expand coverage and access beginning in 2014. Some of these provisions included the establishment of what are called state health insurance exchanges (or marketplaces). With these exchanges, premium tax-credits may assist qualified individuals or families in the payment of their health insurance premiums. As such, employers need to distribute notices to their employees about the coverage options available through the new marketplaces.

On January 1st, 2014 individuals and employees of small businesses will have access to a new individual private competitive health insurance market – the Health Insurance Marketplace. This marketplace will provide a “one stop shop” to find and compare private health insurance options. Open enrollment for the new health insurance exchanges begins on October 1st, 2013.

Section 1512 of the Affordable Care Act creates a new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) section 18B requiring a notice to employees of coverage options available through the Marketplace. You can find copies of the approved “model notices” here:

  1. Department of Labor “model notice” for employers that are currently offering health insurance coverage.
  2. Department of Labor “model notice” for employers that are not currently offering health insurance coverage.

Which employers must provide notice?

The FLSA section 18B requirement to provide a notice to employees of coverage options applies to employers to which the FLSA applies. In general, the FLSA applies to employers that employ one or more employees who are engaged in, or produce goods for, interstate commerce. For most firms, a test of not less than $500,000 in annual dollar volume of business applies. The FLSA also specifically covers the following entities: hospitals; institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education; and federal, state and local government agencies.

Which employees do I provide notice to?

Employers must provide a notice of coverage options to each employee, regardless of plan enrollment status (if applicable) or of part-time or full-time status. Employers are not required to provide a separate notice to dependents or other individuals who are or may become eligible for coverage under the plan but who are not employees.

When does the notice need to go out to employees?

With respect to employees who are current employees before October 1, 2013, employers are required to provide the notice no later than October 1, 2013. The notice is required to be provided automatically, free of charge. Employers are required to provide the notice to each new employee at the time of hiring beginning October 1, 2013. For 2014, the Department of Labor will consider a notice to be provided at the time of hiring, if the notice is provided within 14 days of an employee’s start date.

Again, you can find copies of the approved “model notices” here. There are two of them. One is for employers that are currently offering health insurance coverage, and one is for employers that are not currently providing health insurance coverage:

  1. Department of Labor “model notice” for employers that are currently offering health insurance coverage.
  2. Department of Labor “model notice” for employers that are not currently offering health insurance coverage.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

Word Press: http://www.policyadvantage.wordpress.com

Phrases Made Easy: “Minimum Essential Coverage”

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Welcome back to another edition of “Phrases Made Easy.” This series at our blog aims to help make all of those long, drawn-out insurance phrases easier to understand. One thing we notice when talking about health insurance (and health benefits in general) is that the concepts can be “wordy” and boring. We emphasize fixing that here!

Our biggest goal is to help you tune in, understand, and put this knowledge to work for yourself or your company. We’re firm believers that informed consumers can make a really, really big difference in our industry.

The phrase that we’re talking about today is minimum essential coverage. This one sounds difficult, but it’s really not too bad. We’ve selected this phrase for one primary reason:

  1. Under the healthcare reform law (Obamacare, ACA)… minimum essential coverage is: the type of health insurance coverage that is required to be held by most Americans (per the individual mandate), in order to avoid individual tax penalties. 

In other words… you need to find a place where you can find minimum essential coverage (or pay a tax penalty). It doesn’t matter how rich you are or poor you are, where you live, or what kind of job you have… the law states that nearly every single American citizen will need to find minimum essential coverage by January 1st, 2014. It’s just that simple.

There are a number of different places where you can find minimum essential coverage. Here are the majority of options available for most people:

  • Coverage under an “eligible employer-sponsored plan,” which the proposed Treasury rule defines generally to mean coverage under a group health plan, whether insured or self-insured, including coverage under a federal or non-federal governmental plan (keeping it simple: coverage through your employer).
  • Coverage under an employer-sponsored retiree health plan.
  • Coverage under certain government programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and TRICARE.
  • Coverage in the individual insurance market, including a plan offered by an Exchange** (if you’re in California, you’ll want to look at Covered California).
  • Other coverage recognized by HHS, including self-funded student health coverage and coverage under Medicare Advantage plans.

**Very important new concept to understand

Please note that coverage listed as “excepted benefits” (as defined by HIPAA) will not qualify as minimum essential coverage. IE: dental benefits, vision benefits, and FSAs will not qualify on their own.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

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Delayed: Employer Mandate (+50 FTE)

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Today’s blog post is about a change/delay in the healthcare reform law (Obamacare, ACA, the Affordable Care Act, or whatever you would like to call it). Last week, the White House announced that the “employer mandate” (ie: employers with 50 or more full time equivalent employees having to provide coverage) would be delayed until 2015.

The reason that this happened, is because many businesses had informed the Obama administration that they were greatly unprepared for this change to be implemented (citing administrative burdens, difficulties with technology, additional expenses, etc). As a result, the White House rolled-out a decision that the “employer mandate” would be delayed until 2015.

What does this mean?

  • Employers with +50 Full Time Equivalent Employees: You will not have to provide minimum essential coverage to employees by January 1st, 2014. This decision allows you to postpone your decision making (ie: pay or play) until January 1st, 2015 (one full year). If you are not currently providing health insurance coverage, you may have faced additional tax penalties. With this decision, you will have additional time to make your decisions about employee health benefits.
  • Employers with Less Than +50 Full Time Equivalent Employees: This recent determination has not changed your health benefits planning in any way. If you are currently providing health insurance to your employees, you can continue to do-so. If you are not currently providing health insurance to your employees, keep in mind that (as of now) the individual mandate is still in place, and your employees will need to find a way to find affordable health coverage (or face a tax penalty).

The Fallout:

  • Democrat/Liberal Interpretation: many employers with +50 FTE across the county are already currently offering health insurance coverage. Because the overwhelming majority of employers with 50 or more FTE are already offering health insurance, this is not much of a change, and will not affect the broad scope of healthcare reform overall. This is simply a means to allow those employers with 50 or more FTE to continue to make their necessary adjustments, with an extra year of time.
  • Republican/Conservative Interpretation: this is the beginning of many of the major “issues” for the healthcare reform bill (Obamacare). Many will argue that there is much potential for this bill to begin to “unravel,” and that the “train wreck” is yet to arrive. Additionally, be prepared to anticipate major changes as this bill is implemented (ie: will the individual mandate still hold up?).
  • Policy Advantage Insurance Services Interpretation: This decision gives employers with +50 FTE’s more time to make their decisions about whether-or-not to offer health insurance coverage. The healthcare reform bill was large and far-reaching legislation, and changes were anticipated. Be prepared for additional delays and changes along the way. There is no-doubt that this bill will continue to take shape as implementation moves forward. We will continue to stay up-to-date with changes… stay tuned, and keep informed.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

Word Press: http://www.policyadvantage.wordpress.com

Benefits Chalk Talk: Premium Only Plan (POP)

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Welcome back to another edition of “Benefits Chalk Talk.” In this series at our blog, we provide you with valuable, up-to-date, relevant information about health benefits planning so that you can put the things in place that make the most sense for yourself or your company. At Policy Advantage Insurance Services, we feel that informed consumers can make a really big difference in our industry.

Today we’re going to be talking about “Premium Only Plans” (POP). The big reason we want to talk about this concept, is because there are some significant tax advantages that can be utilized by employers when adopting this strategy.

The concept of the Premium Only Plan (or POP) really is very simple. It’s exactly what it says it is: it’s a program that allows employees of an organization to pay for certain insurance premiums tax-free through payroll. That’s all there is to it. This concept is allowed under Section 125 of the IRS code.

Example: John Doe is an employee at Acme Corp. Acme Corp offers it’s employees an opportunity to purchase individual health insurance policies pre-tax through a Section 125 Premium Only Plan (POP). So, John Doe purchases a $250/month individual plan from Cigna, and submits his claim through Acme Corp’s POP third party administrator. By doing so, John Doe is now paying for his $250 monthly premium on a pre-tax basis (ie: before the government takes their money), and then paying taxes only on his remaining income.

As you can see in the above example, by pre-taxing his individual insurance premiums through a Section 125 POP, John Doe can save a lot of money on taxes over the course of the year. His employer (Acme Corp) can also reduce their FICA/FUTA liability (by ~7.65%).

Here are some of the types of policies that can be purchased w/ a Premium Only Plan (POP):

  • Major medical individual health insurance premiums (health insurance)
  • Limited benefit individual health insurance premiums
  • Dental & Vision
  • Medicare Part A or B, Medicare HMO (however, Long Term Care policy premiums cannot be reimbursed through a POP plan)
  • Employer Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums (group plans)
  • Qualified Ancillary Premiums (Accident Plans, Cancer Plans)
  • Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement Premiums
  • COBRA Premiums

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

Word Press: http://www.policyadvantage.wordpress.com

Professional Designations: RHU® and REBC®

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This blog post is about helping people understand insurance professional designations. Sometimes you’ll see a group (or grouping) of letters after a person’s name who works in the insurance industry. In most cases, these are advanced licenses and continuing education. The professional you’ve chosen has decided to further their education in the line of business that he or she works in (“lines of business” = life insurance, health insurance, property insurance, etc).

Today we’re going to take a closer look at the source of two of them:

  1. Registered Health Underwriter® (RHU®):
  2. Registered Employee Benefits Consultant® (REBC®):

The reason we’ve chosen these two is because they deal specifically in the areas of health insurance and employee benefits. If you’ve kept up with our content here at Policy Advantage Insurance Services, you’ll know that these are the primary areas where we work.

Professionals with these designations can be an extremely valuable resource for you. These designations are robust. These are individuals that have:

  • Passed rigorous examinations (this isn’t just a Saturday conference at the Holiday Inn… we’re talking about hundreds of hours of study, days of proctored testing, where the material needs to be known cover-to-cover, and all finals are final).
  • Have met experience requirements.
  • Adhere to strict ethical standards (ie: providing advise in the interest of the client).

According to NAHU ( the National Association of Health Underwriters):

The Registered Health Underwriter® designation is the undisputed professional credential for persons involved in the sale and service of disability income and health insurance. Individuals earning the RHU designation demonstrate a high level of knowledge about the principles and practices governing the disability income and health insurance business.

Here are some additional facts and information about these professional designations:

  • The RHU® and REBC® designations are issued by the Solomon S. Huebner School at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
  • The American College is a regionally accredited institution (the highest level of accreditation in the United States).
  • The college offers several professional designations, two types of master’s degrees, and a PhD program.
  • It is a non-profit private school that was established in 1927.
  • Solomon S. Huebner (who founded The American College) was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1900’s, and was a pioneer in the insurance industry. For more/additional information about Huebner, click here.
  • Although the University of Pennsylvania and The American College are completely separate institutions, the University of Pennsylvania maintains the prestigious S.S. Huebner Foundation and Geneva Association.

As illustrated, these professional designations can be an extremely valuable asset for someone seeking advice and consultation in the areas of health insurance and employee benefits. You can count on the information that you receive to be valuable, up-to-date, relevant, and ethical. In future blog posts, we’ll describe the specific skill sets and detailed knowledge that holders of the RHU® and REBC® designations have.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

Home Page: https://policyadvantage.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PolicyAdvantage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PolicyAdvantage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PolicyAdvantage

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PolicyAdvantage

Word Press: http://www.policyadvantage.wordpress.com

5 Reasons to “Give Yourself the Advantage”

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There are a lot of great reasons to put a health benefits broker to work for yourself or your company these days. As health insurance planning (and the health benefits industry in general) continues to grow more complex… having an informed, knowledgeable, and up-to-date adviser on your team can be a really big advantage.

Here are 5 great reasons to “give yourself the advantage” today:

  1. Healthcare Reform is Fast Approaching: The major portions of healthcare reform (ObamaCare, ACA, the Affordable Care Act, or whatever you want to call it) are quickly approaching. We can’t emphasize this enough. Although it will take years to implement (and there will no-doubt be changes), you’ll want to make sure that you have a good understanding about what is coming up in 2014 (and beyond). Whether you’re an individual or business, if you “miss the boat,” it could end up costing you a lot of money. Contact us with questions today. **Update 1/1/2014: Healthcare reform is here.
  2. Health Insurance and Health Benefits are Complex: As the health insurance and health benefits “system” continues to grow larger, navigating this landscape can become an increasingly burdensome chore for the typical consumer. We’ve got great news for you: we know this industry well, and can help you navigate it. There’s not a better feeling than having an informed friend on your side, helping you with the ins-and-outs. Just check our growing list of customer testimonials.
  3. Save Money and Improve Coverage: Yes, you heard that right. Individuals and business owners take note: with just a few simple adjustments to your current program, you may be able to improve your coverage, and save money at the same time. How’s that for a home run? Having someone in your corner (who knows the industry well) can help you accomplish this. Consider it a “tune-up” for your health insurance program, free of charge. Example: a minor adjustment with a tax incentive here, then a simple adjustment to a physician network there… and boom. You’ve got better coverage at a cheaper price. Granted, improvement doesn’t happen every single time, but in many cases, it’s possible. Contact us to help you look it over.
  4. Valuable, Up-to-Date, Relevant Information: This is one of our big areas of emphasis at Policy Advantage Insurance Services. We know this industry changes. Sometimes quickly. We stay up-to-date with the information that we provide using a number of different strategies. The two big ones: A) Professional Designations (ie: the RHU®/Registered Health Underwriter® and REBC®/Registered Employee Benefits Consultant are the undisputed professional credentials in our industry). B) Information from our partnerships and affiliations (ie: insurance companies, third party administrators, and educational institutions). Companies like Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, United Healthcare, and others are constantly providing us with fresh information that we get out to our client base and readers. We take great pride in providing you with up-to-date info.
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  1. Insurance Company Choices and Options: With a broker, you don’t just choose from one insurance company, you get to choose from many. A broker is like an “insurance store.” This can be very important for a number of different reasons. Physician and hospital networks vary from insurance company to insurance company. Insurance premiums may also vary. The structure and the way that managed care organizations (or MCOs) operate  can also vary considerably. These are all good reasons why it’s a good idea to give yourself some choices when it comes to health insurance companies.

As you can see above, you can “give yourself the advantage” today. Our number one priority are our clients and customers, and helping you navigate the complex world of health insurance and health benefits.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

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