Do you know how important  one on one enrollments are for employer sponsored benefits?  Most employees who take part in these meetings feel that they understand their benefits better than they did before. Employers put a lot of time, effort, and money into their benefits and should do everything possible to get the most out of their investment.  Employees appreciate their benefits more (and properly use them) when they've had these face to face meetings.

We at Partners Insurance do this for all of our clients.  We feel that this is one of the most important aspects of our jobs.  If your employees don't understand their benefits, then how can we expect them to use them wisely? Educated employees make happy employees.

If you'd like this service for your company, please contact us today!

Source:
http://eba.benefitnews.com/news/employees-survey-colonial-life-benefits-counseling-advisers-2721786-1.html

On March 26, the Supreme Court will hear debates over the health reform law from the National Federation of Independent Business and the Obama administration for nearly 6 hours.  They expect a ruling in late June. The court ruling will cover four issues:

1. Whether the individual insurance requirement is constitutional.
2. If the individual mandate is found unconstitutional, whether severability should be applied.
3. Whether the Anti-Injunction Law applies.
4. And whether the medicaid expansion is constitutional.

Humana has written a wonderful, and very easy to understand, piece on this court hearing. Please visit their article at: http://app.humanaresponses.com/e/es.aspx?s=1579&e=15484&elq=a5668d04189d4c8088054617bbc1ff5a

Employers, do you want to save nearly $10k per employee over 5 years?

Of course you do!  The healthcare industry is finding that consumer-driven health plans are assisting employers in lowering their medical costs.

What are consumer-driven health plans?

CDHPs are a combination of pretax health savings accounts with a high deductible health plan.  They allow employees to pay for health services using pretax dollars.

How can you save using a CDHP, compared to a traditional PPO plan?

Employees generally:

• Lower their health risks by being more engaged in improving their health

• Are more likely to compare cost and quality of healthcare, making them more savvy consumers

Want to find out more?

Contact Partners Insurance today! Call 877-491-9279 or email us at mpile@mypartnersinsurance.com!

Sources

http://eba.benefitnews.com/news/workers-cdhp-risks-medical-costs-study-cigna-2722218-1.html

http://bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20101019ar01p1.htm

Every day, we get asked what medical tourism is.  Simply, medical tourism is travelling outside of your home area to obtain quality healthcare; it is also called health travel.  Many wrongly think that only international travel for health reasons is considered medical tourism.  There is a growing trend of domestic health travel in the United States.

Due to the current state of the economy, people are becoming smart shoppers when it comes to their healthcare needs.  We have frequently noted that people are calling around to see which dentist has the best rates for fillings or crowns or which facility has the best rates for CT scans and MRIs.  Not only does this faciliate the patient finding the best bang for their buck, but it also helps their employer keep insurance claims to a minimum, which in turn helps their employees afford the health insurance premiums each year.

We at Partners Insurance have implemented a program for employer sponsored self-funded health plans, called Partners Surgery Benefit Management Program.  We are focused on changing how and when healthcare is delivered in this era of consumer directed healthcare!

The program analyzes your historical claims spending and workforce characteristics, and then guides you, your actuary, and your reinsurer through the selection strategy for appropriate cases where the savings, safety, risk factors, and incidence frequency rates make sense to include them in your program.  This program is rooted in the long-established transplant center of excellence and rare disease programs that have been around for years.  To find out more, please contact Morgan Pile at mpile@mypartnersinsurance.com today!