For those of us who can’t get enough information on personal finance, the Canadian Capitalist has over 50 articles in the Carnival of Personal Finance. My favorite entry was from InsureBlog about how important it is to choose the right health insurance policy. Mid-West National Insurance Company sells its limited benefit, hospital indemnity plans under… Read more about Who Likes Personal Finance?
Separate Your HSA from Your Health Insurance
All of the health insurance companies we work with in Colorado now offer HSA qualified high deductible health insurance plans (HDHP). After you’re approved for an HSA qualified HDHP with these companies, they’ll send you information and application information to sign up for a health savings account with a bank they work with. For example,… Read more about Separate Your HSA from Your Health Insurance
Humana Extends Contract with HCA-HealthONE in Colorado Through 2008
Good news for our clients with Humana health insurance. After it seemed that HCA was handing out unreasonable rate increases, Humana Inc. HUM announced today that its existing contract with HCA-HealthONE hospital and ancillary facilities has been extended from June 1, 2007 through May 31, 2008 for all Humana members throughout Colorado. “We have forged… Read more about Humana Extends Contract with HCA-HealthONE in Colorado Through 2008
How to Get Health Insurance for Jackasses
Jackass: Number Two hits theaters tonight and the first thing I think of when I watch that movie is “I hope they have good health insurance”. Johnny Knoxville said he was sure they were going to die while filming the Jackass sequel, so they asked studio execs to shell out $7 million in insurance coverage… Read more about How to Get Health Insurance for Jackasses
More on Sending the Wrong Message
– This post is expanding on our previous stories about the new laws allowing parents to keep their children as dependents on their health insurance until they’re 30. For various reasons, the 19 to 29 year old age bracket is the highest uninsured age bracket in the country. These laws were put into place in… Read more about More on Sending the Wrong Message
Grand Rounds 2.52
Tundra Medicine Dreams has posted the most beautiful Grand Rounds I’ve ever seen. It’s a great collection of healthcare related blog posts and includes Louise’s article on ultrasounds. Among some of my favorites: Tara Smith of Aetiology discusses the recent E. coli outbreak from packaged spinach, a recent study on the association between diet and Alzheimer’s at the… Read more about Grand Rounds 2.52
End of an Era
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado has come out with new non-group health insurance applications. On the previous applications, they only requested medical history information from the previous 5 years. This week, they increased that amount of time to 10 years “so the underwriting department can appropriately assess risk for certain medical conditions.” Now,… Read more about End of an Era
To Make a Short Story Long
In my last post, I discussed a survey from the Commonwealth Fund. It found that 89% of people who’ve sought health insurance in the last 3 years weren’t able to get anything – most of them couldn’t afford the premiums. I thought this sounded a little funny. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) shows conflicting information based on detailed… Read more about To Make a Short Story Long
Do We Expect Too Much from Health Insurance?
A recent study reports that out of 1,878 people age 19 to 64 polled by telephone, 89% of those who were seeking to buy health insurance in the last 3 years did not do so. “One in five people were turned down or charged a higher premium for individual insurance because of an existing medical condition…. Read more about Do We Expect Too Much from Health Insurance?
Why We Don’t Sell Discount Health Plans
A good reason that I sell health insurance for all of the top carriers in Colorado is because I’m not a very good “salesperson”. I understand the in’s and out’s of all of the different plans and all of the variables affecting coverage like stability of the companies, underwriting, and how they do rate increases. … Read more about Why We Don’t Sell Discount Health Plans
Feelin Lucky? Read Cavalcade of Risk #8
Proper risk management techniques can enhance anybody’s luck. Today, we have very informative articles to help us grasp proper implementation of each step of the risk management process. Wikipedia offers us more detail about the specifics of the process. After reading this article, you’ll have a better understanding of financial risk management, which “focuses on risks that… Read more about Feelin Lucky? Read Cavalcade of Risk #8
United Healthcare of Colorado on Out-of-Network Policy
I’ve been getting a few calls from people asking me about the article “When Choice of Doctor Drives Up Other Bills” in the New York Times yesterday. The article is about Irene Greco’s health insurance claim, who is insured by Oxford Health Plans in New York. She had her operation at a hospital that was… Read more about United Healthcare of Colorado on Out-of-Network Policy
More Help for Colorado Uninsured
CoverColorado Offers More Discounts Many people in Colorado go without health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition that prevents them from getting an individual/family policy. Individual plans are so inexpensive because they perform underwriting and won’t cover pre-existing conditions; they will also decline people with more serious health conditions. There are many of these people… Read more about More Help for Colorado Uninsured
Cavalcade of Risk coming on Wednesday
On Wednesday, we will be highlighting some of the best blog posts about risk in the Cavalcade of Risk. If you know of any good blog posts about risk, submissions are due Wednesday morning by 8am. For more information on how to submit a post, visit the C of R page. And if you haven’t done… Read more about Cavalcade of Risk coming on Wednesday
Women Are A Better Risk
I think that guy in the pink shirt knows the guy on the bike isn’t gonna make it!!
Health Insurance Is A Different Business
United Healthcare let their contract lapse with HealthOne because they wanted to “keep premiums affordable”. “We still feel as strongly as ever that if we accepted a rate increase they are asking for, that would be directly opposed to our objective of making health insurance affordable in metro Denver.” Even a single-digit increase “will price… Read more about Health Insurance Is A Different Business
Caz Matthews Comes Back to Denver
Caz Matthews led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado as President from 1999 to 2005. In that time, she turned around the company from having unorganized customer service and a sinking financial outlook. After the merger of Anthem Inc. and WellPoint, Caz left Colorado to lead Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia; which was… Read more about Caz Matthews Comes Back to Denver
Help With Excluded Medications
In the last few days, I’ve had a large number of people sign up for underwritten individual/family policies knowing they’re going to have an exclusion on a medication they’re currently taking. They would pay 2 to 5x more in premiums compared to the cost of the medication to get a guarantee issue “group” policy like Cover Colorado. … Read more about Help With Excluded Medications
We’ve Moved From Blogspot
We’ve moved the Colorado Health Insurance Insider from Blogspot to our own server so we can have more control over the content of the blog an make it a more enjoyable experience. You’ll still be able to see our previous blog posts from August 9, 2006 through September 7, 2006 at healthinsurance-colorado.blogspot.com.