Colorado Health Insurance Insider

No-cost broker assistance.

You are here: Home / Archives for Jay Norris

About Jay Norris

Jay operates a health insurance brokerage in Colorado, where he helps individuals and small groups obtain and maintain health insurance coverage.
Complimenting his work as a health insurance broker, Jay is also a data analyst working to create visualizations that are easily understood by consumers and other stakeholders in Colorado’s health insurance market.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Recent posts by Jay Norris
~

Humana 2011 Rates Are Official

By

Clients in Colorado can now get quotes and apply for HumanaOne with effective dates of 1/1/2011 or later.  Remember, these will include maternity coverage as a base benefit.  Existing members with an Enhanced, Copay, HSA, or Value plan will receive these benefit changes at the time of their renewal. For clients who have an Autograph,… Read more about Humana 2011 Rates Are Official

Cigna 2011 Rates Are Live

By

Cigna is quoting 2011 rates on their online quote tool. And our quote comparison engine is being updated right now and will be quoting Cigna soon. Click through to the article for links.

Grand Rounds Submissions

By

We’re honored to be hosting the next Medical Grand Rounds on November 30th. Grand Rounds is a weekly gathering of the best health and medical articles written by doctors, nurses, students, patients, and others in health care related professions.

Please submit your favorite articles to Louise at louisen78 [at] gmail [dot] com before 10:00pm MST of November 29, 2010.

Please include the authors name, article title, url, and a brief description of the article.

This week, enjoy the first Grand Rounds to ever be hosted on Facebook by Amanda Brown DVM

Amendment 63 Defeated In Colorado Despite False Advertising

By

Three states had ballot initiatives this week that attempted to outlaw the mandate in the PPACA that requires everyone to have health insurance starting in 2014. Colorado was the only state that did not approve the measure. Voters in Colorado defeated Amendment 63, which would have made it illegal for the state of Colorado to force people to buy health insurance. Even if it had been approved by voters, it would have been a symbolic measure, as the mandate requiring all of us to have health insurance coverage as of 2014 is a federal law, and thus supersedes state laws. […]

CBS Story Leaves Out Important Options For Kids

By

[…] As I said, I have no knowledge of this particular family’s situation. But child-only policies have always been rare, and there is usually another option for those children to obtain coverage. They can be covered as a dependent on a parent’s policy (which can now include policies in the individual market), by Cover Colorado, or possibly by Medicaid or CHP+. Even situations like Thomas Wilkes, who was maxing out the lifetime caps, now has a solution because Healthcare Reform has removed lifetime maximums. There is a long way to go, and this situation is frustrating. But if you ever hear anybody say that they have no options to get their child covered in Colorado, please pass this information along. I hope that Mr. Serrano signs Maria up for some health insurance today, whether it is on a family policy with him, Cover Colorado, or CHP+. We should not be hearing anymore stories about uninsured children simply because their parents aren’t aware of the options available.

Quoting Blackout On Most Plans and Effective Dates

By

Many plans with most carriers still haven’t gotten the rates approved past 9/23. These plans with carriers like Anthem BCBS can still be quoted with effective dates of 9/22 and before.
Carriers like Cigna only have 1st and 15th of the month effective date options. Therefore, rates and plans are not being quoted at all until the DOI approves their rates. Hopefully any moment.
Make sure to subscribe via email or follow us on Facebook for rate approval updates.

UnitedHealthOne Erroneous Email

By

Yesterday, September 13th, UnitedHealthOne (Golden Rule) sent out an erroneous email to individual/family clients:

“Thank you for choosing a UnitedHealthOne Insurance plan. Payment is currently past due and your plan may be at risk of lapsing. In order to make a payment over the phone, please contact Client Services at 1-800-657-8205 or your broker […]”

If you call the client services number given, an automated message will play before the list of options:

“Please note, if you received an email on Monday about your premium, please disregard this as it is an error and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

IRS 2011 HSA Contribution Funding Limits

By

The IRS has just issued Revenue Procedure 2010-22, which outlines the 2011 cost-of-living contribution and coverage adjustments for HSAs, as mandated under Code Section 223(g). The limits for 2011 are unchanged from 2010.
HDHP Minimum Deductible:
You must still have coverage under an HSA-qualified “high deductible health insurance plan” (HDHP) to open and contribute to an HSA. Federal law still requires that in 2011 the health insurance deductible be at least […]

Dentists Overprescribing Antibiotics and Avoiding Health Care Reform

By

[…] MD Whistleblower had a couple good observations:
– Dentists prescribe prophylactic antibiotics (ATBs) with routine recklessness… Many dentists irrationally prescribe ATBs before teeth cleanings and other procedures.
– Not a syllable in the ~2000 page health care reform law that affects dentists.

Guest Blogger – Effects of Health Care Reform Legislation

By

[…] Carol indicated that it was the consensus of everyone she has talked with that $5 billion won’t come close to covering the cost of these high-risk pools in 50 states for four years. She and a number of other Medicaid commissioners are leaning away from expansion or development of new high-risk pools in their states, not for political or philosophical reasons, but because the pools don’t make economic sense. As the federal bill is written, if states don’t act, a federal high risk pool is to be created to fill essentially the same function.

Health Care Reform Should Be Federally Driven

By

[…] I feel fortunate to live in a state where we have a solid high risk pool (Cover Colorado) and lots of options for policies in both the individual and group market. But I can’t help but think of people who live in states where there aren’t any health insurance policies available to people who are sick and not covered by an employer’s plan. For them, health care reform on a state level has a long way to go, and might not happen at all.

How The Public Views Health Care Reform

By

[…] The people who are hurting the most are those who purchase their own health insurance, and people who work for very small businesses that struggle every month to continue to pay the premiums to keep their policies in force. These people make up a relatively small percentage of the population, and their voices are being drowned out by all the people who don’t have to deal with the issues being addressed by health care reform.

Colorado Division Of Insurance Reconsidering Anthem Rate Increase

By

[…] But these numbers would seem to indicate that while Anthem’s rate increase may have been large, it seems to be in line with what other carriers are charging in Colorado. For the little test I conducted, Anthem’s premium was the second-lowest I found, and the only one with a lower premium had an additional thousand dollars in out of pocket exposure.

Rush Limbaugh Advises His Listeners To Go Uninsured

By

There are plenty of valid complaints against the current health care reform bills. Those who say that the bills don’t do enough to address the root problem of ever-increasing health care costs have a very good point. But take it with a grain of salt when a multi-millionaire with the ability to pay cash for any medical treatment he might need rails against reform that might make medical care more affordable for average people and talks […]

Marketing in Disguise

By

I almost tossed it. But then I saw the notice across the front of the envelope: “Attention Rural Co-operative Members. You may now qualify for a Hospitalization Policy that helps pay outpatient expenses.” My curiosity was piqued, given the health insurance co-op ideas that have been tossed around this summer […]

Complaint Ratios Updated With 2008 Data

By

The Colorado Division of Insurance has finished compiling and organizing the data for 2008. Visit the Colorado Health Insurance Company Complaint Ratio Comparison page to see the updated complaint, revenue, and market share statistics from the division of insurance along with the A.M. Best Rating information we’ve added […]

Designing An Effective, Enforceable, Individual Mandate

By

[…] As readers of the Colorado Health Insurance Insider know, Insurance markets pool risk. An insurance system will only work if the exposures of low risk individuals are pooled together with the exposures of higher risk individuals. Life insurance, homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance; they all work the same way. If health insurers are required to offer guaranteed access without an effective mandate requiring all Americans to maintain coverage, there would be a clear disincentive for healthy people to secure or maintain coverage. […]

Only Two Health Insurance Options For Metro State Students

By

[…] But some students have done their own research and found an individual health insurance policy that better fits their needs and/or budget, and they would prefer to be given the option of keeping that policy. For those students, we feel that colleges should reconsider their waiver requirements and treat their students as adults who are capable of making their own decisions.

Huffington Post Digs Grand Rounds

By

Thanks to Alvaro Fernandez at Sharp Brains, the Huffington Post has cross posted the latest Grand Rounds. And the neat thing is that a Colorado Health Insurance Insider article is the first one mentioned (about the cost of treating the uninsured at Denver Health). Check it out.

Guest Blogger Writes About Health Care Reform

By

[…] Over half of all Americans have gone without needed health care (such as doctor visits, medications, and other treatments) due to cost. In most cases, it’s preventative care that suffers. That neglect leads to far higher costs for patients and society in the long run. In light of this study, many are calling for health care reform in the United States.