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Financial Incentives For Good Health

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I have a friend who is a physician’s assistant, and spent some time working for a city wellness program.  The plan was set up to help city employees improve their overall health, and in the process, get a discount on the health insurance premiums that were deducted from their paychecks.  I think this could be… Read more about Financial Incentives For Good Health

Separate Your HSA from Your Health Insurance

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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

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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

Wal-Mart Health Insurance Not That Bad

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Let me preface this post by saying that I am usually not too impressed with Wal-Mart. I think that their lowest-price-at-any-cost strategy is not the best long-range plan in terms of caring for our Earth and its inhabitants. The Wal-Mart news of the day is about their new super-low priced generic drug program. The news… Read more about Wal-Mart Health Insurance Not That Bad

Sending the Wrong Message To Our Kids About Health Insurance

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Recently, several states have passed laws increasing the age that children can stay on their parents’ health insurance policy.  The reasoning behind the change is sound: these days, it’s not as easy to get a job with health benefits as it used to be, since fewer employers offer coverage to employees.  So allowing young adults to remain on… Read more about Sending the Wrong Message To Our Kids About Health Insurance

Grand Rounds 2.52

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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

Preventative Care on Individual Health Insurance

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We’ve all heard the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, yet it often seems that most people ignore this advice.  Otherwise people would not be dying from smoking-related cancers and the plethora of illnesses caused by obesity.  It’s easy to say that these are personal problems and that people… Read more about Preventative Care on Individual Health Insurance

End of an Era

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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

Ultrasounds and pregnancy… too much of a good thing?

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There is no doubt that over the last few generations, vast amounts of research has been done in the area of obstetrics; modern medicine seems to be able to work miracles when it comes to the care and safety of high-risk mothers and babies, both during and after pregnancy. Babies born 3 months early have… Read more about Ultrasounds and pregnancy… too much of a good thing?

To Make a Short Story Long

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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?

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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

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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

Health Insurance – Another Reason to Quit Smoking

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In case you needed another reason to ditch your ashtray… Did you know that smokers pay more for their health insurance than non-smokers, if they have to get an individual/family policy? If you’re currently covered on a group plan through your employer, you may not have given this much thought over the years. But what… Read more about Health Insurance – Another Reason to Quit Smoking

Feelin Lucky? Read Cavalcade of Risk #8

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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

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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

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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

Health Insurance Is A Different Business

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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

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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

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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

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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.