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A Lot!!! The goal of any health insurance plan should not just be protection from catastrophic medical costs.  Instead, the goal of health insurance should be control. Control over how you manage your health and how you afford the necessary treatment to optimize your health. Within the Affordable Care Act was the creation of a list …

Sometimes when we need care it’s because of an emergency.  In those situations, we always advise seeking care immediately. Fortunately, most of our health care is likely needed in a non-emergency situation.  It’s those times that we can work to make a good decision for our budget as well as our health.  There are several …

Large companies have utilized self-insurance to maximize the value of their group health insurance plans for many years.  By assuming more risk, large employers are able to reduce the cost because they are not paying an insurance company to take all the risk away from them.  A key challenge with traditional self-insurance is that claims …

A growing trend in health insurance plans is a movement toward more ‘Qualified High Deductible Health Plans’ or QHDHP.  A QHDHP is different from a more traditional type of policy.  In a qualified plan, the deductible needs to be met before the insurance benefit applies (excluding preventative care).  QHDHP typically have higher deductibles than you …

The Cadillac Tax is an interesting part of the Affordable Care Act.  It was added to the law in an effort to control healthcare spending in the future – implementation of the tax was delayed until 2018. What is it? The Cadillac Tax is an excise tax on deluxe health plans.  The tax is assessed on the …

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has forced consumers and business owners to become creative.  To maintain compliance with the law and at the same time find cost-effective solutions is the goal – and in pursuit of that goal, we now have some new tools. Self-Funding has traditionally been utilized by large companies …

Life gets busy, it’s easy to lose track of time. If you missed the 2014 open enrollment, your options are a bit limited, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t still have the opportunity to apply for coverage. While your options may be a bit limited in 2015, that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. …

Tax time is rarely synonymous with fun time for a lot of people.  A good number of individuals have an extra surprise hidden in their 2014 taxes – a tax for not having coverage in 2014.  Known as the ‘Shared Responsibility Payment,’ this could be an expensive surprise.  Especially since the Shared Responsibility Payment increases over …

Open Enrollment for individual health insurance ended on February 15.  Fortunately, outside of Open Enrollment, there are still opportunities to get covered with an individual policy if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period.  Here are some of the qualifying events that could create a Special Enrollment Period for you. These are not all of …

Group health insurance is a popular benefit.  If prospective employees are considering competing opportunities, the health insurance offered can definitely be a deciding factor.  While group health insurance is a great way to distinguish your company in the job market, it isn’t the only tool at your disposal.  If you currently have a health plan, …