Health Insurance Blog

Oxford Health Plan, owned by United Healthcare, has a great section on their website dedicated to men’s health.  Men’s top health concerns are addressed with simple and straightforward information.  The top concerns include heart, prostate, and brain health, diet, exercise, and stress management.

The main focus of men’s health is heart health since heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death for men (as well as women).  By maintaining a healthy heart men can prevent life threatening heart diseases sch as heart attacks, heart valve disease, congenital heart disease, strokes, and coronary artery disease.  It’s important to keep up with regular check ups to ensure your health is maintained and you know where you stand.

Men can lower their risk of heart failure by changing some common lifestyle practices.  Some of these include not smoking, eating a variety of fruits and veggies, staying away from high fat foods, staying within a healthy weight, and exercising regularly.  Even walking just 30 minutes a day can be very helpful to maintaining a healthy heart.  Keeping cholesterol and blood pressure numbers in check is extremely important as well.  Oxford Health Insurance strives to ensure their members are educated on how to stay heathy.  Check out their website fill of valuable information to learn more.

Vista Health Plans accepts applications from nonprofit groups for VISTA Community Grants Program.  According to their website, VISTA Community Grants Program supports charities whose programs contribute to improving health in the community in the following areas:

• Preventative health
• Health education
• Disease management
• Community health outreach
• Improving Health care services
• Controlling health care costs
• Getting more people insured

Medica Health Insurance offers its members a unique pregnancy program for their newly pregnant moms.  Their aim is to assist pregnant Medica members and their children achieve optimal health throughout their pregnancy.

Some examples of the Program’s goals include early and ongoing prenatal care, access to pregnancy information, case management by experienced nurses, early identification of high risk pregnancies, and comprehensive health for mom and baby.

Medica’s pregnancy nurses offer educational phone calls, informational mailings, community information for moms, and are available to answer any questions to put minds at ease.  The program may be part of the benefits package but they can enroll members up to 32 weeks gestation.  Their website also offers a Member’s Guide to a health pregnancy, as well as a recommended routine for a healthy pregnancy.

KPS Health Insurance has offered Medicare Supplement Plans for over 30 years.  They have many choices from affordable plans to discount programs for prescription drugs in addition to the freedom to choose your own providers without getting a referral from your primary care physician.  These types of programs are very valuable for senior citizens in America, but it’s important they do their homework.

To be eligible for a KPS Health Plan Medicare Supplement Program A, E or F you must be age 65 or older, enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B, and be a resident in the state of Washington.  They offer plan A which has a basic benefit structure which covers 20% of Medicare approved charges through Medicare Part B.

Plan E pays the Medicare Part A deductible and covers 20% of Medicare approved charges.  Then there is Plan F which is a comprehensive Medicare Supplement plan which pays both Medicare Part A and Part B deductibles in addition to 100% of the Part B excess.  Medicare supplement plan benefits do not vary from company to company, the costs do, so it’s worth your time to shop around and compare quotes.

As the economy struggles and health care costs rise, more and more employers are limiting or eliminating benefits through work according to the article “How Limited Benefit Plans Can Save You Money” by Chelan David found on sbonline.com.  Because of this the practice of offering small medical health plans is growing in popularity.

Limited benefit plans charge individuals as little as $50 per month for routine medical care.  They are designed to replace major medical coverage for those who cannot afford regular insurance.  Many companies offer such options such as Go Blue Florida.  Limited benefit plans have their pros and cons.  They are very inexpensive month to month but typically major medical costs are not covered.  Another con is that mental health care is not usually covered.

It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of going with the smaller plan like Go Blue Health Insurance, or the major plans through Blue Cross Blue Shield.  It depends on your health, lifestyle, dependents, age, and financial situation which plan will work best for you.

Geisinger Health Plan has announced that they will no longer screen visitors or restrict people from entering Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.  This is great news in terms of the virus and the threat it now poses.  The cases of H1N1 in the area is very low right now and an emergence of the regular seasonal flu has yet to be seen.

Entrances at GMC and GWV will reopen to the public and kids under 12 will be allowed to visit again.  Similar restrictions have been placed in hospitals and health systems throughout the country during the peaks of the H1N1 flu season.  The Cleveland Clinic restricted children from entering unnecessarily even if they did not have the flu.  All of this was done to limit the spread of the flu virus as much as reasonably possible.

Geisinger Health Insurance still encourages all visitors of their health system hospitals to screen themselves for flu like symptoms and stay home if they are under the weather.  Some symptoms to look for according to their website are fever, cough, headache, aching joints, and sore muscles.

Based solely on national market share, the “top”  (i.e. largest membership base) Medicare Supplement providers in the country in 2008-2009 were as follows:

1.  United Healthcare (driven by AARP contract) 29% market share

2.  Wellpoint  8%

3.  Mutual of Omaha 6%

4.  Health Care Services Corp.  5%

5.  Conseco 4%

As you can see, the five largest carriers account for 52% market share, and the remaining 48% is captured by dozens if not hundreds of smaller companies.

When Medicare Advantage and other Medicare products are factored into the mix, like prescription drug plans (PDP), the top four companies would be AARP, Humana, Wellpoint and Universal American respectively.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama has kept a close watch on the health care reform debate.  They fully support health care reform to improve medical care to all patients.  For over 70 years BCBSAL has tried to improve health care in Alabama.

Like many health insurance companies, BCBSAL has some concerns about some of the possible federal legislation that may pass.  They worry some of the proposals will have a negative impact on Alabama patients.  One example is the proposal that would create a new plan run by the government and could jeopardize access to coverage as well as affordability to the 160 million people receiving health benefits through their employers.

Another provision would make it possible for people to wait until they need medical care to purchase health insurance, which would make it more expensive for everyone paying in regularly.  It is still uncertain how the debate will pan out, but BCBSAL remains committed to earn the confidence of their customers and keep costs low for as many members as they can.

Humana Insurance announced in February that they will be cutting their workforce throughout the course of 2010 according to their website.  They will be dropping about 1400 positions, which is about 5%, throughout 2010.  They will be balancing 2500 job reductions with the addition of 1100 jobs in areas that are experiencing growth.  The job cuts will come from attrition, outsourcing, process efficiencies, and the elimination of positions.

Some of the areas experiencing growth right now are medicare cost containment capabilities, pharmacy management, and specialty products.  By growing these lucrative areas Humana can focus on saving money for their members and offering lower Humana insurance quotes.  Humana’s President and CEO Michael B. McCallister regrets the loss of jobs, but says it’s necessary for Humana growth.

All employees affected by this plan will have a 60-day notice period at Humana.  Human Resources plans on working closely with the affected employees to help them find internal positions or outplacement assistance.  Severance packages and continuation of health benefits will be offered.  It seems that no industry is safe from job cuts.

The five largest New Jersey health insurance companies and five physician groups have launched a pilot program to reduce administrative costs by allowing hospitals and physicians to communicate directly with health plans and address administrative tasks through a web portal.

The pilot is sponsored by AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.  If the pilot proves successful and can be rolled out nationally, representatives from AHIP believe hundreds of billions of dollars can be saved annually.

The participating health plans include:Aetna, Amerihealth, Horizon BCBS, CIGNA, and United Healthcare.
AHIP undertook a similar pilot with Ohio health plans in October.  That pilot program is still underway.