Health Insurance Blog

Reuters is reporting that Healthbase Online, a medical tourism facilitator, is engaged in a pilot program with Wellpoint to provide global health care coverage to Wellpoints members in Wisconsin.  Healthbase’s involvement in the pilot involves setting up all the medical & travel logistics.

Under the Wellpoint program, members who choose to have non-emergency elective procedures performed overseas, such as joint replacement, will have access to Joint Commission International accredited HealthCare providers in India.

The program would save members thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs.

As previosuly reported here in this blog, studies conducted by UCLA medical school have shown that patients who have procedures down overseas have a much greeater chance of experiencing complications or post-op infections.  Nonetheless there continues to be interest in the program in the name of saving money.  We will see if similar programs proliferate among other health insurance carriers, subsequent to this pilot program.

TradingMarkets.com reports that Aetna health insurance has made improvements to NYC Community Plan, its slate of health care offerings for small business owners and their employees. The plan, launched one year ago, is intended to make New York health insurance more accessible for groups that are traditionally underserved. It’s currently available in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens. Hopefully, Aetna will soon introduce similar products in other markets.

Changes to the plan include:

• unlimited generic pharmacy benefits in a calendar year
• discounts on branded medications
• lower co-payments for hospital visits

With cooperation from doctors, hospitals, and other providers, Aetna has actually managed to lower premiums of small business health insurance to as little as $243 per month!

(Photo credit: fergusonphotography under CC 2.0)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, the state’s largest health insurer, is under fire from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) due to its policies, according to CBS NewsChannel 5. PETA wants providers of Vermont health insurance to vary health insurance premiums based on an individual’s diet, charging meat-eaters higher rates and offering discounted rates to vegetarians and vegans. They claim that meat consumption is associated with diseases that end up raising insurance rates for everyone, but there is conflicting evidence of that.

Kevin Goddard, a vice president at BCBS Vermont, responds that state law does not allow insurance providers to vary rates based on factors including diet, age, gender, or medical history. However, the Vermont state legislator is now considering reforms that would allow insurers to offer different levels of premiums to individuals depending on their lifestyles; people who take better care of themselves health-wise (which is a comination of many different factors) would pay less.

Another way to save on your premiums is to get multiple health insurance quotes. You might be able to find a better deal, regardless of your eating habits!

(Photo credit: Derek Purdy under CC 2.0)

This is very interesting: Vita Reed in the Orange County Business Journal says that a subsidiary of UnitedHealthCare called Prescription Solutions, which manages pharmacy benefits, is planning on introducing an e-prescription service. They are partnering with SureScripts-RXHub to do so. UnitedHealth got the California-based company as part of its acquisition of PacifiCare in 2005.

I predict this service will become very popular over the next several years. Imagine not having to drop off your prescription, because your pharmacy already recieved it online before you even left your doctor’s office! (Not to mention avoiding the issue of handwriting quality.) This deal will make this benefit available to more consumers. Currently, just 2% of doctors have adopted the system, according to the Washington Post. If it’s provided by a health insurance company, they might be more likely to use the technology.

(Photo credit: d70focus under CC 2.0)

Aetna Health Insurance and BayCare Health Systems have resolved a contract dispute that would have reduced health care access for over 300,000 patients in the Tampa, Florida area. Stephen Nohlgren of the St. Petersburg Times says that if BayCare and Aetna didn’t settle their issues, Aetna insurance would no longer be accepted by BayCare hospitals after the current contract expires on December 31st. Patients would then have had to deal with the scary prospect of scrambling for new hospitals and doctors.

As of this Wednesday both parties have reached a 3-year agreement that will keep the BayCare hospitals in Aetna’s network, Stephen reports. BayCare owns most of the major hospitals in the Tampa/St. Petersburg region; most notably the Morton Plant, St. Joseph’s, Mease and St. Anthony’s hospitals. Details about the deal haven’t been released, but this agreement will surely lessen the year-end worries of some Tampa health insurance consumers.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) has annouced that they are extending their discounts for early enrollment discounts for their portfolio of Medicare Supplement Plans.

BCBSAZ’s discount program extensions increase the duration of the Medicare Supplement discounts from 5 to 10 years and raises the eligibilty age from 65 1/2 to 67 years old.  For example:

If an eligible senior enrolls in a BCBSAZ Medicare Supplement Plan at age 65 they will receive a 32% discount on the first year of premiums, a 28.8% discount on the first year of premiums for enrollment at age 66, and a 25.6% discount applicable to the first year of premiums for enrollment at age 67.

In addition, the discount amount decreases by 3.2% each year until the person reaches age 75 so long as the person is continuously enrolled in the plan.

The savings calculations are a bit confusing, but the net-net of it is,  seniors tend to stay with their health plans for a long period of time, so BCBSAZ is offering an innovative incentive to get them enrolled in their Medicare Supplement plans from the beginning of Medicare eligibility.

Golden Rule, a United HealthCare company, is offering a unique insurance product.  The plan allows workers, who fear that they might get laid-off and subsequently lose their employer-sponsored health coverage, to pay a fee in order to be covered by a Golden Rule health insurance policy in case they lose their job and become uninsured.

The cost savings for the member would come into play when the monthly premiums required to be covered by Golden Rule would be substantially less than health coverage from COBRA.

For Example, COBRA replacement coverage for a husband and wife could cost $500-$800 per month, whereas similar coverage via the Golden Rule health plan would cost $385 per month once enrolled + $77 per month now for the right to access the plan later.

The plan is called UnitedHealth Continuity.  It is currently available in 25 states, and over time, Golden Rule plans to make it available in all 40 states where they currently do business.

The cost savings seem pretty speculative unless you would expect to be on COBRA for several months.  If you didn’t get laid off, you would be spending $77 a month for nothing, although I guess that is what insurance is all about….peace of mind.

Women of child-bearing age (19 to 55 years old) pay more for health insurance than men, says Linda A. Firestone, Ph.D in the Sun-Sentinel. A typical woman’s policy includes maternity coverage, which accounts for the gender disparity in insurance rates. Since the majority of American adult women eventually have children, health insurance with maternity coverage makes sense for them–especially if there are pregnancy or birth complications.

Group health insurance plans (for example, those provided by employers) in Florida do not allow women to opt out of maternity coverage. If a woman does not plan to have children, she can choose to buy one of many individual health plans, which allow her to opt out of maternity coverage. In fact, many insurance providers (such as Humana), no longer offer maternity coverage in their plans. Insurance specialist Larry Wides says the cost savings from a group plan tend to cancel out the reduced premiums resulting from the elimination of maternity coverage.

Earlier this week, 6 health insurance companies in Florida signed contracts with the state to offer affordable health insurance to the uninsured in Florida.  The health insurance offerings vary, but in general are less than $100 per month.

The program championed by Florida Governor Charlie Christ is called Cover Florida, and will launch on January 5, 2009.  The plan was unanimously approved by the Florida Legislature and require no tax dollars to make it happen.

The six participating health insurers will offer 25 health plans options between them, and each with 2 different benefit levels (one focusing on catastrophic coverage & hospital coverage, and the other on preventive care).

Of the six health insurance companies only offerings by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida and United HealthCare are available in all 67 Florida counties.

In an interesting move, Highmark Blue Shield, has announced their plans to open two retail health insurance stores in Pennsylvania offering individual health insurance, as well as small business health plans, and senior health plans.

The stores called Highmark Direct will open in Pittsburgh and Mechanicsburg in March of 2009.

More information about Pennsylvania health insurance, and health insurance companies serving PA residents.