Health Insurance Blog

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)

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.

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.

The UnitedHealth Group is now offering UnitedHealth Continuity, a policy for those that already have health insurance but are worried that they may lose it in the future. These people may be considering early retirement, or may fear unemployment and the resulting loss of health care coverage. Reed Abelson says in the New York Times that applicants must pass a medical review before being accepted. However, many individuals who have been unable to get insurance on their own are those with pre-existing conditions. The Continuity plan doesn’t seem to be helpful for them.

The UnitedHealth Continuity policy charges members 20% of the current health insurance premium to reserve the right to future coverage, and varies due to age, gender, location, and level of coverage selected. The monthly fee is also subject to increase in the future. There is also the danger of the plan becoming a costly high-risk pool that attracts people more likely to develop serious conditions.

Reed also speculates that proposed health care reforms from the incoming Obama administration include a requirement that private insurers offer individual health coverage to everyone, no matter the state of their health. That type of law would make the new UnitedHealth guarantee unnecessary. The president of UnitedHealth’s individual insurance unit, Richard A. Collins, claims that political wrangling and legislative delays make the Continuity plan viable, at least in the short term.

UnitedHealth Continuity is currently available in 25 states in which UnitedHealth already sells individual insurance. It believes that it will soon be able to offer the Continuity plan in 15 more states.

(Photo credit: Shahram Sharif under CC 2.0)

United HealthCare Group announced the introduction of new individual health insurance plans being offered by their subsidiary Golden Rule Insurance Company.  The New health plans will initially be available in a twenty state footprint*, with more states to be added in the future.  The plans will be marketed under the UnitedHealthOne brand.

The new health plans are designed to give the customer more choices and control over their health care spending.

Health insurance shoppers who enroll in these new plans will have

• new co-insurance and deductible choices
• a 24 month rate guarantee option
• preventative care for the HSA plan options
• a new HSA plan with direct billing options

* Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.

US News and World Report’s 2008 ranking of the top Illinois Health Insurance Plans are listed below.  Based on 1) consumer surveys and 2) success in preventing and treating illness compared with average plan.

1. PersonalCare Insurance of Illinois (conducting business exclusively in Illinois)
2. Health Alliance Medical Plans (Illinois, Iowa)
3. CIGNA Healthcare of St. Louis (Illinois, Missouri)
4. Medical Associates Health Plan (Illinois, Iowa)
5. United Healthcare plan of the River Valley (Illinois, Tennessee, Iowa, Virginia
6. OSF Health Plans (Illinois)
7. United Healthcare of the Midwest (Illinois, Kansas, Missouri)
8. United Healthcare of the Midlands (Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa)
9. CIGNA Healthcare of Illinois (Illinois, Indiana)
10. United Healthcare of Illinois (Illinois, Indiana)

You’ll notice, on this top 10 list, there are 4 distinct United Healthcare plans listed as well as 2 CIGNA health plans.  This generally results from various regional health plans being responsible for a service area that covers specific MSAs, or specific regions within a state or states.

Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna are noticably absent from this list

As promised we will be breaking the US News and World Report health plan rankings down into the state level, to account for differences in health plan regulations, and mandated benefits in each state which can skew results.

According to the report:

The top 10 Ohio Health Plans are:

1. Summacare
2. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio
3. Paramount Health Care
4. Medical Mutual of Ohio
5. CIGNA Healthcare of Ohio
6. The Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley
7. Aetna Health of Ohio
8. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio
9. UnitedHealthcare of Ohio
10. Humana Health Plan of Ohio

We will be posting the top 10 health plans in each state over the next several weeks (3-5 states per day), so check back frequently if you don’t see your states health insurance rankings listed yet.

Revamping the maligned US health care system was a focal point of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign, and he will now be tasked with making good on that promise amid a significant economic downturn.

Obama’s plan is to expand Government health programs as well as subsidize health insurance coverage for people who can’t afford it, and technology spending to computerize health records to save money.  This plan to fix the health care system is priority #2 behind only achieving energy independence through further developing alternative energy sources.

Many experts think that change will be incremental but not substantial right off the bat, with the focus on expanding existing programs that assist low-income families maintain health insurance for their families such as children’s health insurance programs, which currently subsidize health insurance for 6 million children across he country.  Expanding programs such as SCHIP and Medicaid would help the health insurers that run the plans, such as Wellpoint, and United HealthCare.  Alternatively, reducing reimburesements  to insurers for Medicare Advantage enrollees would hurt health insurance companies such as Humana and Aetna, who would likely make up the difference in the form of health insurance premiums and/or reduced benefits.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in a memo to health insurance companies that they have a plan to combat rapidly rising commissions paid out to insurance agents selling private Medicare Advantage plans.  Some health insurance companies are paying as much as $600 to an agent for an enrolled member. Three of the market leaders in selling Medicare Advantage plans include Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare.

Rules that CMS put in place Sept. 15 to prevent “churning” (encouraging customers to enroll in a different plan each year so the agent can receive a higher commission associated with the first year of enrollment in a health plan) have had the unintended consequence of increasing agent commissions across the board.

It appears as if new changes will be put in place to correct this problem next year as both Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, as well as Pete Stark, who chairs the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee have mentioned plans to cap commissions.  In addition, both Humana and UnitedHealth have weighed-in supporting CMS corrective action.

UnitedHealth Group announced that Ovations, their health and well-being company for seniors, is launching a new portfolio of Medicare Health Plans for 2009.

Ovations’ Medicare portfolio includes Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, Medicare Supplement insurance programs, and innovative special needs plans.

to find more information about the new medicare plans being offered by UnitedHealth Group, visit www.uhcmedicaresolutions.com