I remember as a child learning a new form of patience in a darkroom with rolls of film to be processed into individual pictures.  All the chemicals, the exposure of light sensitive paper, and the slow development of a picture from a vision to a permanent record to be admired.

God forbid someone turned on the light in the darkroom during this process, ruining all of the hard work.  Of course these days digital cameras have eliminated the painstaking process for most of us casual photographers.

The new healthcare reform law is much like that developed picture, slowly taking shape out of the unknown.  We have an idea of what the law intends, but much of the final regulations have yet to be written.   How does one make sense of it all, what takes effect when, and how will it affect policies now and in the future?

I could spend thousands of pages, somewhere around 2700, outlining what the law says, but the our government has taken it upon themselves to provide a medium to present this information.  HealthCare.gov is their portal to disseminate all of this information.   Recommended reading.

If you have any other questions or would like to hear it from a human being, give us a call here at IQ Risk.

Are you paying for benefits that you might not need?

I paid  premium monthly dues for a gym membership so I could have access to every single location that franchise maintained, all over the country.   How many of those did I frequent? One or maybe two, near my home and office.  Paying a lot of money for something that I only use minimally.  I went to their membership and asked if there was a way I could reduce my monthly cost but still maintain the benefit of being able to use the two locations.  They agreed, and I cut my dues by nearly 75%.

Consider your company’s group health insurance plan.  If you are like the majority, your group plan maintains benefits that cover everyone at a fairly good level; copay, coinsurance, deductible, etc. are at a level that would be considered reasonable out of pocket expense if you were a consistent user of your plan.

Now, consider that nearly 80% of the work force spend less than $1000.00 annually on their medical costs and many companies blindly spend a lot on premiums to have benefits that are not consistently used by all.  With rising costs of benefit being a primary concern of businesses today, with no end in sight, it would make sense to rethink how those benefits are in place.

With the use of a consumer driven health plan (CDHP) that is paired with a tax advantaged health savings account (HSA), both the company and the participants can benefit from cost savings both in premiums and taxes.  CDHPs allow consumers to better control their healthcare and costs by being more selective of providers and better shoppers for medical services.  Utilizing a higher deductible plan, the monthly premium savings can fund the HSA which can then use before tax dollars for out of pocket medical costs.

This strategy can reduce high premiums for low plan utilization, provide tax benefits for the company and participants, and allow more informed healthcare decisions.