Blue Cross Blue Shield

The Day Your Healthcare Died - Obamacare's Implosion in 2017

We will witness the death of Obamacare in 2017 as the ACA falls into its own death spiral

If "The Day the Music Died" as sung by Don McLean was when Buddy Holly crashed in a chartered airplane in 1959, we will be able to sing about a similar death of your health insurance that started in January of 2016.  Unfortunately, our healthcare system's death isn't one that will suddenly end in just one terrible event, our system's death will probably last several long and painful years.  The beginning of the end can be marked by Blue Cross Blue Shield's decision to terminate all PPO coverage for individual plans in Texas and replace it with a managed care HMO network.  Competitors of Blue Cross quickly followed suit, leaving Texans grasping at straws and hoping to find anything that could cover them with a large doctor and hospital network.  Unfortunately, many still don't understand how limited options are and won't until they need emergency health care.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act we've been writing that the law did nothing to control health care costs and thus was a waste of time and truthfully an effort to take people's money and subsidize others.  Oddly, things would have been better if the country would have simply offered free coverage to the poor rather than destroying the system that was actually working for many.  Now, we have a health insurance system that is offering small networks, higher deductibles, lower material benefits, and premiums that are almost 200% greater than just a few short years ago.  The worst part is that the pain is not over.  2017 will usher in a new set of significant actions that will further reduce choice, cost more, and result in an actual reduction in the number of insureds.

4 Days Left To Buy Health Insurance! 5 Facts You Need To Know To Finish Strong

The end of the Open Enrollment race - crossing the finish line

With only 4 days left in the 2015 Open Enrollment cycle the pace of calls into our offices has increased dramatically.  New clients and old friends that have never emailed or called us back suddenly want to talk about health insurance!  In order to help you in the final stressful days we wanted to provide you some key pieces of information to help you get your enrollment completed and finish this Open Enrollment marathon!

Your Coverage Terminated But It's Not Too Late! Insurers Create Exceptions

Post It Label saying to do a task now, but a procrastinator crossed it out to say, do it tomorrow

I had several clients and new friends call frantically on the January 1st as they realized that their time to elect a new health plan to replace their terminated Blue Cross plan had passed.  While they had almost 45 days to get these tasks completed, it isn't much of a secret that we all wish we could put off dealing with a health insurance search forever.  Unfortunately, we now have a new addition to the proverbial saying, "We can't put off death and taxes", we can now make it, "We can't put off death, taxes, or enrollment in an Affordable Care Act plan".  If you missed the January first deadline there is still hope.

Avoiding Health Insurance Pitfalls - 5 Simple Steps to Get Your Insurance Claim Paid

 

While many clients and friends have now signed up for coverage for 2015 many more are still dealing with the idea that their Blue Cross or Aetna coverage was terminated and they haven't found replacement coverage.  We can help you review the universe of health insurance options and determine which plans would be best for your family.  Contact Us today for quotes and analysis.

For years, Texas Health Design has educated clients to ensure that when they need coverage, they know exactly what to expect and what steps to take to ensure that they don't run into problems getting claims paid.  We often hear from new clients that their past experiences with health insurance companies have been terrible and we feel strongly that many of their issues result from a lack of understanding of their specific policy and a broader knowledge of "how things work" with insurance.  After working with insurance companies for more than a decade, we've seen random, crazy, and illogical denials, but more often, we see issues where clients fail to take simple steps to avoid problems.  The goal of this brief post is to ensure that we know basic steps to get the most out of our coverage.

5 Obamacare Surprises Coming in 2015

The end of the year is typically marked by trying to close business deals and get holiday preparations complete.  The last thing we want is a few suprises to interupt our plans or cause us to get distracted.  November 15th will bring the beginning of this year's Open Enrollment and all of Texas Health Design's existing clients will receive new quotes that provide a snapshot of all the plans and companies available for the coming year.  As we've begun our preparations to serve our clients we wanted to bring your attention to a few suprises that are in store for health insurance shoppers for the coming 2015 plan year.