The next big thing has nothing to do with premiums or benefits. It’s all about the administration – specifically electronic enrollment. Electronic enrollment is the foundation for a host of e-services. While they share the same foundation, electronic enrollment means different things to employers and employees. Employee Benefits Your staff will benefit from online: Claims [...]
Does increased competition mean lower rates?
January 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
First off let me apologize. We put the blog on hold following the Holidays as we dedicated much of our time to catching up and and conducting a review of our internal processes. Just like exercising, it’s harder to start-up again than it is to maintain. So here we go with our first post of 2012. [...]
Announcing SBIS Referral Rewards
December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We live for referrals. It’s the lifeblood of every service business and ours is no exception. That’s why we started SBIS Referral Rewards. Here’s how it works: For every potential business customer you refer, we’ll give you a Starbuck’s gift card. For every referral who becomes a customer, we’ll give you a gift certificate to [...]
Participation Audits – You’ll Face One Sooner or Later
November 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
More common than ever before, a participation audit is how your carrier determines if you’re adhering to your contract. Specifically, they want to ensure you’re offering the program in a fair manner to all eligible employees. While participation audits don’t affect premiums, they can determine whether you’ll be offered renewal. Note that these are different [...]
Top 10 Money Saving Ideas
October 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
When we meet with potential clients, we immediately search for the big money savers. Sure, every client is unique, but many of the indicators are universal. Here are the top 10 things we look at: Plan Type – What type plan are you in? HMO, PPO or POS? If it’s a PPO or POS, why [...]
It’s Open Enrollment Time!
September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As we get closer to the end of the year you’ll hear more and more about Open Enrollment. What you’ll hear in the media is usually directed to Federal employees (or even employees of large corporations). While you’re likely part of a small or mid-sized organization, Open Enrollment is still important. Perhaps something you’re aware [...]
Give Your Employees Choices
August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
With health care costs on the rise and our economy struggling along, you may think it’s hard to offer additional options to your employees. By adding new choices to your benefit offerings, you can give the appearance of expanding your employees benefits while still keeping your costs in check. 2 Plans are Better than One For most [...]
Annual Out of Pocket Maximum. Your most important policy limit.
August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The last installment in our 5 part series, this post runs through your Annual out of Pocket Maximum. What is it? While the Annual Out of Pocket maximum has always been part of medical coverage policy limits, it’s been pretty well ignored. Up until recently, most plans didn’t involve extensive cost sharing – things like [...]
Coinsurance. Often misunderstood. Common in today’s plans.
August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Part 4 in our 5 part series, this post takes you through the ins and outs of coinsurance. What is Coinsurance? Coinsurance is that percentage often illustrated as 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, etc. The first number is what the insurance company pays. The second is the insured’s responsibility. Services that are subject to the deductible will [...]
Deductible. Well, technically it’s called first dollar coverage.
August 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Part 3 in our 5 part series, this presents everything you ever wanted to know about deductibles but were afraid to ask. How Deductibles Work A medical insurance deductible operates much like your auto insurance deductible. In each, the insured pays up to the deductible before the insurance benefit commences. That’s why it’s called “first [...]
