Healthcare Subsidy May Help Unemployed Cover Healthcare Cost at Crucial Time

Lawmakers are scrambling to work out the kinks in the Financial Stimulus Plan. One of the plans focus has been on consumer healthcare cost and ways to insure healthcare for families in this economic crisis. Recent reports say all the details are not yet known as the house and senate work to finalize the plan, but the outcome should be good and released as soon as the end of March. The purpose of the COBRA subsidy is to help many Americans who are losing employment maintain coverage. The plan will provide as much as 21.4 billion in COBRA healthcare subsidies.

What does this mean for you?

If your recently lost your job and have been unable to secure new employment you will most likely be required to accept COBRA to maintain your personal or family employment health coverage. According to the new bill the government will subsidize somewhere between 50-65% of the premium. The length of the subsidy plan will run from 9 months to as long as 18 months. However single filers and married filers will lose eligibility at incomes over $125,000 and $250,000 respectively. Also of worthy research is what many A rated health carriers have designed for this purpose is temporary health insurance or also known as short term medical coverage. Short Term Medical Insurance is a form of health insurance that is typically used for covering gaps on permanent health insurance coverage. Temporary Health Insurance can be anywhere from for 1 to 12 months and most Temporary plans can be renewed. Temporary heath insurance plans are a smart way to protect you or your family members during an unemployment period.

Even if you locate new employment you may face a waiting period from 90 to 120 days for employer benefits. The same carriers that provide group health plans provide short-term medical insurance and individual plans including: Well care, Aetna, United Healthcare- Golden Rule, Humana , Blue Cross Blue Shield and Assurant health. Consumers can obtain many of the same features and benefits offered with permanent health plans such as co-pays, prescription drugs, choosing doctors, deductible options, hospital benefits, ambulance services, surgeries and transplants.

These features and services as well as cost will vary from one insurer to the other and should be reviewed. One interesting fact is if you had creditable coverage from an employer in the last 12 months you can qualify for short term medical by simply applying and answering a few simple health questions. These two options are important to the American public as statistics estimate unemployment rate approaching 10% many will find that health care cost will be the first expense they will let slide.

Christopher Beard is a specialist in helping people with insurance planning strategies. He is the president of Trinity 1 Financial Group and works with clients with planning insurance strategies visit his site at http://www.trinity1financialgroup.com

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If You Live in Ohio, What Do You Do If You Lose Your Job?

If you live in Ohio and have recently lost your job...you're not alone. The state has lost more than 260,000 jobs since 2000, 4.8 percent of all employment. The hardest hit areas have been Trumbull County, losing 20.5 percent of its jobs, and Montgomery County, losing 14.1% of its jobs.

President Barack Obama's health care initiatives are now facing delay, when Tom Daschle, who was chosen to head the initiative, suddenly withdrew his nomination for health secretary. Health care reform has taken a back seat to more pressing concerns...such as the ailing economy and bailing out auto manufacturers and some financial institutions.

If you find yourself out of a job, between jobs, or your employer is reducing your hours, your health insurance may be affected. In many cases, your current coverage extends for a few months (or less), and then the search for an affordable Ohio health insurance plan begins.

Cobra is one option. Under this program, Ohio workers laid off from companies with 20 or more employees can extend their employee-provided health insurance for 18 months. Of course...premiums are often extremely expensive and unaffordable. And with the current recession and no end in sight, Cobra's premiums are not a viable health insurance option for many Ohioians.

However, if you have no significant medical issues, such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease, you may qualify for an individual Ohio health insurance policy. The application process is simple and physicals are rarely required. The most popular Ohio companies are Anthem Blue Cross, UnitedHealthCare, Medical Mutual and Aetna.

For example, in Franklin County, a nonsmoking family of four (Parents-Age 40 & Children-Ages 8 & 10), with no medical issues, can buy a "catastrophic health" plan for $120 per month. A "comprehensive" plan, which offers many more coverages, including preventative benefits, would cost between $230 and $300 per month, depending on the major medical deductible.

Naturally, rates will be substantially less if only one person is insured. Also, existing medical conditions can raise the rate. With your own policy, your coverage is portable, so you may keep the policy as long as you want. Also...with individual coverage, unlike group coverage, your rate is not affected by a large amount of unhealthy persons in the group.

For additional information, feel free to email service@ohioquotes.com or visit http://www.ohioquotes.com

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Type 1 Diabetes and HMO Healthcare

Hello Ezine readers. So as many of you know, I am a Type 1 Diabetic. Last fall I was with PPO health insurance with Aetna and through an extraordinary amount of circumstances, was faced with almost $7,000 in deductibles alone. It was a nightmare.

After some calling around because I've only ever heard nightmares about HMO's, I was convinced to make the switch and give it a shot. Folks, if you have the choice between PPO or HMO and have ongoing health issues, I do NOT recommend HMO.

Here is what I've learned: From the start you must first pick a primary care physician from a list of approved doctors on your HMO website. I did my best to Google them and find out through their reviews and credentials who felt like the best match. That takes about two weeks for insurance to process. Once you have your approval you may then get yourself an appointment- another 1-3 weeks of waiting. Upon visiting my primary care physician I explained I needed regular visits with an endocrinologist to help manage diabetes with me. It was another three weeks before I was referred to Dr. Sawson Barakat in Tarzana and another week before I could see her and she was awful to me. I saw her and she refused to write a prescription for my insulin, handing me a bunch of free insulin that is not the kind I usually take. I told her the only problem was when I ran out I couldn't just go to the pharmacy, I'd have to get approval all over again, wait for an appt with her, then come in to get it and this was not a viable solution. She assured me I could just drop in for insulin any time.

So, six weeks later I was having a hard day, my insulin was not working and I was down to my last vial. The pharmacy, for legal reasons, could not call the doctor unless they had already had a prescription from her prior. Since she refused me a prescription when I first saw her, I called her begging her to call one in. Mind you my blood sugar was 490 and I had been taking shots all day. She said it was an office policy NOT to call the pharmacy, that they had to call her. 490 blood sugar by most standards is considered a medical emergency where you are in no condition to drive yourself to see your doctor who is 45 minutes away. But alas, she still refused. It was 36 hours of high blood sugar before I could convince a pharmacist to please call her.

Well that was six weeks ago and I've since requested another endocrinologist and have YET to receive approval thorugh insurance. So this entire time I've no reliable person I can go to for my insulin, test strips, or otherwise. All I can tell myself is I must be doing something wrong. But no, I've spoken with my Regal group representative who assures me this is the only way, that I myself cannot request another endocrinologist that my primary care physician must do it and that the delay is his fault.

If anyone has better resources let me know, but otherwise it's time to switch to PPO where I am treated like a human being and whose health comes before some ridiculous, power-struggle motivated policy that is against calling in prescriptions to a pharmacy in the case of a medical emergency.

My name is Dani Kelly. I work in Web Development, online marketing, Social Networking, Social Media, SEO, and more. But first and foremost, I am a writer; a journalist. I love to review our Los Angeles teams and am impassioned about finding the next artist to make it in our highly-critical pool of music fans. Check out my articles and get the latest reviews on how our teams have been doing, are doing, will be doing, etc.

Sometimes I play devils advocate, just to pose the questions. Sometimes I share with you my own, deeply personal view, and sometimes my work is entirely objective. My various writing styles will keep you guessing as to which ones. Have fun and I hope you enjoy some of my literary musings!

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The Healthcare Bottom-Line - Workers Pay More

A recently released study by the Kaiser Family Foundation examining trends in employer healthcare benefits recorded a 5% increase in healthcare premiums for 2008. Premiums for employer-provided plans now average $4,704 for a single-person and $12,680 for a family. These figures have increased by a staggering 119% since 1999. Yet, employers have not shouldered the entire burden of these rising costs. They have instead shifted costs off to their employees to the tune of a 117% increase in cost since 1999. Workers now pay, on average, $1,543 for single coverage and $3,354 for family coverage. Equally ominous is the fact that a broad survey of employers found that 40% of respondents expect to increase employee-contributions to all aspects of healthcare coverage in the coming year.

An even more frightening picture is painted when the numbers are examined more closely. The average payment made by a worker for a family plan has increased from $129 in 1999 to $280 in 2008. The squeeze on budgets also has a regional flavor with workers in the South paying a monthly charge of $313 for a family plan while workers in the Northeast are charged in average $246 (although a monthly charge for a single-plan of $75 for Northeast workers is the highest in the country). Employment sector and union status is another factor in the percentage a worker will be forced to pay with wholesale, retail and finance sector workers being asked to pay nearly 20% of single and nearly 30% of family premiums while federal/state/local government workers, who are generally represented by trade unions, pay only 12% for single and 21% for family.

Costs inside of plans have also increased sharply. Take for instance the charges by HMOs for visits to a physician's office. In 1999, 83% of plans charged a $10 co-pay or less. In 2008, nearly 70% of plans charge $15 or more. Things are even murkier when prescription drugs are considered. Tiering, or creating levels of cost for pharmaceuticals, was introduce en-masse in 2000. A scale of three tiers was employed initially. The first-tier cost of drugs has increased from $8 on average in 2000 to $10 in 2008. However, a fourth tier was introduced widely in 2004 priced at $59. This cost is now $75 and the third tier has increased from $29 in 2000 to $46 in 2008.

The end result of this squeeze is, not surprisingly, enormous profits for health insurance companies and serious pressure on the household budgets of workers. Health insurance giants Humana (18%), United Health (5%) and Aetna (8%) have all reported profit increases for the period from 2006 to 2008. CEOs for companies were well-rewarded with compensation packages which amounted to $10 million, $9 million and $23 million. Simultaneously, a 2005 study indicated that 50% of personal bankruptcy claims, more than 2 million, were based on debts incurred as a result of medical procedures. A correlation has also been made between healthcare and problems with housing including inability to pay rent or mortgage payments.

In sum, we see that healthcare is a serious class issue. The for-profit health system represents a serious financial drain on working-class households and is interlinked with, the now much publicized, problems in the home-loan mortgage markets. The creation of a single-payer national healthcare insurance is therefore the very definition of the term "bailout." The only difference, and this is a key difference in a society in which corporations monopolize political power, is that instead of the government purchasing worthless mortgage-backed securities, the entire society would be relieved of the financial stress of healthcare bills and psychological anxiety of a future where healthcare is not a guarantee.

Billy Wharton [http://counterhegemonic.blogspot.com/] Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Billy_Wharton

Aetna Dental Plan Review

Aetna is a popular name in the health care industry as they provide their members with great resources for various health care plans. They aim to serve the masses for all of their medical, pharmaceutical and other requirements. The product range is wide and features long-term care, behavioral, group-life and dental plans.

Aetna offers a number of dental insurance programs and products which cover both out and in-network plans. A member can expect huge savings from the dental savings plans. One of the popular Aetna dental plans is the "Dental Fund" which ensures cost effectiveness for the user.

There are several other options as well. You can expect to get a number of non-insurance dental programs as well. They can be availed by paying a minimum cost on yearly basis. These are discounted programs which is suitable for people from middle income groups. "Vital Savings" is one plan which is budget-friendly.

Many of the corporate employers select the dental programs from Aetna because they are excellent from all aspects. Those who availed these plans from their employers have only good things to talk about. There are numerous in-network dental surgeons and practicing dentists who prefer the Aetna dental plans.

A member can expect absolute flexibility from these plans at affordable cost which is the best feature of these insurance programs and products. The dental access network plans available from Aetna are specially designed for the families wherein they get to select from more than 68,000 dentists, all competent and experienced.

For the plans you can pay with easy installments on monthly basis which reduces the overall burden of the buyers. The individual plans can range from round about $8 to $80. The annual expenses can go up to about $100 for the family plans.

The special "dental access plans" from Aetna are not exactly similar to the regular dental insurances. Hence the price and total expenditure of these plans keep varying with the shops from where you purchase the medical products or services. If you would like to save on these plans you can refer to a service center that is cost-effective.

The various services included in the Aetna plans are cleaning for adults and children, bitewing x-rays, extraction of tooth, crowning, molar root canal treatment and overall routine check up for the denture and oral health. The fees and expense keep varying with the cities from where you are opting for the treatment. Hence the geographic region has an important role to play in the savings that you make from the Aetna dental plans.

The members are provided with an ID card showing which they can seek services from the dentists who are included in the dental programs. There is no guarantee that you will get in touch with a particular dentist. But there are many dental physicians and all of them have equal competence. Taking a dental insurance or plan from Aetna will be a great decision in itself which you will never repent.

Dental Plans is your source of all dental problems. For best Aetna Dental Plan packages, click on the links.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yachika_Verma

Dental Insurance Plans Don't Have To Cost A Fortune

Your most likely already aware that many Americans do not have dental coverage. It's not that they don't want it it's the cost. Hey if it was free or low in cost then everyone would have it. Everyone needs dental insurance for several key reasons. Not all of them are health related but they all matter. We use or teeth to eat with and that is a must. There are also more vain reasons as well. Like it or not our teeth play a big role in how we look and they do make a first impression on people.

Although the aetna dental insurance is not exactly one of the cheapest in the market today, it does have a lot of advantages over other dental insurance. This company has been around for a long time. With all the mergers going on now a days and medical companies joining together you can be fairly certain the Aetna will still be around a few years down the road. Because of how old this company I they have a huge network of dentists so no matter were you live you are sure to find a local dentist that you like. If you already have a preferred dentist then you should check with them to make sure they accept the Aetna Dental plans before making a final decision.

Aetna Dental Plans vs the competition

Aside from prompt and reliable service, the company also offers secured account access to their clients online. This makes it very easy to manage your policy and they even have a live chat so getting help on the fly is not a problem. The electronic service of the company allows you to submit claims online. For your convenience, the company also allows you to make real-time eligibility inquiries on the status of your claims. The overall cost of the plan is a little high then some. For the price it's worth it but you should still shop around and check out several companies and compare plans before you sign up for anything.

For more information on finding the right dental plan for your needs check out our Dental Insurance website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Erdei

Medical Billing Audit - Why Should Providers Audit Payers?

A Sacramento-area surgeon couldn't schedule surgeries for more than six months because his contract was not loaded in the insurer's computer system. More than 200 of Dr. Watson's patients received letters indicating incorrectly that he was no longer participating in the network. Watson lost about 25 percent of these patients and was not paid for about eight months. Another insured spent eleven months trying to get claims paid for his family, including an autistic child. The insurer never specified what information was needed to make the denied claims eligible for payment.

Are these three isolated incidents or are they three symptoms of a growing problem with the entire provider's reimbursement system? The owners of health care practices easily recognize these painfully familiar symptoms. The better questions are: how are they related to the rising healthcare costs and what can a provider do to help?

In 2005, national healthcare costs rose 6.9 percent - twice the rate of inflation, reaching $2 trillion. National healthcare costs are predicted to double to $4 trillion by 2015. While key health care cost factors include aging US population, the arrival of new and expensive drugs and bio-tech devices, and the defensive medicine, the insurance costs alone stand out as a key contributor to rising healthcare costs. Exorbitant executive compensation became a hallmark of healthcare insurance industry, where William McGuire, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, has reportedly received over $500 million since 1992, more than $1 billion worth of options, a lump sum payout of $6.4 million upon leaving the company, and an annual pension of $5.1 million. But such compensation can be easily justified on Wall Street, when comparing it to outstanding insurance industry profits, such as 38 percent growth in earnings in the 3rd quarter of 2006.

The problem for any successful insurance company is how to make such growth sustainable? This question is difficult because the premium growth (68.4 percent) has disproportionally outpaced both inflation (16.4 percent) and workers earnings (18.2 percent) during the same period (2001-2006), making it impossible to continue to rise the premiums without losing major segments of insured population.

Without the ability to attract new clients or to further raise insurance premiums, cost reduction becomes the next most important approach to enhance profitability. Such cost reduction can be done in a variety of ways, which we conveniently divide into strategic and tactical or opportunistic approaches.

Strategic insurer's arsenal

The creation of an oligopsony through consolidation is the main weapon in the strategic arsenal of insurance companies. Oligopsony exists when providers significantly outnumber buyers, enabling them to dictate prices. Take for example, the PacifiCare's $9.2 billion merger with United Health Group Inc. in late 2005, which created a vast network of HMO and PPO plans covering more than 3 million Californians. Today, three plans alone (UnitedHealthcare, WellPoint and Aetna) cover 77.7 million insured lives. Oligopsony allows the systematic and continuous cost reduction without extra investment, e.g., annual cut of allowed rates (such as the average reimbursement for E&M allowable dropped 10 percent in 2006 and another 6.5 percent in 2007), payment suspension for specific procedures (such as EKG tests for routine physicals), offering "all or none" participation alternatives, or the creation of "tiered networks" that profile providers and incentivize patients to see lower cost providers.

Tactical insurer's weapons

Increasing billing process complexity and inventing new denial reasons through arcane terminology, disparate data formats, and modifications of CPT/ICD codes and medical necessity rules - these are all examples of tactical methods designed to increase providers costs for both billing and follow up and reduce the payments at the expense of practice owners. These methods need continuous investment in personnel training, better process management, and improved technology to keep them effective as the providers begin building more sophisticated systems to scrub and analyze claims and discover payment discrepancies and irregularities.

Provider's Response

Returning to the three incidents mentioned at the outset of this article, the joint Department of Managed Health Care and Insurance Department determined that these are not isolated cases. It analyzed 1.1 million paid claims from June 2005 to May 2007 that covered about 190,000 members in PacifiCare's HMO plans and PPO coverage [Gilbert Chan , "PacifiCare fined record $3.5 million," http://www.sacbee.com , January 30, 2008] and discovered 30 percent of the HMO claims wrongly denied and 29 percent of the disputes with doctors were handled incorrectly. PacifiCare paid out over $1 million and was fined additional $3.5 million.

In summary, providers need new and effective approaches to mobilize both legal and organizational talent to reverse their revenue decline. Legal methods battle market conditions like oligopsony while large-scale medical billing networks aggregate claim volumes and create resulting economies of scale to enable analytical discovery of under-payments.

Know any health care providers who complain about shrinking insurance payments and increasing audit risk? Help them learn winning Internet strategies for the modern payer-provider conflict by steering them to www.BillingDynamix.com - Billing Service and Practice Management Software for Physical Therapy and Rehab Offices, home of "Practicing Profitability - Billing Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinics and Chiropractic Offices: Collections, Audit Risk, SOAP Notes, Scheduling, Care Plans, and Coding" book by Yuval Lirov, PhD and inventor of patents in artificial intelligence and computer security.

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