Valuable Trends for Success in 2014

 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has become a reality, but employers are still trying to sort out what it all means. While healthcare.gov, the state exchanges, and some of the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) are operational, clients are still struggling to understand the options and continue searching for ways to provide sufficient, yet affordable health benefits for their workforces.  Of course, many other issues require resolution as the PPACA continues to roll out. The good news is that this creates opportunities for benefit professionals to offer clients alternatives in 2014. The following are four trends where we see great opportunities.

Self-funding

Self-funding for health insurance benefits continues to gain momentum in the small to mid-sized market. A self-funded insurance plan allows an employer to pay their employees' healthcare claims with its own funds; this differs from fully insured plans where the employer contracts with a health insurance company to cover its employees. Read More

Patients' Costs Skyrocket; Specialists' Incomes Soar

Kim Little had not thought much about the tiny white spot on the side of her cheek until a physician's assistant at her dermatologist's office warned that it might be cancerous. He took a biopsy, returning 15 minutes later to confirm the diagnosis and schedule her for an outpatient procedure at the Arkansas Skin Cancer Center in Little Rock, 30 miles away.

That was the prelude to a daylong medical odyssey several weeks later, through different private offices on the manicured campus at the Baptist Health Medical Center that involved a dermatologist, an anesthesiologist and an ophthalmologist who practices plastic surgery. It generated bills of more than $25,000. Read More