Ritter Insurance Marketing

Posted in Humana, Insurance Companies, News | 6 Comments

6 Responses

1. on December 8, 2008 at 12:30 am | Reply Scott

   I like the comment that they expect to ad 300,000 members this year. Their captive agents better get going becauce all the independents are helping their current members find better plans.

   With comments that O’Tool made about how seniors are better served by captive clients and how they screwed us all with commissions, I don’t know of one independent agent writing any of their plans.

   I hope Humana goes down in flames!

   
   
2. on December 5, 2008 at 10:46 pm | Reply PREAM

   DOES ANY ONE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON WITH CITRUS HEALTH CARE IN FL THEY HAVENT PAID THE BROOKERS FOR 3 MONTHS NOW ,THERE IS NO ONE TO TALK TO
   HEALP

   
   
   • on December 5, 2008 at 11:43 pm | Reply Craig

     Pream:

     I think Citrus may have flamed out. They were paying $1,000/enrollment to the FMO (I’m not one) in 2008 with the GA getting $800. Many of these enrollments were promptly flipped after 3 months. I may have better options for you in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando. See https://ritterim.pbwiki.com/Coventry+Product+Vista-Summit

     Also, Aetna is looking like they are close to getting Lee Memorial in Lee county, they and Humana would be the only 2 who have Lee in network. Duval also looks very good for Aetna. https://ritterim.pbwiki.com/Aetna+State+Specific+Product+Info and click on Florida (password protected). E-mail me for password if you don’t have it.

     Vista has some very nice products in Miami/Dade, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie (ranked #1 by Healthmetrix, for what it’s worth).

     Not sure where you’re selling, and these companies are paying lower than what you might be used to, but I think they’ll be sticking around and paying commissions.

     
     
3. on December 5, 2008 at 10:31 pm | Reply Dan

   They’ll be the next ones with their hands out. Can someone tell me where to get in line? I’d love to pay my bills, this water & bread for supper every night is getting old!

   
   
4. on December 5, 2008 at 9:31 pm | Reply Brenda Jo

   Well now isn’t that special…?

   Quoted from the article (Sorry ALL OF US, some things I have to go long on

   “Over time, however, Humana expects to outsmart the pack…” Here is one of the problems, Humana thinks they can outsmart everyone, the pack, the client, CMS… please… Was their Enhanced PDP plan premium increase from $25.20 to $44.90 (with prefd brand RX going from $25 to $40) because it was justified or was it just them creating a driving force for clients to look at PPOs? Many standalone PDPs had huge increases this year and I find that disheartening to the people who are on MSAs or Med Supps as they are paying an inflated RX premium cost as companies drive market base to PPOs. Or at least it looks that way. I have a novel idea, let’s just encourage companies to produce good product…

   “To lure seniors, Humana has been offering juicy incentives…” A client just told me the other day that his Humana plan almost mirrored original Medicare when you look at the co-pays etc. and just had a bunch of extras, discount cards, vision, hearing, gym, etc.

   But in medical insurance when a customer looks for value, they want a good medical plan and if they get extras that’s great…

   In 2008 York Hospital a major hospital in our area takes the Humana Gold Choice PFFS but not the PPO. I have not checked for 2009 but they published a list of the plans that they will take and it shows Humana’s Gold Choice and not ChoicePPO, so I suspect that remains the same.

   Hearing the following “”We have a lot of headroom today between what we are paid and what we need to do,” from a company that caused most of the current regulations makes me SICK. I am now underpaid and overworked and they are putting out articles that state “We have a lot of headroom today…” Well being a small businessowner, why do we have to have a pay cut that goes no where but to the company. It’s not going back to the senior and it’s not going back to Medicare. It’s a new reg, caused by companies making everything an agent issue in anticipation of reimbursement cutbacks.

   Well I believe they are right on one thing — the writing has been on the wall in regards to managed care and the trend to go towards PPOs. Most of our clients are migrating towards PPO offerings now but they are going to solid PPO products, from good companies with good networks…

   For travelers, I would love to see a company come out with a National Network of Providers or a feature that would truly benefit snowbirds. It appears that Med Supps or low out-of-network is the best way to currently help those people.

   As far as agent training and certifying, I believe that the good companies will supply additional training to their agent force so that the ins and outs of the PPO products are better learned. Most certifying has to do with the regulations. That’s fine, but a hefty helping of product training where an agent is trained on all of the common things that customers ask, etc. would better serve the public.

   Thanks for sharing the article… I wouldn’t have run across it myself…

   
   
5. on December 5, 2008 at 7:08 pm | Reply Ken

   Every independent agent involved in the senior market had better pay attention to this prescient article.

   Here are my conclusions:
   (1) Good-bye PFFS.
   (2) Hello HMO and PPO.

   This, unfortunately, is NOT GOOD NEWS for cash-strapped seniors trying to keep their own dollars in their own pockets.