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Archive for January, 2010

Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Cut Looms March 1st, 2010

Posted in CMS, News on January 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »

With Healthcare Reform stalled, there is still a major issue one month away. . .Physicians who see Medicare Patients, in the absence of Congressional Action, will see a 21% drop in their reimbursement starting March 1st, 2010. The fix is estimated to cost $210 Billion over 10 years.  Generally, Congress includes a fix for just [...]

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Geisinger Health System Announces its List of Participating Insurance Plans

Posted in Geisinger Health Plan, Pennsylvania on January 28, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Geisinger Health System is a Hospital System in Northeast PA.  On their website, they have listed the insurance plans which they will be accepting for 2010.

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Register Now for Insurance Product Training

Posted in About Ritter Insurance Marketing, All, Website on January 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Next week is a busy training week with national learning opportunities on the web and live training sessions in several states covering products from Single Premium Whole Life to Medicare Advantage to Cancer Insurance.  Registration is “one click” away at Ritter Insurance’s “Event’s Calendar”!  (You must be logged in to register!) Monday, 10am ET, Learn about Genworth’s Cancer [...]

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First 2010 Prediction Comes True

Posted in About Ritter Insurance Marketing on January 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

My #1 prediction for 2010 came true tonight!  It seems a little obvious now following the Massachusetts election of Scott Brown, but at the time, Brown was down double digits.  See the full list.

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Excepts from President Obama’s 2010 SOTU Address on Healthcare Reform

Posted in News on January 28, 2010 | 16 Comments »

There were a few paragraphs on Healthcare Reform in the President’s State of the Union Address tonight.  Although he didn’t lay out a clear direction, he loosely re-endorsed the Senate Bill (I bolded that section for emphasis).  Here are the relavent sections from the official transcript: Now let’s be clear – I did not choose [...]

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Update on Approvals for Modernized Medicare Supplement (Medigap) for June 1st, 2010 Effectives

Posted in All, Medicare Supplement, Medigap Modernization on January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Honestly, I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen more approvals coming through for the Modernized Medicare Supplement products.  To date, I haven’t seen an approval on the new plan designs (Plan M and Plan N). I have seen approvals on 27 states for the Mutual of Omaha companies (including Mutual of Omaha, United World and [...]

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Cigna Downgraded by Financial Analyst on Pricing Concerns on Private Fee for Service (PFFS) Product

Posted in 2010 MA Plans, All, Cigna, News on January 27, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Oppenheimer’s Stock Analyst, Carl MacDonald, downgraded Cigna’s stock to “Perform” from “Out-Perform” based on his belief that Cigna had “significantly underpriced” it’s Private Fee for Service (PFFS) product.  He noted that Cigna added 50,000 PFFS members in the first 3 weeks of annual enrollment and expected about 100,000 new members for the full year of [...]

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US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Delays 2010 Updated Guidelines for Federal Poverty Level

Posted in All, News on January 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Many of the qualifications for Extra Help paying for Medicare Part B premiums and Extra Help paying for Medicare Prescription Drug benefits are tied to HHS’ guidelines for the Federal Poverty level.  On January 22nd, HHS announced that it will not be releasing the 2010 FPL numbers until later this quarter. The 2009 FPL numbers [...]

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Next Steps for Health Care Reform, President Obama Signals Directional Change

Posted in News on January 21, 2010 | 6 Comments »

In an interview with George Stphananopoulos on ABC News, the President indicated more willingness to slim down health care reform to areas where there is bi-partisan support. The New York Times reported similarly, that the probable direction of Health Care Reform would be in a less comprehensive overhaul and more focused on key issues.

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Republican Scott Brown Wins Massachusetts Senate Seat; What this means for Healthcare Reform, Medicare and Medicare Advantage

Posted in News, Uncategorized on January 20, 2010 | 7 Comments »

In an improbable, almost impossible, upset, Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Special Election for the Senate Seat of the late Ted Kennedy.  Brown ran as a candidate who would become the 41st Senator to block the current health care reform bill.  So what’s next for Health Care reform (HCR) and how will this impact Medicare [...]

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