Ritter Insurance Marketing

Op/Ed From Tampa Bay Tribune

Craig — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:21:13 +0000

I found this Op/Ed on the “Finality” of Health Care Reform to be interesting. The Opinion entitled, “It won’t be over when it’s over”, portends that the Healthcare Debate may well continue for many years even if reform passes this week.

Senate Passes Comprehensive Jobs Bill; Bill Moves to the House

Craig — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:08:48 +0000

Business Week reported on the Jobs Bill Passed by the Senate Last week. Among other things, this bill would extend unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies and fix the Medicare Physicians Fee Schedule for an additional 7 months (April through October 2010).

The $138 Billion bill would add $97 Billion to the Deficit.

WH Press Secretary Gibbs: Health Care Reform Will Pass This Week

Craig — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:58:40 +0000

This comes from the Politico reporting on Sec. Gibbs appearance on Fox News Sunday.

The CBO Scoring of HR3590 was also released late last week. I could probably write pages and pages on this document. It amazes me how the government can issue reports like this with a “straight face” and probably explains why so few individuals with experience in the business world can make it in government.

One example:

The impact of the CLASS Act was broken out in the latest scoring (see page 26, Title VIII). According to CBO scoring, the CLASS Act provides a $70 Billion Benefit over 10 years. This is hilarious, frankly. Anyone who’s been around the LTC business knows that the liabilities on LTC obligations develop slowly, but when they come, they can be massive. A guaranteed issue LTC insurance program funded by the federal government will result in future liabilities which are many multiples of the revenues which are received in the early years of the program (maybe by a factor of 5-10?).

SNL Health Care
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Insurance Product Training – 03/15/2010 – 03/19/2010

Craig — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:11:33 +0000

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 Individual Insurance products. Registration is “one click” away at Ritter Insurance’s “Event’s Calendar”! (You must be logged in to register!)

Monday, Genworth Supplemental Continental Care webinar is available to all agents. United Healthcare OEP agent training is offered to GA agents in the Unite Healthcare office. Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, families and the self-employed seminar is offered to IL agents at Egg Harbor Cafe. Anthem BC/BS 2010 OEP broker webinar training is open to all agents.
Tuesday, Aetna is hosting a series of seminars to discuss their products to PA, IL, NJ, and CA agents. Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, families and the self-employed webinar is offered to CA agents. United Healthcare Evercare MP training seminar is open to AZ agents in their AZ office. Anthem BC/BS 2010 OEP broker webinar training is open to all agents. Baltimore Life Tele-sales training for Silver Guard products using INSpeed webinar is open to all agents.
Wednesday, Baltimore Life Generation Legacy Secure Solutions Single Premium Whole Life webinar is open to all agents. Molina Options Plus Special Needs Plan and MAPD webinar is open to OH agents. Aetna OEP sales strategies for individual Medicare plans seminar is open to NY agents. Aetna is also hosting a seminar for CA agent to discuss the Advantage Plans. Genworth senior supplement products seminar is open to IL agents.
Thursday, Aetna is hosting a series of seminars to discuss their products to OH and NJ agents. Aetna’s webinar is offered to CA agents. United Healthcare 2010 modernized AARP Medicare supplement sales launch webinar is offered to AR and ME agents. United Healthcare training seminar is open to AZ agents. Molina Options Plus Special Needs Plan and MAPD webinar is open to UT agents.
Friday, United Healthcare 2010 modernized AARP Medicare supplement sales launch webinar is offered to ID, MO, AK, AL, AZ, CO, DC, DE, IA, IL, IN, DY, MI, MS, MT, NE, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, RI, SC, SD, WV, and WY agents.

CMS Terminates Part D Contract with Fox Insurance

Craig — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:05:49 +0000

Here is the link from the CMS website announcing the termination.

In cases of Plan Terminations, the member gets a Special Election into a new plan. This can be a PDP or an MAPD. I have an explanation of this type of SEP here. Non-Renewals refer to when a MCO does not renew a particular plan (like what happened with many PFFS plans this past year). Terminations are treated the same way, however, a termination can happen at any time during the year.

This SEP will run until 5/1/2010. Remember, the SEP is only one election. Once it is used, the SEP ends. Any members who do not choose a new plan will be assigned to a plan with Humana.

Humana CEO Compensation Increases by 26 Percent to $6.5 million

Craig — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:58:42 +0000

This story is reported by the AP and I can already hear the talking points.

Granted $6.5 million is an incredible amount of money for one man to make in a year, but look at this in the context of “controlling health care costs.”

Michael McCallister’s salary is approximately 0.00021 of premium or 0.021%. By cutting Mr. McCallister’s salary to ZERO, a family paying $500/month for healthcare would see their premium reduced by 10 cents/month.

By contrast, assuming that premium tax is 2%, Humana paid about $600 million in premium taxes. Further, Humana paid $562 million in federal income taxes (up 62.6% in 2009 v 08). These two taxes are 179 times more than what McCallister made. (It’s actually more money than Humana’s stockholders made too.)

I’ll be waiting to hear about how Federal and State taxes are driving up the cost of Health Care!

Therapy Limits Still in Place Under Medicare

Craig — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:47:57 +0000

At some point, I think Congress will address this. This got put on the backburner behind the Medicare Physician’s Fee Schedule fix (which got kicked down the road one month with the latest $10 Billion Jobs Bill). At this point, there is still a $1,860 annual cap on Therapy under Original Medicare.

Here is an article which talks about the hard cap on Therapies.

Insurance Product Training – 03/08/2010 – 03/12/2010

Craig — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:17:59 +0000

Monday, Genworth will host a webinar training about Supplemental Nursing Home care for all states. United Healthcare will host a seminar to provide OEP training to GA agents. Aetna will host a seminar to discuss Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, family and self-employed. The seminar is open to IL agents.
Tuesday, Aetna will host a seminar to discuss Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, family and self-employed. The seminar is open to IL and CA agents. Aetna will present the seminar via the web to CA agents. Baltimore Life Tele-sales training is open to all agents via the web.
Wednesday, Baltimore Life Tele-sales training is open to all agents via the web. United Healthcare will host a seminar to provide broker training to CA agents. United Healthcare will also host a seminar to provide OEP training to GA agents. Molina Options plus Special Needs Plan and Molina Options MAPD seminar is open to UT agents. Aetna will host a seminar to discuss Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, family and self-employed. The seminar is open to MI, IL, NY and CA agents.
Thursday, United Healthcare will host a seminar to provide broker training to CA agents. United Healthcare will also host a seminar to provide OEP training to GA agents. United Healthcare 2010 Modernized AARP Medicare supplement sales launch will be discussed via the web to CA agents. Molina Options plus Special Needs Plan and Molina Options MAPD seminar is open to CA agents. Baltimore Life Tele-sales training is open to all agents via the web. Aetna will host a seminar to discuss Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, family and self-employed. The seminar is open to IL agents. California Intro to Aetna producer world website and consumer portal system will be discussed to CA agents via the web.
Friday, Aetna will host a seminar to discuss Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, family and self-employed. The seminar is open to TX agents. United Healthcare 2010 Modernized AARP Medicare supplement sales launch will be discussed via the web to AK, AL, AZ, CO, DC, DE, IA, IL, and IN agents.

New Modernized Medicare Supplements Available in Pennsylvania (PA) and California (CA)

Craig — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:24:56 +0000

New Modernized Medicare Supplement plans for June 1st, 2010 effective dates are now available in 2 more states: Pennsylvania and California.

To view the rates, you must be a licensed agent registered with Ritter Insurance Marketing. Registered agents can visit our Resources Page and follow these instructions:

For Pennslyvania:

Company: United World
State: PA
Product: Medicare Supplement
Resource: Rates

For California:

Company: Family Life
State: CA
Product: Medicare Supplement
Resource: Rates

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Posts a Profit of $12.6 Million in 2009

Craig — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:09:57 +0000

The profit was in spite of losses on individual business. Under 65 individual business posted a loss of $94 million and Over 65 MEDIGAP business posted a loss of $186 million.

The losses were offset by interest earnings on their investment portfolio and earnings in their group business.

The surplus currently stands at $2.56 Billion.

Here is the full story from the Detroit News.