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Health Care Reform

New NRHA Health Care Program Offers Affordable Options

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Here’s a recent article published in the Hardware Retailing Magazine that features a combined effort with Custom Benefits Insurance Group Inc and North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA)!  For the full article please visit: www.hardwareretailingarchive.com/i/144798 (pg. 62)

About the NRHA Health Care Program
NRHA has teamed up with insurance agency Custom Benefits Insurance Group, Inc. to offer a source for affordable health care coverage. In its simplest form, the program offers participants increased purchasing power to obtain better choices of high-quality healthcare coverage at lower costs. Costs are lowered because small businesses can pool their risk.
The NRHA Health Care Program offers little additional administrative work; all the support tools often associated with fully insured carriers such as Capital, HighMark and HealthAmerica; built-in incentives to encourage healthy behavior by plan members; and a focus on “avoidable” claim conditions to reduce unnecessary treatment costs using wellness and risk management tools.
“Next year is such a huge year for small businesses in regards to health insurance coverage,” says Bob Chiesa, president of Custom Benefits Insurance Group. “I am concerned businesses are going to get caught off-guard and have to deal with the ramifications of not preparing. I think this program offers solutions on so many levels.”
Custom Benefits Insurance Group has extensive experience in the insurance industry and features a portfolio of clients spanning the country, including companies with as many as several thousand employees to as few as two.

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Shopping for Health Care Coverage?

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This article is from Blue Cross BlueShield – Anthem’s Blog

Americans are natural shoppers. We like to find the best deal on pretty much everything we buy — except our health care coverage. When it comes to health care, people don’t really think about looking for a good deal, and this can be costly for your company and your employees. To help keep costs under control, there are a few effective shopping tips that you can share with employees.slideshow_image_1

Use Online Shopping Tools

The Internet has made finding deals on health care coverage much easier. FAIR Health and Healthcare Bluebook list the average prices of medical services and procedures. Whenever your employees need treatment, recommend that they double-check the price with these websites to make sure they’re being treated fairly. Your health insurance provider may offer additional tools that show the price based on the discount they have negotiated with a specific doctor or hospital. Those tools may require employees to log in on the insurance copmany’s website to get the information.

Ask for Lower-Cost Options

There are ways to get the same quality health care coverage at a lower cost. Generic prescription drugs are one popular strategy. Let your employees know that they should always ask for generics when possible. Generics are exactly the same medicine but come at a fraction of the price, as detailed by the FDA.

Another useful tip is for when someone needs surgery: Your employees should ask if it’s possible to have the procedure at an outpatient facility so that it doesn’t require an overnight stay at the hospital. Once again, the results are the same, but this decision can save thousands.

Some employees may assume they should go to the emergency room if they have a medical need at night or over the weekend when their doctor’s office is closed. For certain medical needs, like a stomachache or a rash, it’s less expensive and often faster to get treatment at an urgent care center or retail health clinic.

Stay in the Network

Your health care plan will have a network of qualified providers. Most plans let your employees see out-of-network providers, but the costs will be higher. Often, people forget to check the network when their regular doctor refers them to see a specialist. Recommend that your employees double-check that the doctor is in-network before seeing a specialist so that they don’t get hit with an extra fee. If the specialist is out-of-network, the employees can ask to see an in-network specialist.

Complete Article: Making Health Care Reform Work Blog

Source: This article is from Blue Cross BlueShield – Anthem’s Blog By David Rodeck | April 8, 2015