Why Every Agent Should be Offering Level-Funded Health Plans to Their Clients

In today’s competitive healthcare landscape, businesses are constantly looking for cost-effective ways to offer quality health benefits.  Traditional fully insured plans often come with rising premiums, little transparency and no opportunity for cost savings, making it essential for agents to explore alternative solutions.  Level-funded health plans have emerged as a leading option, offering employers the cost predictability of a fully insured plan while providing the potential for savings if claims are lower than expected. As an agent, offering level-funded options is no longer just a value-add-it’s a necessity to remain competitive.  With more businesses seeking alternatives to traditional plans and more agents incorporating level-funded solutions into their portfolios, staying informed about these plans ensures you’re meeting client demands and standing out in the industry.  Here’s why level funding should be a key part of your group health strategy.     1. Cost Savings and Potential Refunds One of the biggest advantages of level-funded health plans is the potential for cost savings.  Unlike fully insured plans, where premiums are fixed and any unspent funds go straight to the insurance carrier, level-funded plans allow businesses to get money back if their claims [...]

2025-03-18T12:12:35-05:00Uncategorized|

Understanding Health Insurance Key Terms and Definitions

As an insurance agent, you know that the language of insurance can be full of complex terms that leave clients feeling confused. Whether it’s explaining "deductibles," "premiums," or "exclusions," these concepts can be overwhelming for someone without a background in the industry. In this blog, we’ll explore how you can use clear, simple explanations of common insurance terms to empower your clients. By breaking down these terms in a way they can understand, you’ll help them feel more confident in their decisions and build stronger, trust-based relationships. Let’s work together to make insurance less confusing and more approachable! Here are some terms and definitions that are helpful to share with your clients:     Allowed Amount - The maximum payment the plan will pay for a covered health care service. Health care providers are permitted to charge other than this amount. A network provider agrees to accept the allowed amount as payment in full. Appeal - A request that the health insurer or plan review a decision that denies a benefit or payment (either in whole or in part). Balance Billing - When a provider invoices the member for [...]

2025-03-05T14:26:47-06:00Uncategorized|

Blue Options/Blue Choice Options Plan Hospital Search

The Blue Options/Blue Choice Options plan continues to be a great option for groups to offer to their employees. However, one of the main concerns members have is if their hospital is in the Blue Options plan. To explore this, I tried an experiment to confirm if the hospitals in the large BCBS PPO network were all in the Blue Options plan. Using the BCBS IL provider finder:  I created a list of all hospitals within a 100 mile radius of 60173 in the large PPO network. 122 hospitals were listed. I clicked on the name of every hospital on the above list to see what networks were listed. Most showed Blue Options/Blue Choice Options as a network. For those hospitals that did not show the Blue Options/Blue Choice Options network, I individually checked under the Blue Options/Blue Choice Options network. All of the hospitals on this list showed the large PPO network. Every one of the hospitals on the list in item 4 showed they were Tier 2 in the Blue Options/Blue Choice Options network. Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Tier 2: Participating Provider Organization Advocate Lutheran General [...]

2021-06-15T21:46:10-05:00Uncategorized|

Streamline your BCBS IL group enrollment with DocuSign

BCBS IL and DocuSign   Imagine a world where all you need is your portable electronic device and you can complete the enrollment paperwork for a business to apply for a BCBS IL small group health plan.     Recently, BCBS IL presented the DocuSign enrollment tool to the staff at MIBS.   We were all impressed and played at being agents, sending out enrollment paperwork and filling it out too.  I was excited to see how easy and fast it actually was.   Each step of the process is designed to save time, increase accuracy of entered data and provide legible electronically signed documents to the group, the agent, and your MIBS CSR without printing forms, hand writing information, scanning or faxing. Ok, I know some of you will jump on this like, “Patty, tell me how!”   And there are those of my friends who will groan and sigh and say, “I can’t do that technology thing.”   Well, it really is not that hard. In an effort to make this as easy as possible, MIBS created a guide with step by step instructions on how to use Docusign.   You [...]

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