Georgia Health Insurance 411

Archive for March, 2009

Want free health care?

No, this is not a joke. Truly free for uninsured and those who have lost their job.

Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.

The charitable side of me says this is a great thing.

The cynic says, wonder how many folks will try to game the system and spoil it for everyone?

Hal Rosenbluth, chairman of the Take Care Health Systems division, described the plan as something close to an experiment: He said Walgreens isn’t sure of patient demand or how much providing the services might cost the company.

No doubt there is a cost that is being absorbed by Take Care. There is also the intangible good will from something like this.

You may recall Wal-Mart started the $4 generic thing and others have followed suit. This has been a win-win all around for consumer and the pharmacy’s offering discount generics.

Patients must present proof they are unemployed, including a federal or state unemployment determination letter and an unemployment check stub. They will have to sign a form at the clinic saying they have lost their jobs and health benefits. If they find a new job or get new health insurance, they will no longer be eligible for free care.

Spouses and children are also eligible for free services if they don’t have insurance of their own.

Medical lab operator Quest Diagnostics is participating in the program by offering free tests for step throat and urinary tract infections.

I think this is a good thing. I hope to see more companies take such a generous step.

Those who are uninsured in Georgia and looking for health insurance will be wise to check out our Resource page. Plans such as Georgia Core Health are low cost options for those who cannot qualify for traditional major medical. Georgia Core Health is a guaranteed acceptance plan . . . anyone qualifies.

Want to help children have access to health care?

Start smoking.

If you already smoke, pick up the pace.

Congress needs your help to fund the SCHIP program that provides government run health insurance for poor families who earn up to $44,000 per year.

While a tobacco tax is a politically popular funding source, it has several significant shortcomings:

A tobacco tax disproportionately burdens low-income Americans, lacks long-term stability, and ultimately results in significant shifting of health care costs onto others.

With the number of smokers already declining, a tobacco tax would further reduce the number of smokers, thereby eroding the funding source.

To produce the revenues that Congress needs to fund SCHIP expansion through such a tax would require 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.

The tax will be paid mostly by the folks it is intended to help  . . . “low income” and teens. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a MERP and what does it have to do with Georgia health insurance?

A long time client called the other day with the same question. He has a high deductible health plan with an HSA, but needed a way to extend his tax breaks beyond the limit of the HSA. A family member needed to have inpatient psychiatric care and the $5,000 monthly bill would stretch the limit of his HSA.

Someone had suggested a MERP so he called me for advice.

Frankly, MERP’s are something I have not used, or even thought about, for some time. The Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan (MERP) is allowed under Section 105 of the Internal Revenue Code. We helped clients set up quite a few MERP’s long before HSA’s and HRA’s came along.

So what is a MERP and how does it work with health insurance?

The MERP is a specialized bank account that is established by an employer for the purpose of reimbursing employees (and their dependents) for certain eligible medical expenses. We found several sites that provide information on MERP’s including the one here. We also located a sample MERP document as well as a MERP explanatory PDF.

If you are looking for Georgia health insurance rates and information on MERP’s you have found the right place.

Ever wonder about how dental plans work? For some, they work too well.

Many may not know it, but Medicaid covers dental care. This taxpayer funded program for low income people has pretty good benefits . . . if you can find a dentist willing to accept the low reimbursement levels.

In Georgia the number that seems most accurate hovers around 4% of dentists are willing to treat Medicaid patients.

Apparently there are some dentists in New York who are more than happy to treat Medicaid patients.

Earlier this year, auditors from the state comptroller’s office noticed that a Brooklyn dentist, Dr. Alan Zukor, had billed Medicaid for giving several patients fillings for all 32 of their teeth on a single day.

When they looked a little closer, they noticed that in several of the cases, Dr. Zukor had also submitted a claim for pulling those same teeth — all of them — from the same patients. The records seemed to show a bizarre and painful waste of dental care.

The bizarre part I get. It is the painful portion I don’t.

“The human mouth typically holds 32 teeth,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. “Billing Medicaid for filling and then pulling all 32 teeth from seven different patients within a few weeks should have raised a red flag.”

Red flag? Yes, you would think . . .

According to Mr. DiNapoli, in one instance, Dr. Zukor claimed he filled 30 teeth for one patient in two office visits. On a single day in January 2008, he claimed he filled 243 teeth for 18 patients; a month later, in February, he claimed he extracted 256 teeth from eight patients, or 32 teeth per patient.

Jewish people refer to this as Chutzpah.

I just call it incredibly stupid.

But apparently this is not the only N.Y. dentist who is creative in his Medicaid billing.

ALBANY, N.Y. Auditors say the state Medicaid program may have overpaid $2.9 million for services like teeth cleaning for toothless patients.

Do they floss too?

Auditors identified almost 22,000 questionable services for about 6,500 patients with dentures during the five-year period ending June 30, 2008. That included almost 1,500 dentists who billed Medicaid $863,000 for cleanings, fillings, extractions and X-rays for about 5,000 patients with full dentures.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

In case you are wondering, dental plans from Georgia Insurance Shop don’t work that way . . .

At Georgia Insurance Shop your information is never sold. You can review plans, quote and apply all on your own. You can also contact us with any questions.

Sounds easy, right?

What happens when you go online and end up on a site like 2insure4less? As soon as you submit your application, you get two or more instant quotes.

One is probably from eHealthinsurance. Another might be from NetQuote, GoHealth, InsureMe or any number of “trusted partners”.

Your phone will ring immediately . . . and continue to ring and ring and ring and . . .

Why?

Because your information was sold to as many as 6 agents.

But wait, there’s more! Read the rest of this entry »

Only this is of a different kind . . .

Read the resignation letter of Jake DeSantis all the way through. Then ask yourself this. If folks like Mr. DeSantis will not be around to try and turn around AIG, then how will we, the taxpayer, get back our $170,000,000,000 or so? Will Barney Frank and Chris Dodd step in to save the day?

Somehow I doubt it . . .

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

<snip>

Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

<snip>

I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

After trudging through deserts, swamps and steamy jungles for days, the troops were called to order and addressed by the Commander.

“We have good news, and we have bad news. First, the good news. Everyone get’s a change of underwear.”

Cheers go up from the crowd.

“Now, the bad news. Joe, you change with Sam. Sam, you change with Bill. Bill you change with . .”

USA Today is reporting that the health insurance industry is offering ” to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems.”

That’s the good news.

Now the bad news.

EVERYONE pays a higher premium. Based on what we see in states that prohibit medical underwriting, expect rates to be 200% – 300% higher. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first read this, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Can it be true that the Golden Gate (as in San Francisco) Restaurant Association has actually filed a suit to STOP the city from requiring employers to provide health insurance?

Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria said he’ll file a response to the emergency request by March 27 and said the court could rule that same day.

“I think their motion is frivolous,” Chhabria said. “GGRA’s goal of taking away health care from tens of thousands of workers does not constitute an emergency that would require immediate Supreme Court attention.”

This begs the question, which is more important? Job’s or health insurance.

Of course Chhabria is clearly not a regular reader of InsureBlog or else he would know that lack of health insurance is not the same as lack of health care. Plenty of people obtain health care without the benefit of health insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

First a confession. I am the poster child for the National Couch Potato Society.

Just ask my wife.

I don’t eat right, I rarely exercise. Most of my day (and much of the night) is spent on the phone with clients while staring at a computer screen.

I don’t smoke but I do enjoy a glass of wine on occasion. Sometimes I find two or three occasions to have some wine.

Genetics are on my side . . . at least that is my argument. Both sides of my family live well into their 80’s. My maternal grandmother lived to be 96 and most of her brothers & sisters lived to 90+.

The folks at GE Healthcare are offering up some interesting stats.

Here are just a few.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world; however, at least 80% of premature deaths from cardiovascular heart disease and strokes could be prevented.

Alcohol, cholesterol and tobacco are the main risk factors driving disease incidence; all 3 of them are controllable by patients.

According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. Mammography could potentially save 47,000 lives over a 14-year period in a population of 58 million women aged 40-74 (US study).

Follow the link above for the rest of the list.