Travel Season Brings Sales Opportunities

We have entered travel season.  Most insureds are not aware of the medical insurance pitfalls that come with international travel.  Medicare is even a bigger pitfall in that there is NO overseas coverage.  Some Medicare Supplements will carry minimal riders providing a small level of coverage but may not be very comprehensive.  When traveling internationally, it is always a good idea to get an International Policy that provides multi lingual support.  In many cases, an International Policy can eliminate the need to prepay upfront and submit for reimbursement after you get home—after having all the bills translated and converted (at your cost).  Take a look at the enclosed link.  We can offer our brokers a similar personalized link that your potential clients can “self-serve” quote, enroll, and fulfill their policy all over the internet while you receive the full broker commission.  Call our office for details!

Personalized Link

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BCBSIL MSP Season Now Open for groups of 1-150.

BCBS requires all renewing groups to update their Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) data via Blue Access for Employers (BAE).  The link in groups’ BAE accounts became active on June 5^th, 2018 and will be live until September 4^th, 2018. 

Please see News from the Blues article for more details.

 

BCBSIL Extends Small Group (1-50) Transitional Policy Through 2019

BCBSIL will extend existing transitional policy plans for an additional year, through the end of groups’ 2019 plan years.

Following the recent announcements by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will be extending existing transitional policy plans for an additional year, through the end of groups’ 2019 plan years, including:

• Non-grandfathered (non-metallic) small group (1-50) plans with policy years beginning on or before Oct. 1, 2013.
  • Non-grandfathered plans are considered those issued after March 23, 2010, but before Jan. 1, 2014.

 

IRS recently announced the increase to the affordability threshold for ACA employer mandate pay or play

The IRS recently announced the increase to the affordability threshold for ACA employer mandate pay or play purposes to 9.86% for plan years beginning in 2019.  This is increased from 9.56% for 2018 plan years.

For a copy of Revenue Procedure 2018-34 please click on the link below:  

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-18-34.pdf

 

 

New BCBSIL Application Effective 4/1/18

BCBSIL has communicated in The News from the Blues that as of 4/1/18 they are no longer accepting the Illinois Standard Health Employee Application for new OR existing business. Please make sure you and your clients are using only the new form starting 4/1/18. The new form can be found on our website with the name of 2018 Employee Enrollment/Change Form.

At this time BCBSIL is still accepting the one page Enrollment Change Request Form to make any minor changes on a member’s account, but we do think in the future they will switch to the new form for all transactions.

As a reminder Group Administrators and brokers can process the application on Blue Access for Employers (BAE) in most instances. This would be a good time to help your willing clients better acquaint themselves with BAE.

Classroom Ethics Course

All Illinois resident producers are required to complete 24 hours of CE with 3 of those hours consisting of classroom ethics. Resource Brokerage, LLC will be holding an ethics classroom presentation that fulfills the state’s requirement. The program will consist of an in-depth discussion of ethics as they pertain to the independent insurance agent.

The program is designed to be interactive and the instructor encourages class attendees to participate in discussions of the different ethical/unethical scenarios that will be presented.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018     9:00am to Noon

Schaumburg Corporate Conference Center Conference Rooms A,B,C and D. 1501 E. Woodfield Road Schaumburg, IL 60173

RSVP below or via phone to Judy Wrigley: 847-598-0039

RSVP

Additional Details:

For brokers (or assistants) that have produced for us in the last two years, there is no charge IF REGISTERED IN ADVANCE. For all other interested individuals, a non-refundable $60 registration fee will be charged (exception: if you place a piece of business through our agency within 60 days of the seminar, the registration fee will be refunded to you).

Same day registration (subject to availability): $80 cash or check. No discounts will be honored for same day “walk ins”.

Webinar – Washington Update

Blair Farwell and Jennifer Clow just returned from spending three days on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC with the National Association of Health Underwriters. Resource Brokerage will be hosting a webinar to discuss:

Topics:

• Now that Repeal and Replace is no longer being pursued in Washington, what are the current legislative goals of our industry in order to stabilize markets?
• What are the real world incremental changes we can make to bring rate and market stability back to the health insurance markets?
• What should you as an insurance agent be doing now?
• What are the valuable talking points that you can discuss with your clients when they ask you, “What are the solutions?  What’s next?” for health insurance reform?
• What are the current potential threats to the health insurance market/industry that are being explored in Washington, DC as of today?

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 1:00pm-2:00pm
Thursday, March 22, 2018 10:00am-11:00am