He or she just hasn't told you yet. In a time before the double digit inflation of the 2000's, the life of a benefits broker was simple. Meet with your client once per year to discuss the renewal, note that the renewal increase was 5% or below, advise them to accept the increase, fill out the paperwork, and move on to the next one. At the very most, a benefits broker would "shop" the plan to other insurance companies to see if they could get a better rate. If they could get a

Recently, New Jersey has appeared on the national radar for some of the innovative strategies that have been launched. In particular, the integration and wide-spread use of Direct Primary Care and the use of an Online Auction to choose a PBM for the NJ State Plan, have been praised for increasing the quality of care and drastically lowering costs. It's not just recently, for years there have been strategies aimed at providing plan sponsors with affordable coverage. Purchasing

As a young entrepreneur, and not surprisingly, I want to see some big changes take place in the health insurance industry. In the age of the internet we have made incredible advancements, but it seems that in the area of health care and health insurance, we're worse off now than ever before. I'm not the only one that has made this observation. Around the country there are hundreds of consultants that feel the same way. United over a concern for the erosion of the middle class

"The drug-pricing system is completely broken" - Linda Cahn WHAT IS A PBM? Per PCMA, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) administer prescription drug plans for more than 266 million Americans who have health insurance from a variety of sponsors including: commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, union plans, Medicare Part D plans, the FEHBP, state government employee plans, Medicaid, and others. In short, drug manufacturers set prices and PBMs are a third party that

ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION Asymmetric information is present in an economic transaction when one party possesses greater material knowledge than the other party. Typically, this occurs when the seller of a good or service has greater knowledge than the buyer. Think of it this way, one party knows everything about a topic and the other side knows nothing or very little. As society continues to advance, we see more specialists that require years of training in order to understand t

Whether it's a branded product like The Difference Card, or an HRA from one of the many other Third Party Administrators, you need to be prepared to ask several crucial plan design questions: Who will be eligible to participate? As long as the HRA passes nondiscrimination testing, employers have flexiblity when it comes to eligibility. Will this be the new base plan? Will it be "opt out" or "opt in?" Is this the new base plan for new employees? Employees without tenure? What

In our previous posts, you may have seen that an HRA can save employees and employers 18% or more on their health insurance costs. Why then doesn't everyone implement an HRA? Well, there are few considerations to make before jumping in with both feet: Is your primary goal to save money on health care costs or to move toward an employee-driven health care decision? How is the relationship between the administration and the union? Working together to implement an HRA is crucial

As health care continues to stretch budgets and wallets, many are turning to innovative strategies for relief. Health Reimbursement Account's have been growing in popularity. Here's 5 reasons to choose an HRA: It saves you money. For individuals with few regular health expenses, paying a traditional health plan premium can feel like wasting money. HRAs are paired with lower cost health plans, meaning that less money is deducted from your paycheck. Employer funds it. An HRA is

"Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status" - Laurence J. Peter UPDATE: The ability to use the Difference Card in the SHBP/SEHBP has been questioned since it hit the NJ scene. We are receiving information that the Newark solution has been reversed. As shared on tapinto.net, here is the letter sent to the City of Newark. As always, check with your board attorney for details regarding your individual situation. In a previous post we

With a 13% increase to the School Employees' Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) for 1/1/2018 and Year 4 Chapter 78 employee contributions as high as 35%, there has never been a better time to consider alternatives to the same old way of doing health insurance. This is perhaps the reason that many New Jersey public entities are turning to a relatively new player in their market - The Difference Card. The Difference Card (both the name of the company and name of their premier prod