Insurance Broker Illinois » Group Health Insurance

Group Health Insurance Illinois Broker – Health Insurance Services Inc.

Insurance Broker — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:26:21 +0000

For many companies the ability to provide Illinois group health insurance to their employees is a huge benefit that hard workers will truly value especially if they have a family to take care of at home. However sometimes the task of setting up group health insurance in Illinois can be difficult for many new and smaller companies. Fortunately an Illinois group health insurance broker like Larry Smith from Health Insurance Services, Inc. can be readily and easily used to setup and administer such a program for any company desiring to provide health insurance to their valuable employees.

A reputable group health insurance broker in Illinois will normally answer any questions a company may have about providing health insurance to the members of their company. For instance did you know that a group health insurance plan will only cover full time employees? Your group health insurance broker is responsible for providing answers to questions similar in nature. In fact many health insurance companies define a full time worker or employee as someone that works a minimum of 30 hours a week at their place of employment.

Get an Illinois Group Health Insurance Quote

In order to qualify for group health insurance a company must have at least 2 full time employees on the payroll. Naturally more is better and an Illinois group health insurance broker like Health Insurance Services Inc. will advise a prospective company of facts just like this. Additionally at a minimum 50% or more of a company’s full time staff must enroll in the offered group health insurance and coverage provided by the company. There are additional rules and regulations to follow when it comes to adding dependants and newborn children to an existing health insurance plan that covers an individual as part of a group.

One of the best benefits a group health insurance broker like Health Insurance Services, Inc. can provide assistance to a company with is the proper administration of their health insurance policy. Generally speaking it normally takes about a week for a health insurance provider to review any group health care plans submitted by a company hoping to obtain health insurance for it’s workers. Sometimes this waiting period can drag on especially if there is a multitude of paperwork that needs to be completed in order to obtain the health coverage.

Clearly in the case such as the one mentioned above a knowledgeable group health insurance broker is worth their weight in gold as they can be tasked to properly prepare all of the administrative paperwork needed to complete the group health care coverage application. Their knowledge and expertise can also be used to handle or field any questions during the
insurance underwriting process which can sometimes be a very complex procedure.

As you can see the difficult process of setting up a group health insurance plan or coverage for the full time employees of a company can easily be managed and controlled with the helpful assistance of a group health insurance broker.

At Health Insurance Services Inc, our goal, our focus is on working with small business owners to find the group health insurance policy that fits your specific needs. Please Contact us today so we can talk with you about your business and help you find the health insurance policy that will meet all of your expectations.

Few want Illinois to run Illinois Health Care Exchange

Insurance Broker — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:23:54 +0000

There is a lot of talk about state run health insurance exchanges. Dont worry, private health insurance policies like Blue Cross & Humana are NOT going anywhere. If you read the post below you will see that nobody really knows how how the health care exchange in Illinois is going to work, not even the people in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD Illinois- Almost no one wants the state running Illinois new health care exchange.

Health care advocates, unions, doctors’ groups and business people testified in unison this past week before the Illinois Legislature’s rule-making body, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, that the state should have a limited role in running the health care exchanges, but they were divided on their reasons.

Each state must create an exchange where people can shop for and buy competitive health insurance plans, as required under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Each state can form its own exchange.

At its most basic, an exchange would be a marketplace, a one-stop shop. Some states are looking at online exchanges or physical exchanges or both, but no single model has emerged.

Various advocates supported the state establishing regulations for the exchange but not running its day-to-day operations. The groups included AARP, which represent senior citizens; Planned Parenthood, which speaks for women’s health issues; and labors unions, including the Service Employees International Union and United Food and Commercial Workers.

Laura Minzer, executive director of the Healthcare Council for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, one of the state’s largest business groups, said her organization was concerned about a proposal from the Illinois Department of Insurance that would give Gov. Pat Quinn the power to appoint most of the people who would oversee the health care exchanges.

“We have some concerns in terms of the appointments (to the exchange) being largely from the governor,” Minzer said. “We believe this should be separate and apart from the politics” of the state.

Minzer said politics is driving the decisions that will shape Illinois’ health care exchanges. Lawmakers are trying to figure out whom they will pay to create an exchange and how it will be run. And they want a plan by the end of the fall veto session in early November.

“We still don’t know what it is that we’re doing with the exchanges,” Minzer said last week. “We feel that this has to be tackled in a bigger way, and six days of sessions is not enough time to do that.”

State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said Illinois has to have an exchange up and running for federal approval by January 2013. If not, the federal government will impose its own exchange on the state. The exchange would start selling insurance in 2014.

“This is an immensely complex undertaking. It’s going to be expensive for somebody,” Harris said. “So there is a real caution not to make promises to folks now that we can’t keep if the ground changes underneath us.”

The ground is changing as challenges to the requirement in the federal health care law that would require everyone to buy health insurance make their way through the courts.

The U.S.. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld the mandate last year. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit struck down the mandate earlier this month. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments once the cases move through the appellate process.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return for the fall veto session from Oct. 25 to 27 and again from Nov. 8 to 10. The big question is, who really wants the state of Illinois part of their healthcare decisions.

Welcome to my Blog

Insurance Broker — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:51:48 +0000

Thank you for visiting my new website and blog.

If you’ve taken a few minutes to navigate through my website you noticed that my name is Larry Smith, President of Health Insurance Services, Inc. Over my 20 plus years of experience in the insurance field I have gained a wealth of knowledge in all aspects of health insurance, life insurance, group insurance, and medicare insurance. Throughout the years I have also gained a reasonable amount of knowledge about technology including the use of computers. Most of us seem to use computers now as part of our careers.

Ive had a website since I started Health Insurance Services back in 2002 and recently I had decided that it was time to update my company website. My goal was to create a website that contained helpful and informative information. I wanted to have a resource that my clients could use to learn more about insurance as well as the services we offer. You will find on my new site several informative downloads. I also wanted to update my ability to provide real time insurance quotes to my clients and prospective clients.

Most importantly I wanted a new website where I can regularly post updates and news regarding all the changes that are occurring in the insurance industry. As Im sure you have heard, there are many new changes on the way for health care. I get calls every day from my clients asking me about these changes. I hope you find my new website and blog to be an informative and useful tool. I plan on posting a wealth of informative posts to keep my clients up-to-date on all aspects of insurance that directly affects their lives.

If you have any questions at anytime, I welcome your phone call.