Coventry MSA help...

[Dowejonez]

Anyone know of the availability of Coventry MSA product for 2009. My office knew nothing of the product. Coventry shows supplies as being available but mine were backordered.

I'm having my doubts they have rolled it out for 2009. I did certify for it. You know how Coventry is....one hand doesn't watch the other. It used to show up on the Med.gov engine as being available but that was about October and I'm not seeing it come up now.

Anyone have any thoughts?

....and one more thing....I'm assuming Coventry BO'd their MAPD and RX kits everywhere....not just in Iowa....right? There must have been a printing problem with it, is all I can think of.

 

[scottfree]

Anyone know of the availability of Coventry MSA product for 2009. My office knew nothing of the product. Coventry shows supplies as being available but mine were backordered.

I'm having my doubts they have rolled it out for 2009. I did certify for it. You know how Coventry is....one hand doesn't watch the other. It used to show up on the Med.gov engine as being available but that was about October and I'm not seeing it come up now.

Anyone have any thoughts?

....and one more thing....I'm assuming Coventry BO'd their MAPD and RX kits everywhere....not just in Iowa....right? There must have been a printing problem with it, is all I can think of.

I just looked on the Medicare website and it does show up. Make sure you don't look for plans with Rx since it is not included with the MSA. At least not in my area.

I have not recieved my MSA kits yet but have gotten a couple of boxes of MAPD and Rx kits. I do have an order coming tomorrow just not sure what is coming but believe it is Rx kits. I am in Arkansas and MAPD is the 1-3-5-7 kit.

I hope I get the MSA kit soon, I have clients that like the idea.

 

[Dowejonez]

IMHO the best placement of the product is the young and restless...I mean young and healthy ones.

Well... thanks Scott for the backup info. Sometimes with Coventry I'm not sure if their info is 2008 or 2009.

The problem with the MSA is people will possibly compromise their health like Under65 HSA's and not go to the Dr...to save a buck.

I have a feeling it is going to pay a crappy commission. Maybe I'll tell them anything left over at the end of the year out of their $1250 is to be split with the writing agent.

 

[scottfree]

I have a feeling it is going to pay a crappy commission. Maybe I'll tell them anything left over at the end of the year out of their $1250 is to be split with the writing agent.

Actually it pays the same as a PFFS plan.

$500 / $250

I have several well off clients coming off group that very healthy and are interested in this plan. In my area it is a $2750 deductable with the $1250 deposit. $1400 max out of pocket basically and they can afford that if something did happen.

 

[retread]

Anyone know of the availability of Coventry MSA product for 2009. My office knew nothing of the product. Coventry shows supplies as being available but mine were backordered.

I'm having my doubts they have rolled it out for 2009. I did certify for it. You know how Coventry is....one hand doesn't watch the other. It used to show up on the Med.gov engine as being available but that was about October and I'm not seeing it come up now.

Anyone have any thoughts?

....and one more thing....I'm assuming Coventry BO'd their MAPD and RX kits everywhere....not just in Iowa....right? There must have been a printing problem with it, is all I can think of.

I ordered kits 1,2, and 3 in early November. Kit 1 came with 2 and 3 backordered... then a week later the rest came.

RR Donnelley is the printer... maybe it's them.
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Keep in mind that, like PDPs, MSAs can only be enrolled during the AEP (and you also need a PDP to go along with them because no MSA includes Rx).

MSAs are a good alternative to Med Sups, and should be attractive to that market. They will not sell well to the under $50K bunch. For those in that bracket that go this route, they need to know they MUST get their health care through a HDHP, and (like it has been suggested) may scrimp on getting health care to save $$. That's not a good thing.

 

[Dowejonez]

I finally got the kits for the counties I needed the most. Having looked at the Sum of Benfts I am pumped. I had figured the client would pay full cost of say ...a Dr. visit. NO... they pay $0. I had pictured using the first $1250 up in no time at all.

The perfect fit is the guy who doesn't want a PDP and uses a supplement. In fact...at this years Rx plan prices....if they don't take anything (prescriptions)...just dump the Rx plan while you have the MSA. Without doing the math, I'm sure you'd be money ahead to just take the penalty for a year or two. If this same structure for drug plans is around in 5 years I'd be shocked.

As far as what income level they are suited for, I guess for a certain few...as long as they know worst case scenario....a money challenged prospect might be better off. The $1450 cap looks pretty good this year.

 

[GreenSky]

The one warning about MSA plans is that Anthem came out with them about 2 years ago. They have been discontinued.

It's not that they don't make sense, they were impossible for providers to bill correctly. The concept is great; the execution is terrible.

Rick

 

[Dowejonez]

Thanks Rick. Unicare had one the first three years too, but discontinued this year. I didn't use it back then and kind of forgot about it last year. Someone else on here alluded to the problems in administration a while back also.

I guess I'll use it sparingly. Problems with filing? I was with a client Friday who just got his EOB from TO for a claim in Dec 2007. I knew they could be slow payers but OMG. A year? It wasn't paid yet. They were getting ready to though.

 

[retread]

The one warning about MSA plans is that Anthem came out with them about 2 years ago. They have been discontinued.

It's not that they don't make sense, they were impossible for providers to bill correctly. The concept is great; the execution is terrible.

Rick

So what is the difficulty, Rick? The providers should be billing the HDH Plan... not any different than any other Health Plan I would think. What's the catch?

 

[GreenSky]

So what is the difficulty, Rick? The providers should be billing the HDH Plan... not any different than any other Health Plan I would think. What's the catch?

That's what I would have thought. But they are balance billing even though they take assignment, sending the bills to the IFP claims dept., and saying they're not in network.

Total pain in the ass. I'm trying to work through a bunch of unpaid bills for a client from 2007! Several providers have either threatened or have gone to collection.

As I said, the concept is great. An HSA for Medicare. But it hasn't worked in practice. If it did work, the Wellpoint companies would certainly have continued the plans.

Rick