Central United/Manhattan Life just announced the are raising rates in the Denta/Vision/Hearing plan by 10%. But the big change is they are going from "Actual" charges to "Usual and Customary" charges. That is a big change and always has the potential of having unhappy customers. Fortunately, it will only apply to new insureds.
CUL Dental Rate Increase
- Thread starter rousemark
- Start date
- 147
Are these significant enough changes to the plan that you'll be evaluating alternative carriers to write new business with? I know CUL has been really hot on the market for the past year or so, and lots of other carriers are getting into the market.
- 6,457
Based on the discussions I've seen here, I would be surprised if many agents immediately responded to that announcement by seeking other carriers.
The first choice I see agents discussing is whether or not to sell dental insurance at all.
If that decision is yes, then the particular product becomes a complex interplay between what features the agent thinks a dental plan should offer his or her clients, the agent's commission, the network in the agents area-(a carrier with a good network for one agent's area will have a bad network in another) and the amount of customer service the agent has to put into the plan. I don't think a 10% premium increase is going to change any of those decisions for this product. Now this is just me-after seeing all those discussions- but I think a significant uptick in agent customer service requirements for CUL due to the reasonable and customary change would be more likely to lead a number of agents to entirely drop a DVH offering rather than hunting for another carrier.
I would also say the same for consumers-again at least for the first few months. For the people who don't see the CUL plan offering the value that some other plans do, these changes will just reinforce that viewpoint. For those people who approach the purchase strictly from the viewpoint of comparing premium paid to the maximum dollar benefit purchased, the issue will be how much the usual and customary change cuts into the money they can extract from the CUL plan. Some will leave, some will stay and the cycle of premium increase will be perpetuated.
And rousemark and "the monkey" have consistently emphasized that a significant point of the CUL plan is that it offers a "pool" of money which can be used for any (or all) services in the 3 DVH categories, up to the policy limit. I would think that will remain a strong selling point for the plan, even if it is somewhat more difficult to get to the plan limit.
Just my take on it.
(Not an agent but I do have to make buy or drop decisions on this type of coverage this month, so I have been giving the issues some thought.)
The first choice I see agents discussing is whether or not to sell dental insurance at all.
If that decision is yes, then the particular product becomes a complex interplay between what features the agent thinks a dental plan should offer his or her clients, the agent's commission, the network in the agents area-(a carrier with a good network for one agent's area will have a bad network in another) and the amount of customer service the agent has to put into the plan. I don't think a 10% premium increase is going to change any of those decisions for this product. Now this is just me-after seeing all those discussions- but I think a significant uptick in agent customer service requirements for CUL due to the reasonable and customary change would be more likely to lead a number of agents to entirely drop a DVH offering rather than hunting for another carrier.
I would also say the same for consumers-again at least for the first few months. For the people who don't see the CUL plan offering the value that some other plans do, these changes will just reinforce that viewpoint. For those people who approach the purchase strictly from the viewpoint of comparing premium paid to the maximum dollar benefit purchased, the issue will be how much the usual and customary change cuts into the money they can extract from the CUL plan. Some will leave, some will stay and the cycle of premium increase will be perpetuated.
And rousemark and "the monkey" have consistently emphasized that a significant point of the CUL plan is that it offers a "pool" of money which can be used for any (or all) services in the 3 DVH categories, up to the policy limit. I would think that will remain a strong selling point for the plan, even if it is somewhat more difficult to get to the plan limit.
Just my take on it.
(Not an agent but I do have to make buy or drop decisions on this type of coverage this month, so I have been giving the issues some thought.)
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