HSA renewals

[Sam]

In Md, Blue Cross does separate the small group pool of CDHP from the rest of small group for experience tracking, and the CDHP plans are coming in with higher renewals than the other pool.

 

[somarco]

the CDHP plans are coming in with higher renewals than the other pool.

Higher percentage increases but my guess would be they are still lower premium than the comparable copay plans.

When I was active in the stop loss business we tracked loss ratio's in several ways. What we found was the LR's exhibited an inverted bell curve with higher losses at the low SIR's and high SIR's with more favorable LR's in the middle.

The low SIR's have a quick trigger point which stands to reason. The high SIR's are not breached as often but when they are the dollar payout is quite high.

Depending on how the HDHP plans were priced originally, I would expect higher trending renewals (as a percentage) but the differential in the premium should still be favorable.

 

[speckled horn]

At a recent broker advisory council mtg here in houston, UHC told us their HSA/HRA block was not running as well as they expected. They said to expect double digit renewals over the next couple of years. Attributed it to higher than expected utilization. When employee's are given "$x"per plan year to spend in an HSA or HRA...they spend it. Most CDHP's here are sold w/ $2500 to $5000 deducts w 100% coinsurance. Per UHC, if an EE has $2500 ded & the ER gives them each $1k per year, they essentially have a $1500k ded 100% plan. Every one of those EE's that runs thru the rest of the deduct gets colonoscopy, mri, blah, blah, blah...

Point is they go from being incentivised not to utilize right back to the old copay mentality of...since the ins carrier's picking up the tab, might as well have that PET scan Dr Quacker recommends. They stop being consumers again.

Same thing happened to the renewals on the 100% coinsurance Copay plans here about a year or 2 ago.

All this being said, I still agree with everyone else. They're idiots!

 

[ABC]

I found that UHC is the worst righ now on just about every aspect of health insurance. I put a good size block of buisness with them and now I have just 2 groups left because they are doing state wide rate increasing with the average around 27%.
Its a shame because UHC has all the tools to be an outstanding carrier.
Right now every carrier is going after th UHC business.

At a recent broker advisory council mtg here in houston, UHC told us their HSA/HRA block was not running as well as they expected. They said to expect double digit renewals over the next couple of years. Attributed it to higher than expected utilization. When employee's are given ""per plan year to spend in an HSA or HRA...they spend it. Most CDHP's here are sold w/ $2500 to $5000 deducts w 100% coinsurance. Per UHC, if an EE has $2500 ded & the ER gives them each $1k per year, they essentially have a $1500k ded 100% plan. Every one of those EE's that runs thru the rest of the deduct gets colonoscopy, mri, blah, blah, blah...

Point is they go from being incentivised not to utilize right back to the old copay mentality of...since the ins carrier's picking up the tab, might as well have that PET scan Dr Quacker recommends. They stop being consumers again.

Same thing happened to the renewals on the 100% coinsurance Copay plans here about a year or 2 ago.

All this being said, I still agree with everyone else. They're idiots!

 

[ABC]

I am going to UHC's headquarters at the end of the month for the mid-atlantic closer look conference. You can bet there will be a lot of very tough questions at the meeting.

I went to one meeting with UHC where the corporate exc. were present to ask questions. They could not answer any of my questions. I hammered them on HSA renewals. They said "they did not have enough data on how HSA's run"
I called BS on them because they had bougth Golden Rule that started the entire MSA/HSA plans.

The former VP for my state with UHC was with them just 15 months and now has moved on to another carrier. He was not fired he left because of the current status of the company. The VP of the state was have problems just generating quotes let alone being competitive. Thats really bad!

Post how your meeting goes

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

I went to one meeting with UHC where the corporate exc. were present to ask questions. They could not answer any of my questions. I hammered them on HSA renewals. They said "they did not have enough data on how HSA's run"

Just another shining example of the way most Home Offices are a training video for the "Peter Principle".