It is ON! NV DOI Commissioner Not Having Any of It!

insuranceconceptscindy

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See the attached letter from our insurance commissioner to our health insurance carriers. NAIFA, NAHU and The Big I have expressed our displeasure for not being paid on individual health insurance business. She took it and ran with it! The carriers are currently circling the wagons. They don't know what to do. One fine carrier felt so bad for us brokers that they are willing to pay us $5 per contract per month. $5!! They were being generous, since everyone else planned to pay us nothing.
 

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See the attached letter from our insurance commissioner to our health insurance carriers. NAIFA, NAHU and The Big I have expressed our displeasure for not being paid on individual health insurance business. She took it and ran with it! The carriers are currently circling the wagons. They don't know what to do.

Apparently, UnitedHealthcare has figured out what to do as HPN and Sierra plan to terminate massive numbers of agent contracts.
:no:

Estimates range as high as 95% of brokers to be impacted. Very troublesome that they plan to use this as an excuse not to pay renewals on existing business. Doesn't clear them of unfair trade practices though, so next few weeks will be interesting to say the least.

Meanwhile, should hear something from Anthem this week. They want to pay, but lots of external pressure not to be only carrier paying anything decent.
 
And it has happened.

UHC subsidiaries HPN and Sierra have unilaterally terminated thousands of agent's contracts, effective 12/31/16.

That's one thing, as everyone generally understands that either party to an insurance agent's contract can terminate the agreement essentially at any time for no reason whatsoever.

But ... they still have to honor the terms of the contract during the time the contract was in force.

That means that the company is obligated to continue to pay RENEWAL commissions on all renewing business.

UHC disagrees. They think they can get away with also cancelling payment of ALL RENEWAL COMMISSIONS.

Apparently they DID get the Commissioner's Memorandum, and chose to ignore it.

What I don't understand is why they don't just cancel all policyholders and withdraw from the marketplace? Then brokers would have no beef with their intent not to pay renewal commissions.

Gonna be an interesting few weeks to be sure.
 
And it has happened.

UHC subsidiaries HPN and Sierra have unilaterally terminated thousands of agent's contracts, effective 12/31/16.

That's one thing, as everyone generally understands that either party to an insurance agent's contract can terminate the agreement essentially at any time for no reason whatsoever.

But ... they still have to honor the terms of the contract during the time the contract was in force.

That means that the company is obligated to continue to pay RENEWAL commissions on all renewing business.

UHC disagrees. They think they can get away with also cancelling payment of ALL RENEWAL COMMISSIONS.

Apparently they DID get the Commissioner's Memorandum, and chose to ignore it.

What I don't understand is why they don't just cancel all policyholders and withdraw from the marketplace? Then brokers would have no beef with their intent not to pay renewal commissions.

Gonna be an interesting few weeks to be sure.

Got my termination notice yesterday, sent by UPS certified mail, signature required. I have never had a company terminate renewal commissions in my life, first time for everything I guess. Over to the DOI it goes...

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Response from Sierra Health:

"In response to your inquiry regarding the recent notice of termination, the Nevada Market has made a business decision to change our distribution structure.

This notice is specific to only the commercial products solicited, sold, and quoted in Nevada.

If you have other appointments with UnitedHealthcare in other states or sell Medicare products in Nevada, this notice does not impact these appointments or agreements."

What a joke. Going to send a copy of my termination letter to the DOI along with the bulletin notice posted here.
 
Got my termination notice yesterday, sent by UPS certified mail, signature required. I have never had a company terminate renewal commissions in my life, first time for everything I guess. Over to the DOI it goes...

----------

Response from Sierra Health:

"In response to your inquiry regarding the recent notice of termination, the Nevada Market has made a business decision to change our distribution structure.

This notice is specific to only the commercial products solicited, sold, and quoted in Nevada.

If you have other appointments with UnitedHealthcare in other states or sell Medicare products in Nevada, this notice does not impact these appointments or agreements."

What a joke. Going to send a copy of my termination letter to the DOI along with the bulletin notice posted here.

Did they mention what part of the contract covers not paying the renewals per the contract? To bad there is no benefit in flipping clients...wish them the sickest of the sick customers.
 
Did they mention what part of the contract covers not paying the renewals per the contract? To bad there is no benefit in flipping clients...wish them the sickest of the sick customers.

If their contracts are anything like the ones in NY, somewhere buried in there is a clause along the lines of "we may terminate or amend any base commission payable to Agent with respect to any Customer (regardless of the original effective date of coverage) at any time by notifying Agent thirty or more days before the effective date of the termination or amendment."

Look for a header that says something like "modification or termination of agent compensation".

We've had some really strange things happen with comp here in NY over the past few years...

A certain colored company cut comp from a healthy percentage to a $5PCPM flat fee just ahead of OEP. A certain startup released a generous commission schedule, held seminars and pushed their comp, and got a bunch of brokers to jump on board and push it to clients. They then cut it by 75% on 11-5-15, a few days into OEP, for everything submitted after that date (their contract said they can change at any time with no advance notice).

Most brokers hadn't gotten the business in yet, of course, and were stuck with this lower rate or backpedaling and trying to write a different company for a client they had already sold.
 
I've been getting phone calls, emails and messages from agents all over the state over terminations and commission cuts. Our hands are tied- they used the "termination for any cause" clause. They are not required to pay renewals.
What my association is concerned about is, where did they draw the line? I was not terminated, but a broker I know in Reno, who has a nice book with UHC was. What's the difference between me and him? Was it arbitrary? Did they pick agents with no group business? Less than a certain $ amount in renewals? I can understand terming those that have, say, less than 20 policies on their book, because it costs UHC a lot of money to keep them appointed. But when you have several hundred and still got canned?
We will probably never get our answers. UHC pretty much gave the middle finger to our DOI and us. Right now, I'm trying to keep my association members from storming the UHC and DOI offices with torches and pitchforks.
We have a meeting with Rep. Joe Heck in Washington tomorrow, and another agent is meeting with the head of UHC. We will get answers, but it won't fix what has already happened.
Watching our business be destroyed by the government is cruel.
 
I've been getting phone calls, emails and messages from agents all over the state over terminations and commission cuts. Our hands are tied- they used the "termination for any cause" clause. They are not required to pay renewals.
What my association is concerned about is, where did they draw the line? I was not terminated, but a broker I know in Reno, who has a nice book with UHC was. What's the difference between me and him? Was it arbitrary? Did they pick agents with no group business? Less than a certain $ amount in renewals? I can understand terming those that have, say, less than 20 policies on their book, because it costs UHC a lot of money to keep them appointed. But when you have several hundred and still got canned?
We will probably never get our answers. UHC pretty much gave the middle finger to our DOI and us. Right now, I'm trying to keep my association members from storming the UHC and DOI offices with torches and pitchforks.
We have a meeting with Rep. Joe Heck in Washington tomorrow, and another agent is meeting with the head of UHC. We will get answers, but it won't fix what has already happened.
Watching our business be destroyed by the government is cruel.

Good for you for pressing them. I agree, ANYTHING the Gov't sticks their hands in gets hosed up. I hope it gets better for you guys, but my gut tells me it probably won't.
The socialist agenda is pressing on. Fun times... :no:
 
insuranceconceptscindy;1132187 I can understand terming those that have said:
I've been direct with UHC for years in MD and VA. They have never paid any appointment fees on my behalf. Each year the send a "We appreciate your business letter stating that to keep my appointment I would need to pay the $12.00 appointment fee so I'm not sure this could be the reason unless they pay it in some cases. I've always paid my own with them and with Assurant when they were alive.
 

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