UHC, They Are Releasing the News Monday....possibly Today

[AllenChicago]

Interesting concept.

United Healthcare is whining like a little constipated pig, because 10% of their product portfolio is suffering a loss...thanks to OBAMACARE. If they can't take the heat, get away from ObamaCare's IFP market. Don't punish agents, who are just following the law and doing what we were told to do on every UHC training webinar.

General Patton slapped the whining soldier and told him to go home if the war was causing too much mental trauma. "Don't just hang around this hospital, stinkin up the place!"

UHC...GET OUT OF THE EXCHANGE BUSINESS IF IT's NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED. We don't want to see you "hanging around" on our Web Broker Portals and on Healthcare.gov..stinkin up the place.

 

[pahealthquotes]

They just cut the comp by 1% right before OE in my market. I think it went from 7 to 6%. If they go to 2% that will be the last app for them. They should have figured that out before OE, why change comp multiple times mid OE? Somebody f'ed up big time!

Ins Co's could give two shits about agents/brokers. Had the largest PA Blue ask me not to take a pay for final quarter of 2015 yet they have over 5 billion in cash.

CMS needs to regualte broker compensation the same way they do for MA/MAPD. Our commissions needs to be removed from MLR. At this point all of the big players dont want IFP, Its a joke. Start writing letters, I have.

 

[BobbyR]

So is this basically the beginning of the end of Agents selling Obamacare? Didn't United pay 8% first yr? Do any other vendors even pay near that? Looks like game over for agents selling health ins.

 

[pbbaseball]

some they paid 10%. Yr one in my state a carrier paid 14 was street if memory is correct. Some co-ops paid decent money. I've always said we had a decent run at this for a few yrs before someone steps in to level it off like CMS, but with persistency where it is, having to send in eligibility requirements, etc, they'll see the business doesn't stick as long without agents doing all that work.

 

[saintstigers]

Ins Co's could give two shits about agents/brokers. Had the largest PA Blue ask me not to take a pay for final quarter of 2015 yet they have over 5 billion in cash. CMS needs to regualte broker compensation the same way they do for MA/MAPD. Our commissions needs to be removed from MLR. At this point all of the big players dont want IFP, Its a joke. Start writing letters, I have.

even agent comp was somehow from MLR, at this point the carriers wouldn't raise agent comp, because they feel they are getting enough enrollment going direct and with HC.gov.

 

[sman]

UHC has the right to pay what they want to. I have the right to throw all their crap in the recycle bin AARP, UHOne, Group, STM, Care Improvement Minus ect....

Care Improvement Minus. Love that. I won't write any UHC MAPD product. Had a client tell me this year that her boyfriend has CIP and he says "it's a really good plan, can you enroll me in that plan". I told her I could but I won't. Also told her if she wants it she will need to find someone else to help her. She decided to go with my recommendation. A few days later her boyfriend called and wanted to switch plans.

 

[houcoogster]

Care Improvement Minus. Love that. I won't write any UHC MAPD product. Had a client tell me this year that her boyfriend has CIP and he says "it's a really good plan, can you enroll me in that plan". I told her I could but I won't. Also told her if she wants it she will need to find someone else to help her. She decided to go with my recommendation. A few days later her boyfriend called and wanted to switch plans.

That plan is such a joke. This year I got an email saying it was going to zero commission. It's already been zero in my book anyway just remove it altogether already. UHC is notorious for playing hide and seek with commissions. Have you ever read and actually understood just one commission statement??? They ought to just put a ball under a coconut shell and shuffle 3 of them around and let us pick which shell the ball is under in order to get paid!

 

[Ann H]

Clearly carriers don't want to be stuck holding the bag. They want the apps to stop or slow down. ON Exchange apps cause the largest claims losses in the IFP block. Lower-income subsidized plans, particularly CSR, cause higher than normal claims losses inside that ON exchange block. And, we all know that the sick people pick the Platinum or Gold plans, particularly ones that appear to have higher benefit levels (such as $0 deductibles or $500 deductibles, for instance).

UHC designed a product that looks good ON THE SURFACE. A look under the hood, and it's not a true PPO, but a PCP gatekeeper HMO with out-of-network. The penalties for not using a primary care physician to refer to a specialist are huge. Typical Golden Rule games. But the public thinks it's a terrific plan. They think it's a true PPO, and they love the $0 deductible, $500 deductible plans, etc. That's UHC's mistake. They are most likely swarmed with apps. And they know what those apps mean - huge claims losses.

But here's the issue. You don't take your mistakes out on your sales force. You will lose big time. It will cause lost Group sales, MAPD, Medicare Supps, Ancillary, STM, etc. It will cause losses due to the sick clients going to UHC for the benefit levels, but the healthy clients being educated not to do so, due to the problems UHC will incur over this. This was a very bad move.

There are other ways to handle it. Take your ball and go home, UHC. If you are left out of the market in some states for 5 years, so be it. But this caused agents large amounts of marketing dollars, for which they will not receive an income to offset it. This caused agents huge amounts of work hours, with little or no compensation. This disrupted our OEP right in the first 15 days.

Agents who marketed, based on UHC's product offerings, face large expenses with no way to recoup. Clients will still see UHC in the line-up of plans on the FFM, and on every WBE. Agents can't stop it. So, why take out UHC's mistakes on its sales force? Will it even work? Will the lost sales in Group, Medicare, Ancillary, STM, etc. be worth this? Will it even stop the flood of apps from the FFM and WBEs? NO. It won't. The vast majority of apps on the FFM are not agent assisted anyway. A lot of the WBE apps are unassisted, coming directly from the clients. Taking this out on the sales force won't even solve the problem! So, I would tell UHC they should pick another tactic to manage their risks.

 

[FLM2]

If anyone from either UHC, CMS, or HHS or any other agency is reading this thread (and I have been told that might be the case) here is my response as an independent agent with many years of experience and a loyal, long term client base:

• I have a business that is based on mutual trust, it's been like that my whole career. My clients trust me to do the right things for them, I trust my clients to give me the information I need to help them, and I trust insurance companies to live up to their word whether it be claims, benefits, or compensation.
  
• If UHC wants to lower broker commissions, it is their right to do so, we don't have to agree on the suitability of the timing. Just give us proper notice and pay us, under the prior schedule, for work (and costs) already done. If you fail to do so an entire agent community will be against you for a very long time, is it really worth it?
  
• Lastly, a word to CMS and HHS-take the commissions out of the equation, just like you do for MAPD plans. We are hard working, commission-only brokers and agents who provide a highly valuable service to our clients. Instead of throwing us under the bus you should be embracing what we do, it costs you nothing, it costs our clients nothing, yet we provide enormous help to people who want to work with us. Having variable commissions for brokers just allows the same potential problems there used to be with MAPD plans. If you regulate commissions it takes that all away and lets us to our jobs without really impacting anyone's bottom line.

 

[houcoogster]

HHS and CMS if you allow UHC to change the rules of the game in the second inning (OEP) you are just giving a green light to every other carrier to do the same. This is reckless and disruptive to the overarching mission at hand.