Healthpass was formed in the 1990's by the Guiliani Administration to give small business owners more choices for group health insurance coverage. The program offers several different health plan designs allowing employees to choose a health plan that fits their needs. The carriers include, HIP, GHI and Emblemhealth with over 25 different plan choices to choose from, all under one convenient bill.

Effective this month, Oxford will be among the health care providers under the Healthpass branding. Oxford is offering 5 new plans in the line up and you can view the new plans here: Oxford Plans. 

Healthpass is often overlooked as a group health insurance option by small employers and seemingly many brokers do not offer Healthpass to their clients. If you have any questions about Healthpass or if you would like to see the entire program, call us at: 800-514-3513

 

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released new guidelines for mammography screening based on a review of the medical literature. As a result, the USPSTF is recommending that regular screening for breast cancer in women begin at age 50. The previously recommended age to begin routine screening was age 40.

UnitedHealthCare has announced that their policies for Mammography and Cervical cancer screening will remain unchanged. "We consider mammography an important screening procedure, one that has resulted in the ability to detect and treat breast cancer at earlier stages of the disease and save lives" says a UnitedHealthCare spokesperson. "We will continue to offer coverage for mammograms and cervical cancer screening for women when recommended by their physicians."  

 

As 2009 winds down, there are some startling statistics of how employers will deal with the ever increasing cost of group health insurance in 2010. Group health insurance rates are forcasted to increase more than 10% in 2010.

• 41% of employers are expecting to make more substantial changes to their medical programs than they did in 2009
• 70% of employers are planning to increase employee contributions
• 67% are expecting to raise deductibles, copays, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximums
• 50% of employers are expecting to introduce a wellness program
• 73% plan on offering disease management programs
• 89% of employers are expecting to re-examine their health benefits as soon as lawmakers can agree on health care reform

Source: AON Consulting 2009 Benefits & Talent Survey 

HealthplansNY a leading online group benefits agency now offers free instant group health insurance quotes for New York Business Owners in 20 seconds or less.

Westchester, NY October 26, 2009 -- While many companies advertise instant or real-time health quotes at their website, it's often not the truth. In fact, many online companies that advertise free group health insurance quotes really do not provide any insurance quotes at all. They are merely "lead generation" sites that sell contact information to insurance agents that are willing to pay big bucks for the lead.

HealthPlansNY is part of a very small group of companies that have developed real-time, online group health insurance quotes. As group health insurance rates continue to soar, more and more business owners are searching the web trying to save money by comparing their health insurance rates online. But as many New York business owners are finding out, getting a real-time quote is very challenging.

"I can count on one hand all the Websites that will truly offer a consumer a real-time group health insurance quote after they fill out the lengthy online form" says Bill Behr a partner at HealthPlansny.com. "Real-time group health quotes in NY, are rare. Very few companies actually provide them, most do not. HealthPlansNY developed their quote engine to fill this need in the marketplace.

"We've created our instant quoting program with our customers in mind," said Jay Gerlitz of healthplansny.com. Many New York business owners get frustrated when trying to search for rates online and are unable to find what they are looking for. After submitting their contact information, they generally have to wait days to hear from one or more agents to simply get a quote. With HealthPlanNY's new online quote engine, businesses are able to receive a real quote and compare rates instantly.

Representing companies like Aetna, Blue Cross, EmblemHealth, Oxford and many others, Healthplansny.com will provide quotes based on a company's census and location. The online form takes only 20 seconds to complete and once the census is submitted, businesses can compare health plans that are offered by all the top New York insurance carriers.

Currently, they only offer the program to NY based business owners. If the quote engine is well received in New York, they plan to expand the program to New Jersey, Connecticut and other areas they service.    

About HealthPlansNY.com:
Healthplansny.com is a full service insurance agency run by Bill Behr and Jay Gerlitz who have over 30 years of combined health insurance experience. They provide small business owners with expert advice, real time quotes and good old fashioned service.

For more information, please visit http://www.healthplansny.com

Press Contact:
HealthPlansNY.com
Bill Behr
(914) 633-1717

Health insurance is becoming more complicated than ever. Employers who offer group health insurance to their employees are finding it very difficult to know which way to turn. Will the Government step in and enforce a public option? What will become of the health plans that companies currently offer their employees? It seems that many employers are frozen or just staying put until this whole mess is figured out.

To make matters more confusing in the world of health insurance,  Aetna has announced that beginning in January, 2010 they will be withdrawing just about all of their current health plan options. So if you are a customer with Aetna you will be forced to make a plan change by December 2009. But to which health plan will you be changing to? Good question, nobody knows. Aetna has not announced their new health plans as of yet, but they have raised their rates this quarter by 34% across the board. I guess Aetna is giving their current clients an "incentive" to get out now.

In a letter from Aetna to their current customers they say that plan changes are coming; "In an effort to our continued commitment to providing access to high-quality, affordable coverage we will be offering new plans that generally reduce benefits and make families pay a larger financial share of their cost of care and services they receive." 

Stay tuned...  

A prescription drug card can add at least $75 - $150 a month, per employee to your group health insurance premiums. With the cost of health insurance continuing to rise, employers are constantly looking for ways to cut costs. A discount prescription drug program could be "just what the doctor ordered."

A discount drug program can cut at least 35% off your monthly insurance premiums. There are no exclusions, no pre-existing conditions clauses, no annual maximums, no claim forms to file and no deductibles. The program is availabe throught a network of over 56,000 pharmacies nationwide, names like Walgreens, CVS, Eckard and Rite Aid.

You can learn more about the program that is available through our company by going here: http://www.fnarx.com/ or you can call us directly at: 914-633-1717.