Understanding thoroughly what you’re looking for and what you need for your business and your employees.
Enjoy a Carefree Retirement: We emphasize planning for future events that can have a devastating impact on your retirement, such as a long term care claim.
We believe YOUR values matter and ask our clients, "What do you want to happen when you die?"
Welcome to the family!
If you purchase the policy through our experts, we can be available to answer your questions about benefits, billing issues, and claims. We want you to get the most out of the insurance you purchase, and we understand that even insurance companies make mistakes. You don't have time to deal with calling the insurance company, waiting on-hold, and being transferred from department to department. Let us do the work for you! We will be your advocate with the insurance companies.
We specialize in benefits for: Self-Employed Individuals and Employers with fewer than 50 employees. We also work with individuals, whether self-employed, working only part time, unemployed, or working for employers who do not offer benefits.
Unexpected Obamacare Outcomes
We are now in a new age of healthcare and a new set of conditions. While Obamacare has put into place some very important and needed benefits; it has also caused some unintended consequences. The Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) that went into effect in 2011, requires insurance companies to pay out 80-85% of every dollar they collect. While this sounds good on one hand, it has forced these carriers to reduce their expenses up to 30% in some cases.
As a result of insurance companies cutting expenses and staff; we have seen an increase in errors and mistakes, increased wait times when calling, and an overall increase in the time it takes to resolve any errors or issues - in some cases weeks and months! This is SO frustrating for an individual or small business owner that is trying to deal direct with an insurance carrier to get their problems resolved - problems that may have been created due to an error by the insurance carrier. We can help!
Experience Worth the Fees
CB Health Insurance has always been paid by the health insurance companies we represent, that is until recently. We know that public consensus has always been that insurance agents don’t get paid by the client because the insurers are paying them to sell their products.
However, while agent commissions were traditionally built into the premiums for health insurance, the ACA law changed how agent commissions are expensed. With the implementation of the MLR, agent commissions are part of the insurer’s overall expense. While insurers traditionally saw agents as their distribution and 'sales force' and willingly paid agents and brokers a commission, this is rapidly changing. Insurers began cutting commissions to agents in 2010. For a period of time, some IL insurers announced they will not be paying agents any commissions for individual policies sold outside of open enrollment. Many group health carriers have reduced their commissions by 40% but have not increased the customer support. So our office had to reevaluate how we can help individuals and give them guidance while also getting compensated. Where appropriate, we have implemented fees for some, but not all services. We hope you agree that the advice and guidance provided is well worth the fees!