Health Insurance for Private Groups

[Airlife91]

For those of you that are in private/independent anesthesia groups - what do you do for health insurance? My group will be needing new health insurance coverage in the next year and I’m preparing to start searching. What’s the best way to approach this - hire a broker? Just call each insurer? Any tips on how to get a better deal?

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[caveat87]

We go through a benefits company/broker that is able to do multi-insurer pricing. Historically we have found that an insurer will give you a similar deal the year following your initial contract year, but the rate then goes up astronomically and it pays to switch insurers the subsequent year.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

We go through a benefits company/broker that is able to do multi-insurer pricing. Historically we have found that an insurer will give you a similar deal the year following your initial contract year, but the rate then goes up astronomically and it pays to switch insurers the subsequent year.

Probaby not a bad idea. They really like to rake you over the coals once they have you.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

For those of you that are in private/independent anesthesia groups - what do you do for health insurance? My group will be needing new health insurance coverage in the next year and I’m preparing to start searching. What’s the best way to approach this - hire a broker? Just call each insurer? Any tips on how to get a better deal?

Do you have a practice manager?

 

[nimbus]

We go through a benefits company/broker that is able to do multi-insurer pricing. Historically we have found that an insurer will give you a similar deal the year following your initial contract year, but the rate then goes up astronomically and it pays to switch insurers the subsequent year.

Our group tends to switch back n forth between the major players for this reason. If only our reimbursements kept up with our premiums. It’s interesting to see both sides of the coin.

 

[narcotics999]

Does it cost the same for everyone? Or young ones cheaper; old farts pay big?

 

[Dr. Rude]

Does it cost the same for everyone? Or young ones cheaper; old farts pay big?

When we were a private group, the docs all paid the same. BTW we had a young doc who cost us a fortune because of a kid with major medical problems. You are obviously a young fart.

 

[nimbus]

Does it cost the same for everyone? Or young ones cheaper; old farts pay big?

Yes same for everyone and everyone has to participate in order to get the group rate. Even if they’re already covered through their spouse.

 

[GassYous]

Yes same for everyone and everyone has to participate in order to get the group rate. Even if they’re already covered through their spouse.

That makes no sense

 

[nimbus]

That makes no sense

That’s how it is.

 

[kidthor]

How does the group insurance look compared to the higher end plans you can buy in the individual exchange?

 

[Lecithin5]

Self funding is becoming more popular and is definitely worth a look

 

[GassYous]

How does the group insurance look compared to the higher end plans you can buy in the individual exchange?

I've found that for our group individual is better with the group because most of it is pretax dollars but family is horribly expensive.

 

[Airlife91]

Thanks for the replies.
We’re going to get quotes from a broker. Anyone got any good leads or suggestions on how to find a good broker? We do have a practice manager and they’ve used a broker in the past, but some were not happy with him, so it’d be good to look around.

 

[cowbydoc]

We also use a broker for the reasons outlined above. We have a high deductible plan with a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA). This is company funded and reimburses everyone for their deductibles. This way nobody pays out of pocket for any part of their deductible. This is the cheapest combination of plan for our group with a highly satisfying HRA for everyone. The only downside is that the HRA eliminates the ability for one to do an HSA.

 

[Mman]

broker the way to go if you aren't large enough to self insure. Self insuring is the cheapest option and then you just buy secondary insurance for anyone that goes over a certain amount in a year (usually between $50K-$150K depending on how much you want to spend vs risk you want to take).

 

[thinkorswim]

How does the group insurance look compared to the higher end plans you can buy in the individual exchange?

The math is going to be different for every family and group plan.

When I recently looked at purchasing insurance for my family outside of my group plan, I found that the premiums for gold and platinum plans were maybe 15-20% higher than the bronze plan offered through my group. Not nearly as high as I thought they would be. But if I were to purchase one of them, then I would lose the ability to pay for my premiums pre-tax and submit expenses for business reimbursement. So the breakeven point between the two options ended up being if I were to spend about $10k on medical expenses in a year, which is close to the out-of-pocket maximum for my group plan. In the end, it just made more sense to go with the bronze plan through my group. But as I said, the math is different for everyone.

 

[2Fast2Des]

Our private group health insurance premium is expensive, and still have a 5k deductible. Family would be about 24 to 30k a year, horrible... I'm on my wife's insurance which is great so as long as she works we're good. I can't understand how even with all the taxes we pay, we can get something like Europe or Canada where taxes offer health insurance so you're not spending like this for basic coverage

 

[nimbus]

Our private group health insurance premium is expensive, and still have a 5k deductible. Family would be about 24 to 30k a year, horrible... I'm on my wife's insurance which is great so as long as she works we're good. I can't understand how even with all the taxes we pay, we can get something like Europe or Canada where taxes offer health insurance so you're not spending like this for basic coverage

But at least Mexico won’t be trying to reclaim Spanish speaking areas of the former First Mexican Republic.

 

[Mehd School]

Joined an academic group and am a little grumpy that I'll have to pay $1200 out of pocket monthly for my university group healthcare. It's a dumb thing to complain about but all the PP gigs I got offers from paid 100% of it. I was thankfully able to negotiate a $15k pay bump to offset the costs.

 

[narcotics999]

Joined an academic group and am a little grumpy that I'll have to pay $1200 out of pocket monthly for my university group healthcare. It's a dumb thing to complain about but all the PP gigs I got offers from paid 100% of it. I was thankfully able to negotiate a $15k pay bump to offset the costs.

Jesus! Aren’t academic places supposed to provide Cadillac health insurance with minimal cost?

 

[nimbus]

Joined an academic group and am a little grumpy that I'll have to pay $1200 out of pocket monthly for my university group healthcare. It's a dumb thing to complain about but all the PP gigs I got offers from paid 100% of it. I was thankfully able to negotiate a $15k pay bump to offset the costs.

The PP gigs don’t get health insurance for free. They still pay for it which means you are still paying for it even if they say it’s “paid” by them. The owners/partners are not paying for your health insurance out of their own pockets. The insurance premiums are being deducted from your collections.

 

[pgg]

But at least Mexico won’t be trying to reclaim Spanish speaking areas of the former First Mexican Republic.

I'm not going to defend 50% of the federal budget being the military - but I will say this.

A professional, competent, well-equipped military capable of sustained operations (even within or adjacent to one's own territory) is staggeringly expensive. Just no way around it.

There's a former superpower getting its ass handed to it in eastern Europe right now. Russia's defense budget is 1/10th that of the USA (granted, direct $ to $ comparisons are difficult and graft/corruption is another issue) ... and they might as well have spent 1/100th of our budget, for all the good it's doing them. They have an incompetently led, incompetently manned, rusting cluster**** of a military that was built to fight a land war in Europe, and the only progress they have made is a result of their willingness to send untold numbers of their conscripts into a meat grinder in WWII Stalin style. They've lost more men in two months than the US + all coalition forces have lost in 20 years of Afghanistan and Iraq. They've lost the first capital ship since the Falklands, which was the first since WWII.

Half a $trillion is probably about what we need to have a competent, expeditionary military capable of worldwide operations. Whether having such a thing is worth the price tag and other opportunity costs is another question. But that's what it costs.