The IRS Deductions Blog

Posts Tagged ‘health-insurance’

Question: Are health insurance deductibles based on PLAN year or CALENDAR year? What if a new plan starts Dec. 1?

If based on CALENDAR year, do I get screwed every year on all expenses incurred during December? We always have a new plan on Dec. 1…so any out-of-pocket costs during December won’t add up to the calendar year deductible. Then, does the meter reset to zero on January 1, and nothing I spent in December counts? Please tell me this ain’t so!

Answer: Bad news about that: Calendar Year Deductible for about 99.999% of the plans out there.

Say you started in Dec 2007. You got a little hosed on your medical expenses counting to your deductible last year. This year your expenses in December will count on your 2008 deductible. So, the money you’ve spent on your health care throughout the year still applies in December… it doesn’t get zeroed out Dec 1 AND Jan 1.

Well, no plans do that to my knowledge, but I don’t know what you have, or what State you are in. You should be able to call your carrier (the number will be on your insurance card) and ask for clarification on anything.

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STOP Buying Health Plans and START Buying Health Insurance!: An Easy-To-Understand Guide to the How and Why of Consumer Directed Healthcare (HSAs, HRAs and Deductible-First Medical Insurance) $9.84 We are all excellent consumers. We collectively have no problem clearly identifying what we want, how we want it and when the price is right. We make our educated presence known in almost every marketplace except one— healthcare. Managed care and its first dollar benefits have created a problem and the solution is consumer directed healthcare. We can fix our system of healthcare and your secon…

Impact of Type of Insurance Plan on Access and Utilization of Health Care Services for Adults Aged 18-64 Years With Private Health Insurance: United States, 2007-2008 $1.99 National attention to consumer-directed health care has increased following the enactment of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-173), which established tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs) (1). Enrollment in consumer-directed health care products has increased over the past several years (2). Consumer-directed health care may enable individu…

Seven Expensive Medicare Mistakes You Can Avoid If you are new to Medicare, you may feel overwhelmed and confused. I wrote this report to help you avoid the most common and expensive Medicare mistakes. I have been an insurance agent for over five years, and it is my passion to help people make informed and intelligent decisions to control their medical expenses. The report will help you make the Medicare decision that is right one for you….

County health insurance rates to increase

The cost of providing health insurance to county employees will rise July 1, but taxpayers won’t see the increase. County employees will pay higher premiums, meet higher deductibles and face more…

What is a health insurance deductible?

Question: High Deductible Health Plan vs. Traditional Insurance?

My wife is offered two plans at work.

Answer: The premiums with the traditional plan will be $3060 per year.

If you expect the family to need at least $4000 of medical care, then get the traditional plan, because the premiums and co-pays will be less than what you would be paying on the deductible with the HDHP.

If you expect the family to need less than $3060 of medical care, then get the HDHP. Even if it pays for nothing, and you have to pay for everything 100% out-of-pocket, but doing so will cost less than the premiums for the traditional plan.

Personally, I would get the HDHP, but for reasons that have nothing to do with health insurance. If you get the HDHP and no other health insurance, then you can contribute thousands of dollars to a Health Savings Account (HSA), and deduct that money on your income taxes. I was actually in a situation where I had the option to have an employer pay 100% of the premium for a traditional plan or to pay the premium myself for an HDHP, and I still took the HDHP, because the tax savings from the HSA offset the cost of the HDHP.

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Recent Premium Increases Imposed by Insurers Averaged 20% for People Who Buy Their Own Health Insurance, Kaiser Survey …

Facing Such Increases, Some Enrollees Switched to Lower-Cost Coverage People with Pre-Existing Conditions Much More Likely to Report Problems MENLO PARK, Calif.

High Deductible Health Plan

Question: deductible and not deductible services in health insurance..?

what dose it mean for certain services to be deductible?
what dose it mean for certain services to be “not deductible”?
What is benefit level? It says benefit level: schedule on my benefit summary…
It also says benefit level: $31 in my other summary..
don’t understand it

Answer: You probably need to talk to a local agent about this, who can help you understand your coverages.

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Flood of sewage destroys local home

    It sounds like something that would happen in a nightmare.

What is “Leveraging”?

Hamilton Health Care System and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia have reached an agreement to provide health care services for the University System of Georgia.

The agreement will allow any of the 50,000 employees and retirees of the university system, including those at Dalton State College, to receive care at either Hamilton Medical Center or Murray Medical Center as part of Blue Cross’ preferred provider organization (PPO) network. The agreement will also mean university employees and retirees will have access to more than 200 physicians in the area, according to Blue Cross.

In a statement, Blue Cross said Hamilton placed talks to cover all of Blue Cross’ PPO customers on hold on July 14. But Hamilton and Physicians Health Services, which represents almost all of the area’s doctors, say they will begin negotiations next month with Blue Cross and other major health insurance companies that may bring the hospitals and local doctors into those companies’ PPO networks.

“We are planning to start having language discussions, contract language discussions next month,” said David McCreery, president of Physicians Health Services. “That is the first step. Depending on how quickly they are willing to move on that, we are ready to proceed with at least the four major players in the marketplace.”

McCreery says those companies are Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Aetna and Cigna, the four largest health insurance companies nationwide.

“We plan to actively contact them, not just sit back and wait on them to call us,” he said.
Hamilton, and many local doctors, do not currently accept those major plans.

“We want the community to know we have heard the community’s request to access our services through a wider variety of insurance plans, and we are working hard to extend our relationship with Blue Cross and other national insurers,” said Hamilton CEO John Bowling.

Will having reached an agreement on university employees make it easier for Hamilton and Blue Cross to reach an overall agreement?

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia has approached the two discussions independently of one another and does not feel that one discussion will impact the other,” Blue Cross said in the statement.

Bowling says that the university agreement might make it a bit easier since each side is now more familiar with each other’s concerns.

“The caveat would be that this is a Board of Regents matter. Therefore, they control it, not Blue Cross. Blue Cross just serves as a third party administrator. Blue Cross is not the payer there, and where Blue Cross is the payer, there’s likely to be some different contractual language,” he said.

Hamilton and Physicians Health Services say clinical integration — developing a common set of clinical protocols for all physicians — will be key to contract negotiations. They had set a deadline of July 31 to complete that process.

“The plan was to try to do that. It was really a deadline requested by the Chamber of Commerce. We are running a little behind that schedule. There have been some unanticipated difficulties with the information systems of the physicians,” said McCreery. “But we have made a lot of progress. We are getting real close to saying that we are clinically integrated. We’re trying to make sure the difficulties we have encountered don’t slow down our ability to engage in the contracting process.”
In April, several local business leaders sent a letter to Bowling asking for local health care providers to take part in a larger number of health insurance networks.

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We the Elderly People

The quote “government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth” was said by Abe Lincoln in his Gettysburg address in 1863.

Question: What health insurance plan should I buy?

Hi I’m currently looking for a health insurance. I live in southern California. I’m a 27 year old female, 30 lbs overweight, no known medical condition, looking for something to cover mainly major or serious medical problems.

Answer: Kaiser is going to limit you care to their doctors and when you are out of the area, on vacation for example you can only get emergency care. You will have a primary care provider which acts as a gatekeeper and you need to see them before you can see a specialist.

With Blue Cross they offer an PPO which is a network of doctors you can choose from and you can go straight to a specialist if you feel you need one.
Some people hate the HMO gatekeeper others don’t mind at all it is really personal preference.

You need to figure the cost of the plan two ways. First what will the plan cost if you have no medical bills for the year. What is your total premium for one year?

Then what will the plan cost if you have a serious illness or bad accident. I usually figure $50,000 in medical bills for this scenario. For this you need to add the total premium + deductibles + coinsurance.

Now you can compare the plans to see which one is truly the best deal, you will usually find the high deductible plans work best in either scenario. Then consider a Health Savings Account qualified plan, this can create additional tax savings.

Or you can just call a qualified broker who has probably already done this work.

With all the different health carriers and plans available most people really should use a health insurance broker. A Broker represents multiple carriers and can help you sort through all the different insurance companies and plan options in your state.

For example a typical broker can have access to 10 major carriers and 60 different plans just for one state.
You can try doing your own research on the internet, but if you give a good broker 5 minutes they will be able to make suggestions on which carrier may fit you best.

I suggest using yellowpages.com to search for health insurance brokers in your area.

Don’t call your auto and home agent they specialize in property and causality insurance. You need someone that specializes in health insurance.

Good Luck

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Khodabakhshian: Seven ways to reduce your healthcare costs

If you put on a few pounds over the holidays, you are not alone. I’m right there with you.Now that the new year is upon us, it’s time to start planning a healthier and more prosperous 2010. It turns out they are closely related: The healthier you are, the lower your healthcare costs.These tips are intended as strategies to improve your health and as a result reduce your healthcare costs.See your …

Individual Health Insurance – www.healthinsurance-quotes.org/Individual.html – 800-868-2333