How to do your taxes, how to start & manage your retirement plan, and how to select a health insurance plan. These are just a few things they don’t teach you in college — but they should. As a young adult, you already have a lot of new responsibilities like getting a job, paying your bills, renting an apartment and the list goes on and on. So if you’re young and healthy, why should you invest in a health insurance plan? You probably rarely see a doctor anyways… The truth is that getting a health insurance plan could actually save you money in the long
How to Select a Health Insurance Plan
When it comes to selecting a health insurance plan, it is certainly not “one size fits all” or even “one size fits most” for that matter. There are a variety of factors to consider such as your age, your career, your family, whether you’re planning to start a family, your medical history, your prescriptions, and more. That’s why we’ve outlined the top things you should consider when selecting a health insurance plan so you can ensure you’re getting a plan fit for your specific needs. Download Our Free Guide On How to Select a Health Insurance Plan Step 1: Determine how you’ll be getting a
Healthcare Spending Report Analysis
A recent report was released revealing information related to healthcare spending in 2013. The most important information taken from the report seems to be that the use of healthcare services decreased on average while the cost of services increased. This research was compiled from nearly five billion claims that were submitted. The key takeaways: Health spending increased by 3.9% in 2013 Health spending increased because of rate increases rather than use of services The number of outpatient services as well as inpatient services decreased as prices increased Emergency room visits and outpatient surgeries decreased Prescription drug prices increased while generic drug prices dropped (this also
Health Insurance 101
Understanding health insurance is not an easy task. Many Americans are confused by the terms, how their benefits work, which doctors and hospitals they can see, what type of coverage they have, what’s included in their coverage, etc. Last year, a report by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants revealed that more than half of Americans surveyed could not explain common health insurance terms including premium, co-pay, deductible, etc. Typically, Americans choose health plans based on preferred doctors they want to see or based on which plans provide the most coverage for the health benefits they are seeking. If an individual does not have
Healthcare Website Hacked
Last week, reports were released that hackers got access to the Healthcare.gov server and initiated a malware attack. They hackers went undetected for almost 2 months and the government only became aware of the attack after running a manual scam of the database. This is the first noted case of a hacker successfully getting through the site’s defenses. This news comes only a year after the numerous crashes to the website upon open enrollment. According to the Wall Street Journal, malware was uploaded to one of the servers signaling a fake wave of traffic. This increased wave of traffic could crash the site making online
Top 3 Reasons Why You Need Health Insurance
There are many reasons or events for why you may want to start looking into purchasing a health insurance plan. Health insurance is a preventative form of coverage in case of an emergency or event in which you may need to seek medical attention. We’ve compiled the top 3 reasons why you may need health insurance. #1: Emergency Room Visits Did you know that there are 129.8 million emergency room visits each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UC San Francisco examined a range of reasons people may need to visit an emergency room and the average out of patient cost ranges anywhere
Pay or Play Tools To Understand Healthcare Penalties
The “Pay or Play” mandate determines whether employers will pay the penalty to avoid purchasing coverage for their employees or they’ll “play” and provide the coverage required by law. There are two penalties stated by the employer mandate that go into the decision of whether employers will “pay or play”: If an employer has 50 or more full time employees, they must offer the minimum essential benefits to those employees and their dependents. Employers must offer affordable coverage that meets the minimum value requirements. So would you rather pay or play? Employers with 100+ employees have until 2015 to decide and employers with 50-99 employees
California Took the Lead in Implementing the ACA
According to California Healthline, California was one of the leaders in implementing the Affordable Care Act through the Covered California exchange program. Within the first open enrollment period, California had the highest number of sign ups along with Medicaid enrollments.That’s not to say that it wasn’t a bumpy start with the website issues. However, California’s early preparations did lead to a better growth rate at the end of the enrollment period compared to other state run exchanges. What lead to this success? California focused efforts on enrolling people in Medi-Cal (more than 600,000 state residents received coverage through this expansion) $200 million dollars was spent
How will Single Doctor Medical Practices Be Affected By Obamacare?
It is uncertain whether the Affordable Care Act will actually help or hinder our country’s efforts at creating a better health program for its citizens. However, recent information has revealed that the Affordable Care Act may be hurting small businesses and single doctor medical practices. Many single doctor medical practices have been forced to shut down their businesses due to high costs and have started working with bigger practices to remain profitable. What has caused this? The high inflation rate of Medicare procedures has caused an Escondido community doctor to consider giving up his practice. While only 72, Doug questions whether he can afford to
Covered California Expands Deadline to Enroll
By 2AM April 1st, there were 1.2 million Californians enrolled in the exchange. However, the late night surge in applicants attempting to enroll in Covered California by the March 31st deadline caused the website to crash and stall repeatedly. Officials have decided to allow consumers to enroll in person with agents or on the phone until April 15th. “Peter Lee, the executive director for Covered California, said during a teleconference late Monday that the deadline was not being extended. Rather, he said the state exchange was relying on the honor system to allow Californians one more chance to sign up.” Officials feel that they have