Posts by Frank Stichter

In December of 2021, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) was signed in the legislation, and among other things it now requires full transparency and disclosure by brokers and consultants and service providers as to the amount that they charge for every service, or program that they provide to you and your company. Service providers may…

Hear me out on this one. For decades, we’ve all been exposed and educated to the benefits of PPO Networks. Comparing big discounts between insurance companies and network access has always been the norm – even though we really don’t know what the contractual discounts are. Nonetheless, this has always been the standard when shopping…

For decades we’ve all been taught by the insurance industry and medical providers of the value of networks – PPOs, HMOs, EPOs, EIEIO… While they have served a purpose over those decades, the reality is that they just don’t work anymore. Here’s why: PPO discounts are negotiated by insurance companies as a discount off of…

As everyone knows, there is a direct correlation between increased health insurance costs and the increased cost of healthcare. You’ve probably heard in the recent past from your broker that you may have had a bad year of claims so your health insurance costs are going up. If you want to pay less for health…

It seems that there’s a lot of misalignment in the world today and it couldn’t be more true in the insurance world, especially the relationship that benefit brokers have with their clients. Are brokers’ interests aligned with their clients’ interests? I would say not. Where is the value of benefits professionals? Is it in the…

Federal law requires Plan Fiduciaries to take into account and act for the plan participants best interests. Most employers know that this applies to qualified retirement plans, but may not know that it applies to health plans as well. Here is the dilemma: how can a plan fiduciary act in the best interests of their…

Everyone knows that health plan costs are the direct result of medical and pharmacy claim costs. And with claim costs increasing again this year, chances are you’re going to see a moderate to high increase in your health plan cost. The two largest areas of claim costs are 1) facility claims (hospitals, dialysis, imaging, etc.)…

The current healthcare system is working, it’s just not working for employers and employees. If you’ve been to the hospital in recent years, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The costs are out of control. But with the ‘other Golden Rule’ hospitals can charge whatever they want – there are no laws, limits, or…