Tips on Finding the Right Health Insurance

Most companies offer an open-enrollment period once a year, occasionally twice a year. Certain life changes such as a birth, death or marriage allow for the altering of benefits in between these open-enrollment periods. Each year, policies are changed, prices fluctuate, and more often than not, premiums are increased. This, in turn, forces some people to minimize their insurance. Unfortunately, many people make these changes without shopping around and knowing what to look for in a health policy.

Looking for a good Project Management Software? Check out Zoho Projects Today to get started!
HMO vs. PPO vs. POS

Health maintenance organizations (HMO) are typically the least expensive but force customers to hurdle the many obstacles of their primary-care physician requirements and require authorizations.

Preferred provider organizations (PPO) are slightly more expensive then HMOs, still require a primary physician, but bypass many authorization requirements.

Point of service plans (POS) allow for visiting physicians outside of your network, but offer financial incentives to frequent those in the network.

Low Premiums vs. Low Co-payments

Lower premiums are beneficial to healthier, and typically younger, people. Those with chronic illnesses, accident-prone children and situations that bring them to their primary care physician frequently should opt for lower co-payments.

Lifetime Maximum Explained

The lifetime maximum listed on health insurance plans are the final number when benefits no longer pay out. This number is typically as high as one million dollars, but includes situations such as prescriptions, hospital stays and even organ transplant. The likelihood of a healthy person reaching their lifetime maximum is slim, although certain surgeries such as organ transplants can quickly accumulate to the lifetime maximum.

Beware of low lifetime maximums. A low number such as $200,000 can quickly and easily be met by a serious accident or even unexpected illness.

Keep Planned Events in Mind

If you are pregnant or expect to start a family, obviously, you will be frequenting the doctor with small coughs and childhood injuries. Immunizations are needed at least four times a year the first year, as well as eye checks, dental checks, and hearing checks. Be aware of your plans and check your maternity coverage, as well as co-payments for well-child visits and immunizations. Some health insurance plans require a one-year wait on maternity coverage.

Check your Medicine Cabinet

Prescription coverage in health insurance may not worry some families, but those with mandatory prescriptions on a monthly basis can have these bills add up quickly. Know what your prescriptions are, and know what tier the fall in to estimate the annual cost. Try to find generics and cheaper, yet effective, substitutes. Some insurance companies offer a discounted rate for mail-ordering prescriptions with a 90-day supply. If yours does, ask your physician to prescribe a 90-day supply. Do not be ashamed to ask your doctor for samples to hold you over until you receive your prescription.

Are You Running the Risk of an Uninsured Business?

Fires break out, accidents happen and people get sick, slip and fall, or even die. Unfortunate life events occur all the time, and with your employees are in the office 40 hours a week, these life events can and will occur at your business.

Many business owners try to get by without having business insurance. While you may be trimming dollars and cents from your budget, you are exposing your business to severe risk.

Why You Need Business Insurance

These days, anyone can get sued. Without solid business insurance coverage, one accident or lawsuit can clean out your financial resources and put you out of business. Your business needs business insurance because of the potential threats and many risks that accompany successful and continuous expansion and operations. A thorough business insurance policy can help protect your business from as much as possible.

The Different Types of Business Insurance

Business insurance offers different types of coverage to protect you from loss. You can cover property (offices, buildings, etc.), company-owned vehicles, insure against lawsuits, and provide health insurance for your employees.

Property/Casualty Insurance

Property insurance can cover the physical location of your business – whether it is rented or leased – and its contents from fire, theft, flood and earthquakes. Read the fine print closely to make sure they include everything you need cover for. Casualty insurance covers the operation of the business, which helps provide “all risks” coverage. This will ensure that you have enough coverage to completely rebuild your structure at current costs, if something were to happen.

General Liability Insurance

This coverage protects your business if someone is injured at the physical location of your business, and covers injuries caused by a product or service you sell. Check the coverage carefully because there are many exclusions to general liability coverage, which is why many businesses go with an umbrella policy.

Umbrella Liability Insurance

This type of business insurance fills in the gaps of left by all your other forms of insurance. If you make a product that could injure or damage, like heavy machinery or exercise equipment, umbrella coverage will make sure you won’t be stuck with a huge hospital bill or lawsuit.

Business Interruption Insurance

Could a hurricane, blackout or fire stop your business in its tracks for weeks or months? Think about the Gulf Coast businesses after BP’s recent oil spill and then consider business interruption insurance. While property/casualty insurance covers physical damage, it won’t compensate you for lost sales.

Health/Life & Disability Insurance

Health insurance provides coverage options for you and your employees. Life & disability business insurance covers your business in the event of a death or disability of key owners, partners or employees.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

By law, if you have employees, you must offer workers’ compensation — which covers employees injured on the job.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Does your business own vehicles? Commercial auto insurance covers the loss or damage to company-owned vehicles and for damage to others caused by a company-owned vehicle.

Don’t Run the Risk, Get Business Insurance

The best way for you to prepare your business for future success is to ensure it overcomes any risks and threats that may block your operations. Determine exactly what kind of coverage you need for your business now and in the future. Don’t run the risk of an uninsured business, get business insurance now.

Why Insurance Companies Pool Their Resources to Fund the Highway Safety Institute

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent, non-profit and scientific institute designed to make automobile travel safer. They attempt to reduce injuries, deaths and property damage due to automobile accidents. One of the main ways they do this is testing and grading cars by make and model and publishing this information for the general public.

Here’s an idea of what do they do.

Testing Cars

The IIHS simulates crashes as they might happen on the road to assess automobile safety. They conduct offset tests where cars collide on the front corner rather than straight on. These offset tests more closely emulate actual crashes on the road to demonstrate how cars perform in actual road conditions. They also conduct fender bender tests and side impact tests intended to examine how a car performs when struck from different sides. In addition to road tests, they also test car seats and head restraints for child and passenger safety.

Grading Cars

Vehicles are given one of four letter grades that correspond to their level of safety. The letters G, A, M and P correspond to Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor.

Dispersing the Information to the Public

The great thing about the IIHS is that once they grade vehicles, they don’t keep this valuable safety information private, but make it available to the public, which allows consumers to make informed purchases. In fact, many companies eagerly await the ratings of the IIHS and use them to promote the safety of their vehicles (if they are positive).

Perhaps the most surprising part of the IIHS is that their activities are funded by insurance companies. Why do they choose to invest their money into the institute? The answer is simple; it benefits everyone. Their activities help car companies improve their products; consumers choose the safest car and insurance agents to select the appropriate premiums for each automobile

Their studies can also identify trends and technology that make roads safer for all drivers and cut down on wrecks. Safer roads and fewer wrecks mean lower insurance premiums for everyone and insurance companies paying out fewer claims. In the end, the work of the IIHS benefits all Americans, as it makes our roads and ultimately our citizens, safer.