Strong & Affordable Plans- Serving Individuals and Business

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between a broker and an agent?

An independent agent can work with many different insurance carriers, i.e. United Healthcare, National General, BlueCross Blue Shield, Aetna, etc. In other words, they don’t represent a specific insurance company, but place business among various companies. Agents, on the other hand, solicit insurance on behalf of an insurance company- sometimes referred to as career agents- one who only works for one insurance company.

What are some of the different types of health care insurance coverage?

Some types of medical insurance are major-medical, short-term coverage, dental/vision plans, accidental & sickness medical benefits, fixed indemnity, and critical illness plans.

I have a high-deductible, how can I limit my expenses?

An option for you is a fixed indemnity plan, it is health insurance that pays a set amount of cash when you receive specific covered medical services. The benefits are paid regardless of any other insurance you have! This will assist in paying any out-of-pocket expenses you have.

I used to have an employer-paid plan, how can I purchase something similar?

If you want similar coverage to an employer-paid cafeteria plan you can bundle different types of health insurance to cover all your bases; i.e. you have a base medical plan to cover your basic medical needs, and to protect yourself from large out-of-pocket expenses you add an accident and critical illness plan to cover yourself. Now if you have an accident and say break your arm, or you are diagnosed with cancer you can tap into the accident and critical illness coverage to pay your deductible and household & living expenses.

What’s the difference between an HMO and a PPO?

An HMO is a Health Maintenance Organization, that offers comprehensive prepaid health care services to its subscribing members. A PPO is a Preferred Provider Organization, it’s a collection of healthcare providers, such as physicians, hospitals, and clinics, who offer their services to certain groups at prearranged prices. In exchange, the group refers its members to preferred providers for health care services.

What is a surprise medical bill?

Put simply, a surprise medical bill is one that the patient wasn’t expecting, usually because he or she was careful to stay in-network for a planned procedure or assumed a procedure would be covered by insurance. As a lot of people find out, though, most doctors who work in a hospital do not necessarily work for the hospital, and even when a hospital is in-network for a particular health plan, many of these hospital-based physicians choose not to join the contracted provider network.

Without agreeing to contracted rates ahead of time, these providers are free to “balance-bill” the member after the insurance company pays what it considers to be a “reasonable and customary” amount. The four categories of physicians who most frequently send surprise medical bills to their patients are anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists, and emergency room, physicians.

Is a Short-Term Plan right for me?

• Don’t want to pay for high costs of ACA and looking for options to fit budget
• Maybe in between jobs or have to meet a waiting period requirement
• Want coverage that includes benefits for Office visits, Preventive care, Urgent care visits, Prescription medications, and more
• Have missed open enrollment. We commonly see people who have missed open enrollment and don’t have a qualifying life event. As a result, they have to wait until the end of the year to get insurance, leaving them unprotected for the whole year. Many clients don’t feel comfortable being uninsured for any amount of time.
• Are waiting for Medicare. We get a lot of shorter term policies where agents write it for a few months to cover clients while they are waiting to qualify for their Medicare benefits.
• Many of our clients are students who need insurance coverage for a certain class or program, but also quite often, we have international students who need insurance for a semester or two while staying here in the United States.
• And we can provide coverage for waiting periods that apply to some clients who started a new job.