On October 28, new rules were released, that among other things, govern excepted benefits coverage and short-term medical (STM) coverage. An October 30 article from the Health Affairs Blog provides a nice overview of the key changes.

Do you have a life insurance license? 

There are two sure things in life: death and taxes. If you're not a mortician, and you're not an accountant, you can sell life insurance. But why sell life insurance now if you've never done it before?

Are you a health insurance agent trying to figure out what to do next and raise your commissions? Get trained on how to sell life insurance.

An October 12 article in Modern Healthcare reports that Humana and Cigna both received lower quality ratings from CMS for 2017, causing their stock prices to fall last week.

With only one carrier left in Maricopa County on the exchange and plan prices increasing, many agents are turning to short term health insurance plans to help their clients curb costs. While there are many things to think about when working with a client who wants a short term plan, here are the 5 main things to consider:

The government announced today that Social Security recipients and federal retirees will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase of just 0.3 percent in 2017. The increase will take effect on Dec. 30, 2016.

The door has closed in Maricopa County for under-65 health insurance. The county is left with only one carrier in the market. All under-65 plans now have little to no commissions, which puts health agents in a bind. There are general agencies completely letting go of that business, leaving brokers without direction and holding a book of business that they feel is worthless.

Starting in 2017, five states will begin testing a new Part D enhanced medication therapy management model. One of those states is Arizona!

With Individual and Family plan commissions quickly dwindling this year, many agents who primarily sold under age 65 health insurance are getting out of the business. They can’t justify spending an hour or two with each of their clients when they aren’t getting any commissions. There aren’t many qualified health insurance options that agents can offer, which will result in most clients going through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Due to this, many agents are taking their Health insurance licenses and using them to work in call center jobs for health carriers and large online entities.