Ken Williams ChFC, CLTC, CLU

Ken Williams ChFC, CLTC, CLU We find the best pricing on health insurance for individual and small businesses The most common mistake I see is all family members on the same plan.

Kirkland Reporter - Best of Kirkland Award 2011

US Commerce Association - 2011 Best of Kirkland Award


We specialize in individual and small business health insurance in the Seattle area. Often a husband only needs a yearly physical, the wife goes in a few more times and needs a few prescriptions and the kids just need a few doctor visits for the winter colds. Instead of one plan....how about

three? Improve everyone's coverage and lower costs. Also, there is no rule that says a small business needs to have a group health plan, giving an allowance to employees to buy their own coverage is often better and less expensive. We can quote various trusts such as the Washington Farm Bureau and the NW Employer's Trust. Their rates can be very competitive if matched up with the correct type of group. There is no extra cost to you if we find a plan for you. There are also some inexpexpensive catastrophic and temporary plans.....certainly better than no coverage at all. We work very hard to keep current on the ever changing health insurance market. Give us a call....we would love to help.

09/02/2022

This will be my last post here. For current information on health insurance, trends, political issues affecting your insurance and updates, please follow Health Care Reform Seattle going forward.

08/31/2022

Ex-NBA player pleads guilty in health insurance fraud case
Insurance News Net.

A former National Basketball Association player has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and identity theft charges, having been accused of being the ringleader of a scheme to defraud the league’s health plan of millions of dollars through fake medical claims. Terrence Williams, a former New Jersey Nets player, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan, Reuters reported.

08/24/2022

Amazon Care is shutting down at the end of 2022. Here's why.

By Heather Landi / FIERCE Healthcare

Three years after it began piloting a primary care service for its employees that blended telehealth and in-person medical services, Amazon plans to cease operations of its Amazon Care service.

Amazon announced Wednesday afternoon that it would end Amazon Care operations after December 31. In an email to Amazon Health Services employees, Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said Amazon Care wasn't a sustainable, long-term solution for its enterprise customers.

Amazon provided a copy of the email to Fierce Healthcare.

The decision only impacts Amazon Care and Care Medical teams and not Amazon's other healthcare services.

While operating Amazon Care, the company "gathered and listened to extensive feedback" from its enterprise customers and their employees and evolved the service to continuously improve the experience for customers.

"However, despite these efforts, we’ve determined that Amazon Care isn’t the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers, and have decided that we will no longer offer Amazon Care after December 31, 2022," Lindsay wrote.

"This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration. Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term," he said.

08/16/2022

These 3 Healthcare Threats Will Do More Damage Than Covid-19.

Robert Pearl, M.D.

For two years, the Covid-19 pandemic rattled financial markets, dominated news coverage and disrupted daily life in ways most Americans would never have predicted.

But now, in year three, the coronavirus has been downgraded to a persistent yet manageable threat—on par with the flu. Thanks to some familiar medical solutions (vaccines, antiviral meds and public safety measures), three-quarters of Americans say the worst of Covid-19 is behind us.

Now, a new disaster looms. American healthcare stands in direct path of the perfect storm.

Decades of price escalation combined with eroding quality and misused technologies have made U.S. healthcare the “most expensive and least effective” system in the developed world. By themselves, these protracted healthcare issues are manageable and might have been tackled over time, using familiar fixes.

However, that was before a trio of “mega forces” arrived that now threaten to create healthcare’s version of the perfect storm. Without urgent and radical solutions, these forces will combine to produce a massive medical disaster—one that will prove far more destructive and costly than Covid-19.

Mega Force 1: Untamed Inflation

Mega Force 2: The Nursing Shortage

Mega Force #3: The Burnout Crisis

08/11/2022

RAND: Private plans paid hospitals 224% more than Medicare rates.

Robert King / FIERCE Healthcare

Private insurance plans paid hospitals on average 224% more compared with Medicare rates for both inpatient and outpatient services in 2020, a new study found.

Researchers at RAND Corporation looked at data from 4,000 hospitals in 49 states from 2018 to 2020. While the 224% increase in rates is high, it is a slight reduction from the 247% reported in 2018 in the last study RAND performed.

“This reduction is a result of a substantial increase in the volume of claims in the analysis from states with prices below the previous average price,” the study said.

The report showed that plans in certain states wound up paying hospitals more than others. It found that Florida, West Virginia and South Carolina had prices that were at or even higher than 310% of Medicare.

But other states like Hawaii, Arkansas and Washington paid less than 175% of Medicare rates.

CMS has also published regulations that call on hospitals to increase transparency of prices, including a rule that mandates hospitals publish online the prices for roughly 300 shoppable services.

08/08/2022

Expanded health insurance subsidies remain intact for 13 million people under Inflation Reduction Act.
Sarah O’Brien / CNBC

The Inflation Reduction Act, which cleared the Senate on Sunday, includes an extension of temporarily expanded subsidies put in place for 2021 and 2022.

The House would need to approve the bill before it could be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Without the extension for the more generous subsidies, some people would see their premiums rise by more than 50%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

08/01/2022

National health care spending declines for first time in 60 years.

RevCycleIntelligence
National health care spending has declined for the first time in 60 years in the first quarter of 2022, with the country seeing a 1.7% year-over-year decrease, a research brief from Altarum found. Between 1960 and 2020, health care spending growth has always been positive and greater than economy-wide inflation, according to the CMS National Health Expenditure Accounts.

07/28/2022

Obamacare Website Cost Over $2 Billion
DAILY BEAST

Far exceeding estimates by the Obama administration, a Bloomberg Government analysis estimates that the Obamacare enrollment system has cost roughly $2.1 billion.

The estimate provided by the administration for healthcare.gov as well as other programs was last $834 million. The construction of the healthcare.gov involved 60 companies and was rife with infighting.

The administration differs, and a spokesman for CMS said in a statement that “The GAO, HHS’s Inspector General and the department all measured the cost of marketplace-related IT contracts for healthcare.gov. But this report measures different things, and not surprisingly, produces a different number.” He also pointed out that the Affordable Care Act has saved consumers an estimated $9 billion in health-care costs.

07/27/2022

Biden administration announces new division to deal with pandemics.

HealthDay News

The Biden administration announced July 21 that it will create a new division in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services focused solely on coordinating responses to pandemic threats and other health emergencies. The office of the existing Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response will become its own operating division called the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

07/19/2022

What if the American Rescue Plan Act Premium Tax Credits Expire?
Coverage and Cost Projections for 2023: Over 3 Million People Could Lose Insurance if American Rescue Plans’ Premium Tax Credits Expire.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) increased Premium Tax Credits (PTCs) for Marketplace insurance coverage and extended eligibility for PTCs to more individuals, making health insurance more affordable for millions in America. However, the enhanced tax credits are set to expire after 2022.

Over 3 million more people (3.1M) could be uninsured in 2023 if the PTCs expire at the end of 2022, as planned.

Non-Hispanic Black individuals, young adults, and people with incomes between 138 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line would experience the largest coverage losses.

Individuals and families enrolled in the Marketplaces or other nongroup coverage will pay hundreds of dollars more per person each year in premiums if the PTCs expire. People currently eligible for PTCs with incomes between 150 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level would pay over $1,000 more per person for a silver plan. People with incomes above 400 percent of the federal poverty level who lose eligibility would pay roughly $2,000 more per year.

Extending the enhanced PTCs will increase the federal deficit by $305 billion over 10 years, unless legislation extending the PTCs includes raising revenue.

The ARP’s enhanced PTCs resulted in unprecedented enrollment in Marketplace health insurance. Their expiration would result in mass coverage losses and premium hikes. Researchers say Congress would need to act by midsummer if they wish to extend the PTCs to give Marketplaces, insurers, and outreach programs time to prepare for the 2023 open enrollment period, which begins this November.

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