Could disability insuranc
Carriers already are using the new minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) rules as an
excuse to impose the 50% commission cuts
they have been talking about for a decade.
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But lately, it seems that the ones who
need this coverage the most are producers
themselves to safeguard their own practices from catastrophe.
The imminent catastrophe is, of course,
the effects the federal Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA)
could have on health insurance agent and
broker commissions.
No one knows whether PPACA will really take effect as written, or at all, or if
whatever version of the law takes effect will
cut health producer commissions as much
as industry watchers say it could.
Health insurers have been trying to
slash producer commissioners since the
mid-1990s. Today, the members of the National Association of Health Underwriters,
Arlington, Va., are still far more of a force
to be reckoned with than the web services
that tried to replace them.
The new threat to producers comes
from PPACA, which will require carriers to
hold the percentage of revenue spent on
health care and quality improvement efforts to 85% for large group coverage and to
80% for individual and small group coverage. In 2014, PPACA could further reduce
producer commissions by encouraging
individuals and small employer groups to
buy coverage from a new system of online
health insurance exchanges.
