Letter From Member Benefits’ CEO Regarding Health Insurance Delays During Open Enrollment

Dear Client,

I want to assure you that all of us at Member Benefits completely understand your concern regarding the complications and delays that are occurring in regards to your application for health insurance. I feel privileged that you have chosen Member Benefits to help you with such an important decision to choose and apply for your health coverage.

These are unprecedented times for health insurance carriers. The following will help you understand why all of the carriers are overwhelmed to various degrees:

• Over 27,000,000 people have newly applied or changed their plans for insurance since 11/01/15.
• One of our leading carriers informed us that they received more than 10,000 applications on 12/15/15, the deadline date to apply for a 1/1/16 effective date.
• Several carriers dropped some of their most popular plans for 2016, causing a panic amongst insureds to secure similar coverage with other carriers.
• Regardless of the reasons, insurance companies underwriting, billing, and issuance systems are overwhelmed with the volume and are not able to deliver approvals, policy documents, and identification cards in a reasonable manner.
• One carrier is predicting that policies may take as long as March to be issued with a 1/1/16 effective date.
• Some carriers are asking us to inform insureds that they might need to pay their claims “out of pocket” and request reimbursement once the policy is issued.
• Although the carriers greatly increased their staff to handle the volume, some carriers stated that they were expecting a 40% increase in customer service needs and actually received an increase of up to 500%.

It is important to me that you know our staff is working tirelessly and is in constant contact with the carriers to expedite the processing of our clients’ applications.

Again, we are all empathetic with your very justifiable concerns. In addition, we are certain that we will be able to satisfy your needs and ultimately deliver to you the product you applied for.

Earl C. “Chip” Trefry, Jr. CLU
President/CEO