Category: Health Insurance

Physician Contracting 101 – Rickard & Associates

Physician contracts are often complicated and have unique terms. We help our clients understand the terms and negotiate their contracts.

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Many of our clients are physicians who are negotiating or renegotiating their employment contracts with their employers. Sometimes these are with health systems, hospitals, or small physician offices.

We also have clients come to us with issues after they negotiated their own contracts.

Physician contracts are unique, as they have standard employment terms, healthcare terms, and a variety of terms from the employer related to the employer, the specialty, productivity and more.

When reviewing your physician contract, make sure that you fully understand the following:

  1. Termination provisions. How can your employer terminate your agreement and how much notice are you
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Does Divorce Change My Estate Plan?

Yes! Even if you don’t have a written estate plan, you have an estate plan per the laws of your state. If you get divorced, the nature of your estate plan will change.

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If you have a written estate plan and get divorced, once your divorce is final, you need to update your plan.

It is likely your divorce may change things such as your:

  • legal name,
  • Trustees,
  • beneficiaries,
  • Power of attorney, and more.

Other than your estate plan, it is important to reassess:

  • jointly owned properties,
  • Beneficiaries on retirement accounts and life insurance,
  • Vehicle titles, and more.

If you have minor children, it is incredibly important to consider your estate plan because you will need to give thought to

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Easy Enrollment Program Launches Today Creating a New Health Insurance Enrollment Opportunity

New State Program Removes Barriers to Receiving Affordable Health Care

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), beWellnm (New Mexico’s Official Health Insurance Marketplace), the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance (OSI), and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD), announced the launch of Easy Enrollment. The new program allows New Mexicans to check a box on their state income tax form to see if they qualify for low-cost or no-cost health care coverage through Medicaid or be-Wellnm.

“Easy Enrollment will allow us to reach New Mexicans who are eligible for health coverage and help them receive their benefits,” said the state’s Medicaid Director Nicole Comeaux.

Recent estimates show that about half of the 214,000 New Mexicans who don’t have health coverage qualifying for Medicaid or reduced-cost coverage on be Wellnm. BeWellnm typically covers people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid and

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Paul Merchants Partners with Care Health Insurance

CHANDIGARH, India, Feb. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Paul Merchants, a fast-growing NBFC based in Chandigarh, has partnered with Care Health Insurance to provide their customers with various health insurance products. PML Gold Plus Program which provides group health cover to customers along with the gold loan was successfully launched a month ago.

Paul Merchants Partners with Care Health Insurance

Paul Merchants Partners with Care Health Insurance

“At Paul Merchants, we serve customers from semi-urban to rural areas India by providing them with affordable Gold Loans to meet their basic financial needs. We are pleased to collaborate with Care Health Insurance, to offer our customers comprehensive healthcare and wellness solutions. Our Insurance products will help, to alleviate the financial burden of unexpected hospitalization or medical emergencies. Care Health Insurance has done exceptionally well with customers and has gained good traction in the very first month of our partnership,” said Mr Rajneesh BansalManaging Director of Paul Merchants.

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Reports: 12 Oregon health insurance companies failed to fully comply with the Reproductive Health Equity Act

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – All 12 health insurance companies in the individual, small group, and large group markets in Oregon failed to fully comply with the Reproductive Health Equity Act at varying levels, according to reports released Wednesday by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services ‘Division of Financial Regulation.

The agency found that most noncompliance involved improperly charging copays, coinsurance, and deductibles or failing to cover mandated benefits.

The division examined Aetna Life Insurance Company, BridgeSpan Health Company, Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, HealthNet Health Plan of Oregon, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest, Moda Health Plan, PacificSource Health Plans, Providence Health Plan, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon , Samaritan Health Plans, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, and UnitedHealthcare of Oregon.

The examinations found that each of the 12 insurers failed to pay all eligible claims according to RHEA requirements. They applied copays, coinsurance, and deductibles, which are

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Breaking: New Self-Disclosure Policy – Rickard & Associates

The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a new Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy to be used by US Attorney Offices throughout the country.

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The new policy helps to encourage early and voluntary self-disclosure of corporate criminal misconduct. It reinforces the importance of having an effective compliance plan that identifies misconduct.

To be a voluntary self-disclosure, the disclosure must be voluntary, timely and must contain all relevant facts of misconduct.

If the disclosure is all of the above, the government will not seek a guilty plea against the companyso long as the company also fully cooperates with investigators and appropriately remediates the criminal conduct.

However, even if the disclosure counts as a voluntary self-disclosure, if the misconduct:

  • poses a grave threat
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Medicare Open Enrollment Ends Soon. Do You Have to Join if You’re 65?

Medicare is a federal health insurance program designed for senior Americans 65 years old or older. The enrollment period for the program started at the beginning of 2023, but the deadline is quickly approaching — March 31.

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During this period, anyone who hasn’t previously enrolled in Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan can join one or the other. However, if you have work-based health insurance and/or are applicable for certain conditions, you may choose not to enroll.

Learn more about how Medicare works, what your options are and what penalties you could face for late enrollment after 65. Plus, find out about the new Medicare premium and deductible prices for 2023 and why the Inflation Reduction Act makes Medicare more powerful.

How does the Medicare program work?

The Original Medicare program consisted of two main parts — Part A for hospital insurance and Part B for general medical insurance

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Laid off? 11 things you should know about your health care.

If you have been putting money into a Flexible Spending Account, or FSA, be aware there is a “use it or lose it” policy that requires you to use the money within a certain amount of time, and you can use it only for expenses happened during your employment, said Sarah Michalczuk, founder and chief executive of Predictability, a tool to help consumers compare health insurance options. Find receipts for drugstore purchases such as pain relievers, cold medicines and tampons, glasses, contact lenses, skin-care products and health technology, and get reimbursed from your FSA.

There are no stipulations on when you must spend the money in your Health Savings Account, or HSA. There are rules, however, regarding when you put money into it, Michalczuk said. You can contribute to your HSA only while you are on a qualifying High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), she said.

Your employer should be able to

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What Happens When You Don’t Fund Your Trust?

After you work with your estate planning attorney to draft a carefully tailored estate plan, it is usually your responsibility to “fund” the trust.

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What does funding the trust mean?

Funding the trust is simply transferring assets into your trust.

If you have a trust, you will want to put your assets into the trust, by retitling bank accounts, re-designating beneficiaries of life insurance, etc. We walk our clients through the process, but we usually recommend that the clients make the transfers themselves.

If clients fail to make the transfers or fail to title them correctly, the assets will not be a part of the trust.

This means that the assets outside of the trust will still need to go

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Nearly half of US gig workers report difficulty accessing health insurance, the study finds

stylized computer screen that says Health Insurance (Photo: Shutterstock)

Freelance work has a negative impact on the ability of nearly half of US gig workers to find access to health insurance. In addition, many are stressed and frustrated by the lack of a social safety net, according to a study by Legal & General Group, a financial services company in the United Kingdom.

“The pandemic has made it abundantly clear that we can’t have economic health without physical health,” said Sir Nigel Wilson, the company’s CEO. “Health care coverage is considered a given in the most wealthy, industrialized nations. American gig workers expressing insecurity over their coverage acts as a call to action for companies to tackle this deeply embedded divide. The private sector has the collective know-how and financial wherewithal to develop creative leveling-up solutions that make both social and fiscal sense.”

Among the other findings:

  • Twenty-three percent of gig workers have no health insurance.
  • Sixty-nine
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