Last week I put together some very enlightening statistics on how we get hosed by health insurance carriers.
Let me rephrase that. Last week I put together some very enlightening statistics on how we get hosed by health insurance carriers on experienced rated policies.
This is a problem because most health policies are NOT experience rated. Something on the order of 90 percent. So now you're probably thinking I didn't do my homework, or the Commodore 64 I used to crunch the numbers wasn't powerful enough to handle the epic condemnation that the data would have brought down on the industry.
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Nope. Claims data is simply not reported on 5500s filed for non-experience rated policies. What this means is that we the people are missing out on data for tens of thousands of plans. Why? Because some grade nineteen bureaucrat decided it wasn't important enough to include on the form, and it's not just this valuable claims data.
If you pour me a coupe of sazeracs I'll rattle off dozens of important plan data points that are not listed on the 5500: in-service withdrawals on retirement plans, detailed investment data, proper plan cost breakdowns, everything there is to know about the 2-99 health market. The list goes on.
This is actionable data that could revolutionize the entire employee benefits industry if only it were reported!
So write Congress. Tweet Occupy Wall Street. And in general make a fuss.
The squeaky wheel gets the data.
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