Sunday 27 September 2015

How To Get Health Insurance Without A Job

In the U.S., whether you are unemployed you can get an affordable health insurance with savings based on your income and household size. 


How To Get Health Insurance Without A Job in United States
How To Get Health Insurance Without A Job


Coverage

  • Ends Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions for Children: Health plans can no longer limit or deny benefits to children under 19 due to a pre-existing condition.
  • Keeps Young Adults Covered: If you are under 26, you may be eligible to be covered under your parent’s health plan.
  • Ends Arbitrary Withdrawals of Insurance Coverage: Insurers can no longer cancel your coverage just because you made an honest mistake.
  • Guarantees Your Right to Appeal: You now have the right to ask that your plan reconsider its denial of payment.

Costs

  • Ends Lifetime Limits on Coverage: Lifetime limits on most benefits are banned for all new health insurance plans.
  • Reviews Premium Increases: Insurance companies must now publicly justify any unreasonable rate hikes.
  • Helps You Get the Most from Your Premium Dollars: Your premium dollars must be spent primarily on health care – not administrative costs.

Care

  • Covers Preventive Care at No Cost to You: You may be eligible for recommended preventive health services. 
  • Protects Your Choice of Doctors: Choose the primary care doctor you want from your plan’s network.
  • Removes Insurance Company Barriers to Emergency Services: You can seek emergency care at a hospital outside of your health plan’s network.

 Affordable Care Act(ACA) / Obamacare :


The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health. 


The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and then signed into law by the President on March 23, 2010.

On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court rendered a final decision to uphold the health care law.
  • Read the Supreme Court’s Decision on the Affordable Care Act

Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans

This Act puts individuals, families and small business owners in control of their health care. It reduces premium costs for millions of working families and small businesses by providing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax relief – the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.  It also reduces what families will have to pay for health care by capping out-of-pocket expenses and requiring preventive care to be fully covered without any out-of-pocket expense. For Americans with insurance coverage who like what they have, they can keep it. Nothing in this act or anywhere in the bill forces anyone to change the insurance they have, period.

Americans without insurance coverage will be able to choose the insurance coverage that works best for them in a new open, competitive insurance market – the same insurance market that every member of Congress will be required to use for their insurance. The insurance exchange will pool buying power and give Americans new affordable choices of private insurance plans that have to compete for their business based on cost and quality. Small business owners will not only be able to choose insurance coverage through this exchange, but will receive a new tax credit to help offset the cost of covering their employees.  

The Role of Public Programs


The Act extends Medicaid while treating all States equally.  It preserves CHIP, the successful children’s insurance plan, and simplifies enrollment for individuals and families.
It enhances community-based care for Americans with disabilities and provides States with opportunities to expand home care services to people with long-term care needs.
The Act gives flexibility to States to adopt innovative strategies to improve care and the coordination of services for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.  And it saves taxpayer money by reducing prescription drug costs and payments to subsidize care for uninsured Americans, as more Americans gain insurance under reform.

Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Health Care


The Act will protect and preserve Medicare as a commitment to America’s seniors.  It will save thousands of dollars in drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries by closing the coverage gap called the “donut hole.”  Doctors, nurses and hospitals will be incentivized to improve care and reduce unnecessary errors that harm patients.  And beneficiaries in rural America will benefit as the Act enhances access to health care services in underserved areas.
The Act takes important steps to make sure that we can keep the commitment of Medicare for the next generation of seniors by ending massive overpayments to insurance companies that cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars per year.  As the numbers of Americans without insurance falls, the Act saves taxpayer dollars by keeping people healthier before they join the program and reducing Medicare’s need to pay hospitals to care for the uninsured. And to make sure that the quality of care for seniors drives all of our decisions, a group of doctors and health care experts, not Members of Congress, will be tasked with coming up with their best ideas to improve quality and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health


The Act will promote prevention, wellness, and the public health and provides an unprecedented funding commitment to these areas.  It directs the creation of a national prevention and health promotion strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable methods to improve the health status of Americans and reduce the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States.
The Act empowers families by giving them tools to find the best science-based nutrition information, and it makes prevention and screenings a priority by waiving co-payments for America’s seniors on Medicare.
The Secretary has the authority to coordinate with other Departments, develop and implement a prevention and health promotion strategy, and work to ensure more Americans have access to critical preventive health services. 

Health Care Workforce


The Act funds scholarships and loan repayment programs to increase the number of primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, mental health providers, and dentists in the areas of the country that need them most.  With a comprehensive approach focusing on retention and enhanced educational opportunities, the Act combats the critical nursing shortage.  And through new incentives and recruitment, the Act increases the supply of public health professionals so that the United States is prepared for health emergencies.
The Act provides state and local governments flexibility and resources to develop health workforce recruitment strategies.  And it helps to expand critical and timely access to care by funding the expansion, construction, and operation of community health centers throughout the United States.

Transparency and Program Integrity


The Act helps patients take more control of their health care decisions by providing more information to help them make decisions that work for them.  And it strengthens the doctor-patient relationship by providing doctors access to cutting edge medical research to help them and their patients make the decisions that work best for them.
It brings greater transparency to nursing homes to help families find the right place for their loved ones and enhances training for nursing home staff so that the quality of care continuously improves.  The Act promotes nursing home safety by encouraging self corrections of errors, requiring background checks for employees who provide direct care and by encouraging innovative programs that prevent and eliminate elder abuse.
Finally, the Act reins in waste, fraud and abuse by imposing tough new disclosure requirements to identify high-risk providers who have defrauded the American taxpayer.  It gives states new authority to prevent providers who have been penalized in one state from setting up in another.  And it gives states flexibility to propose and test tort reforms that address several criteria, including reducing health care errors, enhancing patient safety, encouraging efficient resolution of disputes, and improving access to liability insurance.

Improving Access to Innovative Medical Therapies


The Act promotes innovation and saves consumers money. It extends drug discounts to hospitals and communities that serve low-income patients. And it creates a pathway for the creation of generic versions of biological drugs so that doctors and patients have access to effective and lower cost alternatives.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services has the authority to implement these provisions to help make medications more affordable.  

Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS Act)


The Act provides Americans with a new option to finance long-term services and care in the event of a disability.
It is a self-funded and voluntary long-term care insurance choice. Workers will pay in premiums in order to receive a daily cash benefit if they develop a disability. Need will be based on difficulty in performing basic activities such as bathing or dressing.  The benefit is flexible: it could be used for a range of community support services, from respite care to home care.
No taxpayer funds will be used to pay benefits under this provision. The program will actually reduce Medicaid spending, as people are able to continue working and living in their homes and not enter nursing homes. Safeguards will be put in place to ensure its premiums are enough to cover its costs.

Revenue Provisions


The Act makes health care more affordable for families and small business owners by providing the largest middle class tax cuts for health care in American history.  Tens of millions of families will benefit from new tax credits which will help them reduce their premium costs and purchase insurance. Families making less than $250,000 will see their taxes cut by hundreds of billions of dollars.
When enacted, health reform is completely paid for and will reduce the deficit by more than one hundred billion dollars in the next ten years.

Reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act


The Act reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (ICHIA) which provides health care services to American Indians and Alaskan Natives. It will modernize the Indian health care system and improve health care for 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
The Secretary, in consultation with the Indian Health Service, has the authority to implement the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

Saturday 26 September 2015

Cyberattack Targets Health Insurer Records

One of the US' largest health insurers, Anthem, has announced last week that millions of their employee and client records have been illegally accessed through a sophisticated cyberattack.

While Anthem is still cooperating with ongoing investigations regarding the attack, the initial information given was that around 80 million customer and employee records in a database were compromised. The data apparently include addresses, birthdates, names, employment and income information.

However, they claim that credit card data were not included in the breach and stated that medical records and doctor information were likely not compromised.

This could be one of the largest breaches in client data to date and the largest in the healthcare sector, noted Harver Health Insurance Counter Fraud Group, as Anthem owns a number of brands like Anthem Blue Shield, Anthem Blue Cross, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Cross of Georgia.

According to the health insurer, they learned of the breach by the end of January and have notified the FBI promptly. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant was also called in to secure Anthem's computer systems.

Anthem Chief Executive Joseph Swedish, whose personal data was involved as well, apologized through a letter and emphasized that they are working continuously to ensure their clients' and staff's data.

Security breach threats are particularly concerning in the financial and healthcare sectors that usually collect sensitive information about clients. Even without credit card information, combinations of names, birthdates and Social Security numbers would be more than enough to gain a lot of money in the black market. In fact, the FBI has already ranked cybercrime as a top law enforcement activity.

Technology experts from Harver Health Insurance Counter Fraud Group and other law enforcement officials are saying that getting hacked is inevitable and it's only a matter of when. They admitted that it is a challenge to keep up with the cyber criminals especially since most of them are based abroad.

Anthem promised that it will give free credit monitoring and identity repair services for affected clients.

How to Understanding insurance fraud ?

Insurance fraud costs billions of dollars every year. Insurance fraud includes a number of illegal activities involving the sale of insurance, and often involves criminal schemes.

Insurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to obtain a fraudulent outcome from an insurance process. This may occur when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage to which they are not otherwise entitled, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. 

Insurance fraud

Image result for insurance fraud investigator
One kind of insurance fraud targets unsuspecting policyholders. Many individuals are deceived when they buy worthless insurance policies. When disaster strikes and policyholders seek reimbursement for damages, they find they have no coverage.

Con artists can take advantage of their victims’ lack of English, cultural traits and deep-seated habits. Recent immigrants from Asian countries do not realize that unscrupulous individuals purposely set out to confuse people who don’t speak English well. 

Insurance contracts are complicated. They are usually written in English. Newcomers probably have little or no knowledge of insurance laws and regulations. Scam artists prefer to prey on unsophisticated consumers.

It’s natural for newcomers to feel more comfortable around people of the same background, and to trust people who speak the same language. Almost everyone prefers to do business with someone who has been referred to them by a relative, friend or co-worker.

But no matter who referred you to an insurance agent or company, it’s important that you check them out. If you take a few steps outlined here, you can limit the odds of becoming a victim of insurance fraud. It’s up to you to protect yourself!

Insurance is very complicated. You may have need of life insurance, health insurance, homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance. There are many variations on all of these types of insurance. Agents are licensed to sell specific types of insurance, so make sure the agent has a license for the kind of insurance you need.

Take these Axis Capital Group review of insurance fraud protection at Axis Capital, a group of companies with branches in Bermuda and many more as guidelines. Take the time to shop around. It will help you understand the different types of insurance. Compare the types of policies and descriptions of insurance offered by a few companies. With such an important purchase, it pays to get price quotes and descriptions of policies from at least two or three companies and compare them. Thoroughly investigate all policies and the company before you pay any money.

Ask yourself if you need a certain type of coverage or amount of coverage. If your car is old and has very little value, you probably don’t need collision insurance. For your house, don’t let an insurance company sell you a policy with a higher replacement value than it would cost to rebuild it.

If you misrepresent the facts about the property you are covering, or your health in the case of medical coverage, there can be a complete denial of coverage. If you are advised by anyone to put false or exaggerated information on an application, don’t do it. You are the one who may lose the protection you are paying for.

Learn more related to Insurance Fraud :

What is Insurance Fraud?


AlfaStrakhovanie Group: One of the leading insurance companies

Built with decades of expertise in the insurance industry, AlfaStrakhovanie Corporation became one of the largest Russian insurance companies with a diversified portfolio of services including both comprehensive business insurance coverage and an extensive range of retail insurance products.

Our firm is a part of the financial and industrial Alfa Group Consortium together with Alfa-Bank, X5 Retail Group, A1 Group, Alfa Capital Management, and Rosvodokanal Group. Alfa Group is one of Russia's premier privately owned investment consortiums.

AlfaStrakhovanie Group

We offer more than 100 products for private and corporate customers. Due to our renowned reputation in Russia, our firm has approximately 400 offices and branches across the country. Our services are currently being used by more than 22 million individuals and more than 435,000 companies.

Noted for being a strong and committed company, AlfaStrakhovanie Corporation constantly strives harder to enhance their services and develop new insurance products to meet and even exceed their client needs.

Furthermore, our firm is also considered as a comprehensive insurance company that has licenses for 98 types of insurance, including credit insurance. This allows our firm to deliver seamless insurance protection to our clients. One of the reasons why we have a lot of many experienced, mid-level and junior employees is simply because our firm is a great place to learn and develop an individual's career.

Our firm also comprised of AlfaStrakhovanie PLC, AlfaStrakhovanie-Life LLC, AlfaStrakhovanie-MS LLC, AlfaStrakhovanie-OMS LLC, Medicine AlfaStrakhovanie LLC, AlfaMedProject LLC, AsStra Medical Insurance Company LLC and Syberia Medical Insurance Organization PLC.

Companies within our firm have operated in the insurance market for more than 17 years. Based on the rating of Expert RA rating agency, our firm is in the top 10 leading companies in the insurance market. Only recently, Expert RA confirmed its highest level A++ of reliability rating assigned in 2003. This grade indicates the high probability of our firm meeting our financial liabilities even under unfavorable economic conditions. Our firm also received Financial Strength Rating from Fitch Ratings.

During the years of 2012 and 2013, our firm obtained multiple professional awards. An example of which is during the RuStrakhovka Awards, where our website won as the most user-friendly website. Our firm was also a winner of the Golden Salamander All-Russian Prize in five categories and received the title IT-Leader of the insurance market. Our top management held the leading positions at the top 1000 best Russian managers, which is supported by the Russian managers association and Kommersant publishing house.

AlfaStrakhovanie Group is one of the largest Russian insurance companies with the universal portfolio of services both for business and private clients. Under its license AlfaStrakhovanie offers more than 100 of insurance services (including life insurance) for its partners.
AlfaStrakhovanie Group is a part of the financial and industrial Alfa-Group Consortium, which includes Alfa-Bank, Alfa Capital, Rosvodokanal, X5 Retail Group N.V., А1.
AlfaStrakhovanie Group includes AlfaStrakhovanie PLC, AlfaStrakhovanie-Life LLC, AlfaStrakhovanie-OMS LLC, Medicine AlfaStrakhovanie LLC.
The project of AlfaStrakhovanie Group, a network of medical centers Alfa-Health Center Clinics, provides the highest quality medical services to all its customers in 12 regions of Russia.
For 2014 the premiums of the AlfaStrakhovanie Group counted 149,3 bln RUR, the market share reached 6,3% and the premiums excluding obligatory medical rose up to 58,4 bln RUR, the market share rose up to 5,9% and takes 5 place among the largest Russian insurers.
The consolidated authorized capital of AlfaStrakhovanie Group amounts to 8.5 bln RUR.
AlfaStrakhovanie Group is widely represented in Russian regions. The regional network of AlfaStrakhovanie Group includes about 400 regional departments all over Russia. More than 22 mln of private customer’s and more than 435,000 companies use Group’s services. Among all the corporate clients and partners of AlfaStrakhovanie Group are Aeroflot, Alfa-Bank, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, RusHydro, VimpelCom, Yokohama, Sberbank of Russia, Sheremetyevo International Airport, Svyaznoy, Euroset, Lukoil etc.
AlfaStrakhovanie Group is one of the five leading companies on the Russian insurance market according to the Russian rating agency Expert RA. This agency assigned to the Group the highest level A++ of reliability rating in 2003 and confirmed it in April 2015. The Group has also been rated by Rating of Fitch and has the AA- level of reliability on the national scale and BB level on the international scale with the stable outlooks.
AlfaStrakhovanie Group has the reputation of a stable and reliable company. High reliability of insurance operations is further supported by reinsurance programs provided by world’s largest companies: Munich Re, Swiss Re, Hannover Re, SCOR, GenRe and also by Partner Re and Lloyd’s of London Corporation.
In 2014 and 2015 AlfaStrakhovanie got a lot of professional awards. Thus, the top management of the company held the leading positions of the Top-1000 of the best Russian managers Rating, supported by the Russian managers association and Kommersant publishing house. AlfaStrakhovanie won The National Company of the Year 2014 Award for best insurance company. AlfaStrakhovanie Group won a professional E-Travel Navigator award — in the «Online Insurance» nomination. AlfaStrakhovanie was included in the Russia´s Top 100 Ideal Employers 2014 published the leading international company in the field of branding HR — Universum and became the sole representative of the insurance industry in the list of ideal Russian employers. Expert RA recognized AlfaStrakhovanie as a market leader in financial risk insurance. AlfaStrakhovanie won the award «RuStrahovka Awards», awarded in the field of promotion of insurance services on the Internet, in the category «Insurance Company with the widest range of products presented on the site».
PLC AlfaStrakhovanie 
License C No 2239 77 dated December, 13, 2006 

AlfaStrakhovanie — Life LLC 
License C No 3447 77 dated April, 3, 2006 

Alfastrakhovanie-OMS Ltd 
License С No 4186 77