HealthConnect Newsletter

The Insider

June 2009

Issue 4

president's
message

product

spotlight

partner
spotlight

tips and tricks

so we heard

healthconnect
in the news

your opinion

click on the icons above to read that section or just scroll down

Dear HealthConnect User

Healthcare reform is obviously a key issue facing us and our clients. The current expected timeframe is that a bill will be through the House and Senate before the August recess and available for Presidential signature in August. The big question is – what will the reform provide, and what will the role of agents and general agents be going forward?

The key question for agents and general agents is this – will the free market determine the role of the agent and general agent and their compensation levels, or will their role be determined by the government. If the free market decides, I am quite optimistic about the future. In an extensive study of senior sales executives at health carriers, encompassing large national (750,000+ members); regional (250,000-750,000 members), and local (50,000-250,000 members) carriers; and 332 active, licensed agents completed by a variety of market research firms, the feedback was uniformly positive about the value provided by agents and general agents. The key findings are summarized below:

95% of employers purchased via an agent;
A strong majority prefer human interaction when selecting a health plan;

Groups believe the primary value-add of a broker is acting as their advocate with their best interests in mind, and most are satisfied with the support they receive;

Service provided by brokers is rated significantly higher than service from government run call centers;

Roughly 80% of health carriers view general agents as valuable to very valuable, and 90% for brokers;

In short, the market has spoken. Carriers and consumers view agents and general agents as providing valuable services.

The key concern is that the free market may not decide the fate of agents and general agents, rather, it will be decided by government edict. We strongly support the efforts of the National Association of Health Underwriters to ensure purchasers of health care have the opportunity to work with licensed brokers and that the compensation of such brokers be determined by the free market. We encourage all of our clients to support their efforts as well as those efforts by the state chapters of such organizations.

Sincerely,

Peter Everett
President/CEO

HealthConnect Systems

president's message

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The Product Spotlight section, which will regularly highlight one of our products in more detail, will also enable us to keep you updated on new products and new features of our existing products.

product spotlight

* Do your clients still feel the impact of COBRA changes as a result of the new stimulus bill?

* Do they spend a lot of time recording and tracking employee information through spreadsheets?

* Do they use several vendors for handling their HR functions?

* Do they have tools to help their employees remain productive while facing challenges?

HRConnect, our online HR management tool, offers a simple and more effective solution for all employers. When you, the broker, offer this service to your clients, you will not only increase their efficiency but will also be able to save them money.

How?

With our online recordkeeping, HR managers have all the employee information at their fingertips and all census changes can be quickly sent to the health insurance broker through the system so they will no longer need to continually update their spreadsheets.
By using the integrated COBRA service, HR managers delegate the daunting COBRA management responsibility and liability to the COBRA provider who processes COBRA elections, verification of continued eligibility, notices of qualifying events, and rate and benefit changes as well as manages recordkeeping, billing and collection of COBRA premium payments.
HRConnect Payroll solution facilitates smooth and fast payroll processing for a fraction of the cost of other vendors.
With HRConnect, employers can provide their employees with voluntary benefits, such as disability, accident, life, cancer, critical illness, hospital confinement and limited benefit medical coverage. Offered by the employer but paid completely by employees, voluntary benefits often cover gaps in the existing coverage.
With HR Support Center, HR managers can quickly find an up-to-date information on HR related issues, legal updates and answers to commonly asked questions as well as access employee handbook template, HR forms, job descriptions, and more. This service alone will help them save hundreds of dollars they could otherwise spend on lawyers or HR consultants.
The Employee Assistance Program offered by the employer and accessible through HRConnect, allows employees to receive professional help, while enabling employers to increase productivity and reduce absenteeism.
With HRConnect, employers are receiving superior services for the fraction of a cost of all vendors combined.

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Partner Spotlight will regularly focus on one of our partners whose services we make available to you through our quoting system and HRConnect.

partner spotlight

HealthConnect partners with several leading providers to offer HR managers a complete solution. One of the services that empowers employers with the most up-to-date and accurate information on HR issues is HR Support Center, a service provided by HRAnswerlink.

Formed in 1997, HRAnswerlink provides small businesses with easy access to HR information and resources online, offering them maximum flexibility at low-cost. This resource is meant to serve not only as reference but also as a consultant to employers to help them solve problems and ensure that they perform their jobs to the best of their ability.

HR Support Center is accessible through HR Resources tab and enables HR managers to quickly access legal resources and facilitates communication between HR managers and experienced HR professionals. Through this service, HR managers obtain information on state and federal employment laws, articles, news, HR glossary, employee handbook, job description and much more. In addition, HRAnswerlink offers an innovative service, Ask the Pro, that allows HR managers to either speak to experienced HR professionals or email them their questions.

In addition, HRAnswerlink now provides full telephone support, Monday through Friday. The phone number is listed on the HR OnDemand tab, in your HRAnswerlink. All questions, issues, and answers will be confidential.

Special pricing is offered only through HealthConnect. If you would like to provide this solution to your clients, please contact sales@healthconnectsystems.com.

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Having trouble using a feature in the quoting system or HRConnect? Tips and Tricks section will provide you with a quick "how to."

tips and tricks

Do you know how to set-up your auto-responder in our Individual and Family Plan quoting system?

Login to your Individual and Family Plan quoting system.
Select the "Emails" tab on top.
In the "Select Event" drop-down menu, select the type of event for which you would like to set up the auto-responder (e.g. subscriber's quote).
Next, select the "Action" (subscriber email or broker email). Action indicates who receives the email when the specified event takes place.
Once you set up the "Event" and "Action," you can either select an existing template that you previously created or create a new template for the email you would like to send. [To learn how to create a new template or how to update a previously created one, see instructions below.]
In the field "Days until Email," enter the number of days when you would like the auto-responder to take effect.
Click on "Save Selection" and you are done. Your auto-responder is now activated.

To add or edit the template:

Follow steps 1 through 5 above.
Click on "Add/Edit" link on the right side of the "Select/Create Template" drop-down menu. The existing templates will appear below the "Template" heading.
Now click on "Add/Edit Templates" link.
Fill out the fields.
Click on "Add/Update Template."

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Want to know what your fellow brokers are saying about our products and how they helped them? Read it here, in the So We Heard section.

so we heard

From our client Ron Altman on the Individual and Family Plan System.

I have been using HealthConnect Systems for approximately two months. The program is very user-friendly and it greatly reduced the time it takes in obtaining multiple quotes from different carriers. The support I receive from Tony Bell has been exceptional as well. I would highly recommend HealthConnect Systems to other producers.

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HealthConnect in the News section will keep you up-to-date on our new developments, partnerships or changes and will include our reference in the media.

healthconnect

in the news

TRIZETTO PARTNERS WITH HEALTHCONNECT TO OFFER NEXT GENERATION HEALTH INSURANCE SALES AND SERVICE AUTOMATION

Combination Of Leading Enterprise Administration Systems And Leading Online Network

For Buyers And Sellers Of Health Insurance And Employee Benefits Advances Integrated Healthcare Management

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and South Norwalk, CT – May 18, 2009 -– The TriZetto Group, Inc. and HealthConnect Systems, Inc., today announced an exclusive partnership to develop new products and services that help payers, health insurance brokers and general agents significantly improve the entire sales and service life cycle.

TriZetto® Quote2Card will integrate TriZetto’s Facets® and QNXT™ enterprise administration platforms with HealthConnect’s broadly adopted broker portal and sales automation tools to provide payers and brokers a complete end-to-end solution for sales and service processes, including prospecting, rating and quoting, underwriting, enrollment, billing, membership and customer service.

“We are going beyond the limited functionality that today’s single-point products offer to provide healthcare payers with an integrated sales automation solution that offers straight-through processing from quote to ID card generation,” said Eric Grossman, TriZetto’s vice president of revenue enablement. “By partnering with HealthConnect, we are ensuring our payer customers gain the broadest access and easiest connectivity to the channel responsible for selling the most policies – the broker,” he added. “Highlighting the need for this type of solution, in a 2008 study by TriZetto, brokers reported that it takes 18-29 days, twice as long as they would like, to close individual and small group customers. Importantly, data from Sherlock Company showed that approximately 43% of administrative expense on fully insured programs for Blue Cross Blue Shield plans is concentrated in sales cycle activities. In addition, the prospect of both federal and state healthcare reform further underscores the need to streamline administration processes and costs.” Click here to read more.

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Your opinion counts! This section will feature a quarterly poll to find out your opinion on our products, enhancements, announcements, tips and our communication to you so we can continue to improve.

your opinion

Last month, we asked which online sources you use to in order to obtain information on health insurance and/or employee benefits. Click here for results. Thank you to everyone who voted.

Have you used our Multi-Option Report feature on the small group quoting portal?
Yes, I use it often	Yes, I use it sometimes
I don't use it	I didn't know it existed
If you have used it, what do you think of the Multi-Option Report feature? Please rate it on the scale from 1 to 5 (1 being poor and 5 being great).

very poor poor satisfactory good excellent do not use it 1 2 3 4 5 N/A

If you selected 1 or 2, please tell us why:

(If you are not redirected after hitting the 'submit' button, please click here.)

Thank you for your feedback!

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