Anyone Heard of USHealth Advisors?

[bluemarlin08]

What are your opinions of the rider that can be added to this plan that caps out of pocketexpenses at 3000?

 

[Kelly Carolan]

This is a short term med Rider that is supposed to take someone through the year and then USHealth Advisors will hand the client over to Obamacare. The rider is 6 months with one renewal allowed to ensure someone would be totally covered for at least one year.

Unfortunately there is pending legislation from the Dept of HHS that will close the loophole of these short term med policies to just 3 months with NO renewals, effective on 1/1/17. They are trying to put the squeeze on companies like USHA and force more healthy people into Obamacare. I believe this legislation will impact every USHA customer, not just new ones signed after 1/1/17.

The Rider is 3000 stop loss unless out of network, then ADD an additional $6000.

Another huge issue nobody talks about is if you upgrade to the rider, you will have to back pay the difference in what you have been paying and the going rate for the rider all the way back to the start of the policy...for example...if there is a $200 difference between what you have been paying and what they would sell the short term plan for, you would pay that for every month you have been with them. So if someone has been with them for 2 years, it would cost $4800 to upgrade, plus $3000 stop loss or $9000 if out of network. Add that up. It's more like $13,800 in that particular scenario. And I'm sure someone who is facing $100,000's in medical bills isn't going to protest too much. It's just not something that is clearly explained and I'm sure most of their agents don't even understand this.

It might take much to have to upgrade when you consider their primary program only covers specified sicknesses, accidents and diseases. If you were to get some sort of bacterial infection, that would NOT fall under their coverage and you might have to move to the short term medical plan to get the coverage you need.

Of course, you are not even factoring in any tax penalty owed as their program is not ACA compliant. I'm sure there are some customers that this might be their best or only option, but I don't think these details are always shared with their clients.

 

[bluemarlin08]

Thank you so much for the explanation. I have met with them 3 times and it was never explained as thoroughly. Just seems so fishy. Thought it might be an option, but also discovered if it is your child that needs the rider a parent has to get it as well. In addition, I asked them today what their relation was with Mega, formerly their firm. I laughed at the manager and told him they were the poster child for fraud. I still continued talking until they said I would have to allow them to cancell all my contracts with other companies. I told them I had 17 disability and life cases in underwriting and what about all my renewals on other business? I said thanks but good luck.

 

[Kelly Carolan]

I am not 100% positive, but I believe the connections to that Mega company are gone and they are under new management/ownership. I get the impression that the new owners seem to really care and are honest and ethical, but I think their biggest problem is they are going up against the government.

Does anyone think the government is going to let USHA get so big they take a big portion of the healthy insured from Obamacare? It's just a matter of time before they have the loopholes they are leveraging pulled out from under them.

It would be very scary to build a book of business under those circumstances, not to mention, you are captive and must forfeit any current business.

Then you have the issue of the upcoming election. How will that impact any future business you write? If Trump is elected and Obamacare repealed, I'm sure the playing field will become extremely competitive again and USHG will be buried by the big guys with their new and improved underwritten products. What agent would want to be captive under those circumstances? It could be a really massive opportunity to be back in individual health insurance products again

Their underwriting process is brutal too. The customer has to have a pretty clean medical record and then they have to accept a call from the company to confirm it all and then you face the potential all that hard work is denied by the underwriters anyway. Sure the commissions are nice and getting and 8 month advance is great, but you have to jump a lot of hurdles to get it. Then you find out they hold back 1/3rd of that 8 month advance anyway in a reserve account.

 

[Yagents]

Very insightful Kelly. I assume you used to work for them?

 

[Kelly Carolan]

I took a good look at them at one time as an option for my personal health coverage needs. I'm with Medicare/senior health products which has it's own set of challenges.

 

[FLM2]

It's amazing how much attention a small, crappy company like US Health Advisors (B rated by AM Best) gets on this forum.

I tried them out about 5 years ago (non-captive) and quit after one month, the company lies to clients, agents, and anyone else who will listen.

 

[Kelly Carolan]

I've heard people call this a scam and I don't believe it is. I think they are under different ownership since 5 years ago. I was approached by them years ago when they were under a different name and felt their stuff was kinda scammy, unprofessional and not a complete product back then--mostly a membership/discount club with a hospital indemnity plan.

I think they have a much better product now (as of 2 years ago) and I do feel their product does serve a very small niche until the government closes the loophole they are leveraging. I don't think their agents are telling their clients the whole story about the penalty, upgrade fees, and getting tossed off the short term during open enrollment. But then again, if you are only skimming the cream of the crop healthy people, how often do their customers deal with any major claims where these facts would come to light?

Would I sell it? NO...I feel it's a risky time to be captive building a book of business with a product that is potentially heading for a brick wall because of current legislation and an uncertain election.

The chess board is going to totally flip soon anyway and if free market comes back, those of us who are non-captive have nowhere to go but up with u65 products.

 

[Gulfman]

I've heard people call this a scam and I don't believe it is. I think they are under different ownership since 5 years ago. I was approached by them years ago when they were under a different name and felt their stuff was kinda scammy, unprofessional and not a complete product back then--mostly a membership/discount club with a hospital indemnity plan.

I think they have a much better product now (as of 2 years ago) and I do feel their product does serve a very small niche until the government closes the loophole they are leveraging. I don't think their agents are telling their clients the whole story about the penalty, upgrade fees, and getting tossed off the short term during open enrollment. But then again, if you are only skimming the cream of the crop healthy people, how often do their customers deal with any major claims where these facts would come to light?

Would I sell it? NO...I feel it's a risky time to be captive building a book of business with a product that is potentially heading for a brick wall because of current legislation and an uncertain election.

The chess board is going to totally flip soon anyway and if free market comes back, those of us who are non-captive have nowhere to go but up with u65 products.

I agree with Kelly.

This reminds me of a company that i got involved with years ago "Avalon." They were approved in my state as a fully compliant and approved ins.company with my state. Low and behold, they went out of biz and everyone who purchased a plan from them did not do well. They went into receivership and out of biz.

Ushealth, might be worse. They claim they are off the exchange and provide full ppo coverage??? I guess they pitch to the wealthy who don't care about the Tax Penalty???




?

 

[FLM2]

I've heard people call this a scam and I don't believe it is. I think they are under different ownership since 5 years ago. I was approached by them years ago when they were under a different name and felt their stuff was kinda scammy, unprofessional and not a complete product back then--mostly a membership/discount club with a hospital indemnity plan.

I think they have a much better product now (as of 2 years ago) and I do feel their product does serve a very small niche until the government closes the loophole they are leveraging. I don't think their agents are telling their clients the whole story about the penalty, upgrade fees, and getting tossed off the short term during open enrollment. But then again, if you are only skimming the cream of the crop healthy people, how often do their customers deal with any major claims where these facts would come to light?

Would I sell it? NO...I feel it's a risky time to be captive building a book of business with a product that is potentially heading for a brick wall because of current legislation and an uncertain election.

The chess board is going to totally flip soon anyway and if free market comes back, those of us who are non-captive have nowhere to go but up with u65 products.

Since I have actual experience with the way they market I feel comfortable saying that they don't 'skim the cream of the crop healthy people', they prey on anyone who will listen and feed their dislike of Obamacare into sales, period.