The U.S. Health and Human Services Department issued final rules for its medical loss ratio, declining the request of insurance agent trade groups and state insurance regulators to exempt agent and broker compensation.

A national trade group for health insurance agents and brokers is participating in Enroll America, a group waging a national effort to reduce the number of uninsured Americans and provide educational resources on both public and private coverage options.

Health insurance agents and brokers have found a friend in Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who has penned a letter asking federal officials to delay including agent compensation in the medical loss ratios controlling health insurer spending.

A task force in an association of state insurance commissioners has endorsed a bill in Congress that would exclude insurance agent and broker compensation from health reform‘s medical loss ratios.

Two insurance agent trade groups say they want Congress will “fix” how medical-loss ratios will be calculated with health reform because the proposed formula factored could “negatively impact” agent and brokers, and their commissions.

More than 50% of health insurance agents and brokers spend at least half their time providing services to clients that are outside of the sales process, according to a new survey.

PAHU President Shelly Bloom: “We are still reviewing a 2,700-page bill and conflicting timelines of changes and regulations. I think there have been more questions recently [from members] and we need to wait for the answers from the federal government.”

After more than a year of debate, Washington, D.C., has put its punctuation mark on federal health reform, but for many agents’ groups, it appears to be less of a period and more of a question mark.

Mark Haraway, president of the Maryland Association of Health Underwriters, told IFAwebnews.com the group, like many other agents’ organizations, is still interpreting the sweeping changes of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

How will the health care reform legislation passed late Sunday night by the U.S. House affect agents and brokers in the mid-Atlantic?

For answers, we will appeal to a higher authority; …  Read →