NAIC to Study MLR Impact on Compensation and Consumers Before Voting on Changes

Brokers holding their breath to see if their compensation will be removed from the medical loss ratio formula required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be turning a darker shade of blue. The hoped for support from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which was expected to result from a meeting of the NAIC’s Professional Health Insurance Advisors Task Force this past Sunday, has been delayed at least four weeks.

While there was widespread and strong support for removing independent broker compensation from the formula carriers are used to calculate their medical loss ratio under the PPACA, the Task Force opted to ask their staff to provide additional data before making a decision.

While disappointing the delay is not really surprising. A substantial of the commissioners are new, having just been elected or appointed as a result of the November 2010 election. As Jessica Waltman at the National Association of Health Underwriters put it in a message to NAHU’s leadership, “[I]t was clear as soon as we arrived in Austin that some of the new Commissioners (and there are quite a few of them) had reservations about moving that quickly since this is their first meeting…. some of the more senior Commissioners were very sympathetic to their concerns about rushing things through. The NAIC almost never endorses legislation, so this is a huge deal for them.“

In addition, the issue is controversial. Consumer groups and some liberal Democratic Senators have voiced opposition to changing the MLR formula.

The Agent-Broker Alliance leading the charge for this change to the health care reform law met with several supportive commissioners and the decision was made to delay the vote. This would allow time for information relevant to the issue, already requested of carriers, to be received and considered. This time will also be used by the Agent-Broker Alliance to gather and submit data on how independent brokers are able to save clients money and the post-sale service brokers provide their clients.

Most observers I talk with are optimistic the NAIC will eventually endorse this change in spite of hesitancy from some liberal commissioners. In this regard, Politico Pulse is reporting that “Liberal insurance commissioners got a little feisty (well, for insurance commissioners) … pushing back against the speedy, one-month time line for” considering the broker compensation exemption proposal. Politico quotes California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones as saying “I’d hate to see haste impede us having the information in front of us to make a relevant decision.” And Washington state’s insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler as declaring “I hope what we produce as a work product we can stand behind and that we’re more interested in accuracy than speed.”

When politicians speak of the need to “study” and “consider” an issue it means 1) they sincerely want to learn more about the topic or 2) they want to defeat the proposal without having to go on the record voting against it. While I hope I’m wrong, given the opposition to the exemption from liberal consumer groups, I’m betting on the latter motivation in this case. (Time will tell as I’m inclined to believe the data will be very supportive of moving forward with the exemption). That the NAIC went ahead with just a four week delay in spite of calls from Commissioners Jones and Kreidler to slow down is a sign that while there will be debate, there’s a better than even chance the NAIC will indeed support legislation to make changes to the medical loss ratio provisions of the PPACA.

Ultimately whether broker compensation is included in medical loss ratio calculations will be determined by Congress and President Barack Obama – which means nothing is certain. While I believe taking this action furthers the intent and purpose of the health care reform bill, the proposal will not enjoy smooth and speedy sailing. The bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Mike Rogers and John Barrow, HR 1206, has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but no date for a hearing has yet been set.

That the idea is still alive, however, is both remarkable and encouraging. But it’s still too early to start breathing again quite yet.

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Broker Testimony Before NAIC Concerning MLR and Commissions

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will be meeting in Austin, Texas this week to consider a number of issues related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. One topic will be how the medical loss ratio provisions of the health care reform bill impacts brokers and consumers. A coalition of broker organizations will be testifying this Sunday urging the NAIC to move forward with a proposal to exempt producer compensation from the MLR calculation.

The MLR targets (individual and small group carriers must spend 80% of premiums received on claims or health quality efforts; large group carriers must spend 85%) is a critical part of the PPACA’s scheme to “bend the cost curve” when it comes to premiums (never mind that the biggest driver of premium rates is the cost of medical care). Limiting the amount of premium dollars insurers can devote to administration and profit, supporters believe, will result in reduced insurance rates. Also, since the PPACA requires all consumers to obtain health insurance coverage the medical loss ratio rules are designed to prevent carriers from gaining an undeserved financial windfall.

Significantly, exempting broker commissions does not run contrary to either purpose. The legislation being considered by the NAIC will still limit the percentage of premiums carriers can spend on administration and profit – and to a greater degree than most state measures addressing MLR targets do today. In addition, carriers will still need to aware of the total cost of their policies – including broker compensation. From a consumer’s point of view, the total cost of coverage will be the carrier’s premium and the broker’s commission. Carriers will be unwilling to go to market with a total cost that is uncompetitive because of overly generous broker commissions. This is one, but not the only reason, broker commissions are unlikely to return to where they were before the passage of the PPACA even if broker compensation is removed from the MLR formula. That broker commissions should increase at the rate of medical inflation, as opposed to general inflation, for example, is hard to justify when medical inflation is increasing at twice the rate of increases to the Consumer Price Index. But this change will — and should — be driven by market forces, not arbitrary limits set by Congress.

The NAIC proposal is also consistent with the purpose of the PPACA’s approach to MLRs because, as I wrote last summer, exempting commissions from the medical loss ratio may actually reduce overall administrative costs in the system. Carriers today aggregate broker compensation from small groups and individuals then pass 100 percent of these dollars onto independent third parties, retaining none of it for themselves. This reduces paperwork costs for hundreds of thousands of brokers, businesses and families and is a cost-saving measure that should be encouraged by the PPACA.

Not everyone sees it this way, of course. The American Medical Association, consumer groups and some Democratic legislators have urged the NAIC to keep the medical loss ratio calculation put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services (with input from the NAIC) as is. On the other hand, a bipartisan group in the House of Representatives has introduced HR 1206 to remove broker compensation from the formula used to determine a carrier’s MLR.

The broker coalition, comprised of the National Association of Health Underwriters, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, was asked by the NAIC to present their views at Sunday’s hearing on the NAIC medical loss ratio proposal. Significantly, they were told there was no need to talk about the value brokers add to America’s health insurance system – this value was already recognized and appreciated by the Insurance Commissioners. Instead they were asked to focus on the economic impact of the MLR provisions as currently being implemented.

In a letter to NAIC from the Agent-Broker Alliance reports on a study that shows 25 percent of brokers surveyed are reporting business income reductions for individual and small group sales of 21-to-50 percent with another 25 percent describing losses at between 11 and 20 percent. The result is that brokers are leaving these markets, reducing the availability of their expertise to consumers just when the complexity of health care reform makes this expertise more critical than ever.

Past NAHU president Beth Ashmore will be providing testimony at the Sunday NAIC hearing. As a long-time Texas broker she will be able to provide Commissioners with a glimpse into how the “theory” of the PPACA is revealing itself in practical terms.

The NAIC has no vote in Congress, but they do have significant influence, especially to the extent the NAIC vote in favor of changing the MLR calculation is bipartisan. If they support exempting broker commissions it will give considerable momentum to efforts bills such as HR 1206. The legislative process takes time so there will be no quick fix. The key is to keep initiatives moving forward down the path. The NAIC meeting is a milestone along the way.

Bill to Exempt Broker Commissions from MLR Formula Introduced Today

A bit sooner than expected: Representatives Mike Rogers and John Barrow introduced legislation today to exempt broker compensation from the medical loss ratio calculations required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Under the PPACA, health insurance carriers are obliged to spend 80 percent of the premiums they take in on policies sold to individuals and small group toward medical claims and health quality initiatives. For policies sold to larger groups this medical loss ratio target is 85 percent.

The purpose of the MLR requirement, in the words of Senator Jay Rockefeller, “is to encourage health insurance companies to deliver health care services to their customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way.” As a consequence of this provision, most health insurers have slashed broker commissions on policies sold to directly to individuals (as opposed to through an employer) and a significant number of carriers have made significant cuts to producer compensation for the sale and service of small group policies as well. This has forced many brokers are reconsidering the viability of continuing to service these market segments. Commissioners and others are concerned about

The National Association of Health Underwriters along with allied broker groups, specifically the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America have been seeking to have broker commissions exempted from the MLR formula almost since the law passed. In October they won support from the majority of Insurance Commissioners at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to accomplish this, but at the last minute attorneys convinced the decided they lacked the power to make the change through regulation. Instead they would need to seek legislation to make this change. And they’re working on doing so.

In the meantime, Members of Congress are looking to change the health care reform law to accomplish the same goal – thus the bill introduced today, HR 1206. What’ impressive about the proposal (which will receive a bill number soon) is the bipartisan support it has received. The primary The lead sponsors are Republican Congressman Rogers and Democratic Congressman Barrow. They have been joined by 10 additional Republicans and 3 Democrats. Given the partisan divide prevailing in Congress, this is a remarkable coalition.

Better still, Jessica Waltman, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at NAHU tells me that a bipartisan companion bill will be introduced in the Senate as early as next month.

Passage of the legislation is far from certain. Some Democratic lawmakers, several consumer groups and the American Medical Association oppose removing broker compensation from the medical loss ratio calculation. And some Republicans may be loath to improve legislation they are hoping to repeal.

Nor would exempting broker compensation result in a return to pre-PPACA commission schedules. While some of the more recently announced draconian cuts would no doubt be walked back. But as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, even if the PPACA were repealed, the way brokers are compensated was likely to change. The benefit of the Rogers/Barrow legislation is that these changes will reflect market forces, not an arbitrary spending target.

I’ll add a link to the press release from Representative Rogers when it’s available online, but here’s some of the key passages:

“’The nation’s 500,000 insurance agents and brokers help consumers find the right health care, advocate on their behalf, identify cost-savings opportunities and inform them of new products and changes in the industry,’ said Rogers, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health. ‘A mandate in the new health care law severely restricts their ability to perform such services, meaning small businesses are losing jobs or shutting down completely and consumers are finding it harder to access their services.’”

…

“Insurance agents’ and brokers’ commissions are never part of an insurer’s actual revenue, and should never be counted as an insurer administrative expense, as confirmed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the non-partisan experts on state insurance markets.”

…

“’Insurance agents and brokers serve as the voice of health insurance for millions of families and small businesses in rural communities,’ said Congressman Barrow. ‘These folks can help explain to consumers the many changes taking place in the healthcare world over the next few years, and so it’s important that our insurance agents are not hampered by provisions in the new healthcare law. This is another critical improvement that needs to be made to the healthcare law, and I’m hopeful that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will work with Mike and me to see that this important improvement is implemented.’”

Edited March 18th to add bill number: HR 1206

Commissions, Medical Loss Ratio Targets, Brokers and Politics

Legislation to exempt broker commissions from the medical loss ratio provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is gaining bipartisan steam. Original sponsor Republican Representative Mike Rogers has been joined by Democratic Representative John Barrow. Other House Members from both sides of the aisle are expected to sign on before the legislation is formally introduced – perhaps as soon as next week.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s Professional Health Insurance Advisors Task Force has posted their draft of a bill to exempt broker commissions from the MLR (a copy of the proposed law is available at the end of this Employee Benefits Adviser’s BenefitNews article). The NAIC is seeking comments on the proposed legislation (which is very similar to that proposed by Representatives Rogers and Barrow) in that it simply removes compensation paid to independent brokers from the medical loss ratio calculation. A hearing on the draft bill will be held on March 27th during the NAIC’s quarterly meeting in Austin, Texas. (Those wishing to add their two cents to the conversation can submit an email to tmullen@naic.org by Monday, March 21st.

This legislation is a top priority of the National Association of Health Underwriters, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, president-elect of the NAIC, has led the organization’s effort to deal with the negative impacts the PPACA has had on brokers.

All this is pretty good news, right? In a few weeks there could bipartisan legislation backed by the NAIC as a whole and its leadership in particular and supported by the grassroots strength of agent organizations. There’s just two problems: opposition from Democratic liberals and political maneuvering from Republicans.

Senator Jay Rockefeller has sent a letter to the NAIC complaining that treating broker compensation as anything other than administrative costs “would allow agents, brokers, and health insurance companies to retain the estimated $1 billion in benefits that American consumers will receive next year thanks to the health care reform law.” Senator Rockefeller overstates his case ($1 billion just from the MLR provision?), but at least he attempts to marshal some arguments behind his concerns. However, in many of these arguments his reasoning is flawed.

He states, for example, that “the proposal would make it more difficult for consumers and small businesses to understand how their premium dollars are used ….” Why? The PPACA already exempts taxes from the MLR formula, yet no one has expressed concern that this will confuse anyone.

He also assumes that if broker compensation is removed from administrative costs that commissions will revert to what they were before the PPACA. He even quotes a statement from me published in Benefits Selling magazine to support this point. In that article I noted that brokers cost of doing business rises at closer to general inflation, not the rate that medical costs drive up insurance premiums. And I predict that commissions will eventually be decoupled from premiums. However, my belief that how broker compensation is calculated is unrelated to health care reform. I’ve been talking about this dynamic for years, long before the start of the Obama Administration. Even were the PPACA to be repealed I believe the method of determining commissions will change. It’s simply too hard to justify tying commissions to medical inflation.

And that’s what Senator Rockefeller is missing. Commissions are set by market dynamics. Carriers, consumers and business owners need independent producers and are willing to pay for the value brokers provide. In setting commissions carriers not only look at what competitors are offering, but at what brokers can earn selling other products like life or disability. In the end it comes down to an economic calculation: does the compensation justify the time and resources brokers commit to make sales and service their clients. Regardless of how it’s calculated, if the answer is yes, brokers will engage with the product; if the answer is no, they won’t.

The medical loss ratio provisions in the PPACA disrupts this formula. By imposing an arbitrary cap on administrative costs and including commissions within this cap, the law threatens to make remaining engaged in the sale of individual products uneconomical for too many brokers. The PPACA shifts the situation where compensation reflects the value brokers bring to consumers and carriers to a mathematical formula driven by the medical loss ratio calculation which ignores value, effort and resources.

Liberal Democrats, however, are not the only hurdle to making changes to the MLR formula. As noted in a thorough and illuminating examination of the issue by Sarah Kliff in Politico, political calculations by Republicans may doom the bill. Republicans, Ms. Kliff points out, “have little to no political incentive to improve” the PPACA. Improving the PPACA simply makes it more palatable and that, in turn, makes the law harder to repeal. Better to leave the legislation’s flaws in place, this reasoning goes, so as to strengthen calls to chuck the entire package. Or as one source cited in the Politico article says, “If it really became a bill with steam and the Republicans started hearing from all those brokers maybe the odds change.” But I can’t get myself past the ‘we aren’t fixing this bill’ hurdle.”

NAHU and its allies are pitching the MLR change as necessary to protect small businesses – specifically the many health insurance agencies around the country. They are gaining potent support. Yes, there is opposition, but still, if approached on the merits, I believe the Rogers/Barrow legislation could pass. The primary reason for this optimism is that exempting broker commissions from the MLR formula doesn’t undermine the purpose of the PPACA’s medical loss ratio provisions.

It would be a shame, but in today’s world not at all surprising, if this helpful fix were derailed because some lawmakers find a greater political advantage to preserving the flaws within the PPACA than fixing them.

Maine Gains Three Year Waiver from Medical Loss Ratio Target

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires carriers offering coverage to individuals and families (not purchased on their behalf by an employer) to spend 80 percent of premium on medical claims or other costs related to health care quality. These medical loss ratio provisions took effect in January of this year and has created a host of challenges for states, carriers and brokers.

Authors of the PPACA anticipated that quickly implementing this 80% MLR requirement could disrupt the individual market. Consequently, the health care reform law empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive this requirement if states can demonstrate that meeting the 80 percent target would “destabilize the individual market” in the state.

To date, five states have sought this waiver: Florida, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, and Nevada. And one of those requests, Maine’s request for MLR release was recently granted by HHS. In approving the waiver, HHS agreed with that a 65 percent medical loss ratio was appropriate given the circumstances in Maine. The waiver is for three years (meaning carriers will have to achieve the 80 percent MLR target in 2014) although the Maine Bureau of Insurance will need to demonstrate the need to keep the waiver in place for 2013. In the letter approving the request, HHS noted that only three carriers issued almost all of Maine’s individual insurance policies: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Main (with 49 percent market share), MEGA Life & Health Insurance Company (with a 37 percent share), and HPCH Insurance Company (13 percent).  As reported by HealthCare Finance News, MEGA Life and Health had stated it “would likely withdraw from the state if forced to immediately adhere to the 80 percent MLR standard.”

What level of disruption to their individual market that states will need to demonstrate is still unknown. The Maine decision is based on the unique situation of that state and one data point is hardly a trend. However, the Obama Administration is focused on making health care reform work, so they are being very practical when considering waivers and the like. They seem very intent on giving states latitude in implementing the law, James Gutman at AIS Health refers to as “’bend but not break’ mode.”It would not be surprising to see additional states consider seeking the waiver in light of Maine’s success.

In fact, Florida officially filed its waiver request only last week. In making the request Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty asserts that meeting the 80 percent MLR requirement would drive some carriers to exit the individual market in the state, erect barriers to entry discouraging new carriers from entering the market, reduce the number of offerings in the individual market and “severely hamper agent involvement in the individual market to the severe detriment of Florida consumers.” Florida is seeking the same three-year waiver received by Maine for insurance plans (65 percent) and a 70 percent MLR for HMO.

For those interested in what their own state is considering concerning requesting a waiver from the PPACA’s medical loss ratio targets in the individual market, Politico Pulse runs a scoreboard each day. As of today, in addition to the five states mentioned above, 11 are leaning toward seeking a waiver, 16 are leaning against requesting relief, and the remainder have yet to make their intentions known.

Bill to Exempt Broker Commissions from MLR Formula Coming Soon

Supporters consider the medical loss ratio provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be critical to the “affordable” part of the new health care reform law’s title. They also believe that requiring carriers to spend a specified percentage of premiums on medical claims and health quality improvement programs is necessary to prevent heath insurers from receiving an unwarranted windfall when all consumers are required to obtain health care coverage beginning in 2014.

As a direct result of this MLR provision carriers are slashing broker commissions. Cuts in broker commissions on individual health insurance policies of 35-to-40 percent are common, and some cuts exceed 50 percent. Few businesses can absorb a revenue reduction of this magnitude and insurance agencies are no exception. As a result, many brokers are considering abandoning the individual market altogether, an unfortunate outcome for both these producers and consumers in general. Consumers benefit greatly from the expertise of professional brokers not only when purchasing coverage, but when problems arise after the sale as well. Exchanges created by the PPACA cannot replace the value brokers deliver, a fact borne out by the experience of existing exchanges.

All this explains why, at their October meeting, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners was on the verge of recommending that commissions to brokers be removed from the formula used to calculate a carrier’s medical loss ratio. Their lawyers, however, convinced them that the PPACA denied the NAIC the authority to do so.

Carriers receive no benefit from the commissions they collect from policy holders and pass along to brokers. Insurers provide an administrative convenience (reducing system wide overhead), but pass through 100 percent of the commission. Consequently, including these dollars in the medical loss ratio calculation fails to further the purpose of this provision. However, to make this common sense adjustment to the PPACA will require legislation.

Enter Congressman Mike Rogers. Politico Pulse broke the news in their February 16th edition: “The Michigan rep will introduce legislation in the coming weeks to pull brokers’ fees out of the MLR formula, just as agents had lobbied the NAIC to do.” According to the Politico report, the bill’s language has been drafted and mirrors the NAIC proposal. The article goes on to cite an “industry source” as claiming “There’s been some surprising interest from moderate Senate Democrats.” As any changes to the PPACA will require bipartisan support, this is indeed good news. (Representative Rogers is a Republican).

And yes, this is something broker organizations led by the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) along with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers (the Big I) have worked hard to make happen. Getting a bill introduced is neither simple nor easy. Members of Congress are harangued by countless individuals and groups to put forward legislation. But throwing something in the hopper is serious business and not undertaken casually. That Representative Rogers, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, will be putting his legislative reputation behind this bill is very meaningful.

Introducing a bill is, of course, not the same as enacting a law. However, no law gets enacted unless someone first introduces a bill. Which makes this news, as the saying goes, a [very] big deal.

Understanding Broker Anger

Non-insurance brokers reading this blog may be wondering what the fuss is about. Yes, commissions are being reduced, especially in the individual market segment. Who didn’t see the writing on that wall? Given the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s medical loss ratio provisions, a substantial cut in individual health insurance commissions was a mathematical certainty.

So why the anger, despair and sense of betrayal? Yes, fear that one won’t be able to make a living in one’s chosen profession has a tendency to make macro events very micro – and personal. This would explain the despair, but more is going on here than concern over a reduced revenue stream.

Most brokers reading this blog are far more engaged in insurance sales and service than I currently am and can express how brokers feel far better than me. (Hopefully they will – and will do so civilly). However, I’d like to offer some observations to non-broker readers to start the dialogue.

First, let’s get the obvious issue out-of-the-way. Yes, the money matters. Professional brokers add value to the products they sell and service. (The service aspect of what brokers do is too often overlooked, but it is a major part of the job). Brokers want to be fairly compensated for that value. There are bills to pay and other products to sell. Time and resources are being spent and commensurate compensation is deserved.

The commission cuts we’re seeing vary greatly from state-to-state, carrier-to-carrier and product segment-to-product segment. In the individual market (where consumers buy coverage without support of an employer) commission reductions of roughly 30-to-50 percent appear to be the norm.  Cuts of this magnitude would disrupt any enterprise. Imagine telling GM that their new $41,000 Volt must now be sold for $25,000. So much for paying back their government loans. Look at what happened in California when state revenues fell by roughly 20% from fiscal year 2007-08 to 2008-09. (For those not paying attention, the result has been a fiscal, policy and political nightmare).

Brokers recognize that during the Great Recession others have sustained even harsher financial hits. Yet when it’s your cash flow, company doesn’t reduce the misery. Yes, brokers are better off than the owner of a neighborhood business bracing for the arrival of a Wal-Mart in their neighborhood or of a worker watching her job shipped overseas. After all, when a business closes or a job ends, all compensation revenue and income ends, too.

Brokers, however, still have strong relationships with their clients. There are other products to sell and service. Some producers no doubt have already calculated that the size of cuts to commission rates in many instances do not necessarily reflect commensurate cuts in actual compensation (in some circumstances, unfortunately, they do). Between 2004 and 2009 the average premium in the individual health insurance market segment increased by 31% for single coverage and 43% for family policies according to two reports published America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade association for carriers. Premiums have no doubt increased in 2010 and will again in 2011 – the PPACA will see to that.

Still, given commission reductions of the magnitude being reported, the response of many brokers is neither surprising nor inappropriate – and it is intense and genuine. Because there is more involved here than the money.

Professionals who have devoted their careers to serving their clients and supporting their carriers are being told by those same companies that those services will no longer be worth tomorrow what they are today (in a monetary sense). At the same time, carriers are reminding brokers that their role in educating consumers has never been more important given the new health care reform law. How could anyone in this situation feel anything but devalued personally and professionally?

Intellectually most producers knew changes to the commission structure were inevitable even in the absence of reform. Tying broker compensation to the rate of medical inflation, which brokers know has greatly outpaced general inflation for years, was becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Knowing this, however, doesn’t make commission cuts any easier to accept. This is especially true when some carriers seem to be hiding behind health care reform to lower average commissions below what the math embedded in the PPACA’s medical loss ratio provisions seems to require (roughly to 7-to-8 percent of premium). Were these carriers to fully explain why they were reducing commissions significantly below their competitors, brokers might find the situation more easy to accept. Instead, brokers are being told “Here it is, take it or leave it.” A message that does nothing to address brokers concerns, but simply inflames their anger.

Worse, some carriers have apparently chosen to apply the compensation reductions to brokers’ existing block of business. This is a tactic brokers find unacceptable (and I feel for the sales executives of these carriers who have to explain and justify an approach they vehemently opposed).

Why are brokers concerned about retroactive commission cuts? For the same reason no health plan CFO would let their company offer a policy empowering subscribers to unilaterally lower premium payments simply by declaring that “household costs must be cut.” Yet these same CFOs are asking brokers to accept such an arrangement.

That even one carrier would attempt to take this approach undermines trust in all carriers. Brokers entrusted their clients and a portion of their livelihood to these insurers. Yes, there are contracts governing these arrangements, but there’s a large element of trust involved, too. Brokers rely on insurers to provide the coverage promised in their policies, to treat their clients fairly, and to be dependable business partners. Retroactively cutting commissions on existing business defies the definition of dependable.

My guess is that when their sales drop precipitously, as they inevitably will, these carriers will reconsider this approach. Insurers have, after all, retreated from similarly bad compensation ideas in the past (more on these examples in a future post). Even then, however, the sense of betrayal brokers feel today will linger.

Complicating brokers evolving view of their carriers is that while the commission cuts are obvious, other cost cutting measures insurers are taking are less apparent. The ranks of home office executives are being reduced at many companies, for example. but unless these terminated officers worked directly with brokers, their departure goes largely unnoticed. As a result many brokers feel, (in many cases wrongly) that carriers are not accepting their a share of the pain necessitated by the PPACA.

Brokers rightfully consider the services they provide their clients – and their carriers – to be valuable and important. And they are. Clients trust their brokers far more than their carriers. Consumers listen to their agents when it comes to choosing a health plan; I’ve never heard of a consumer listening to a carrier when it comes to choosing their agent. Most carriers seem to be making the cuts that the math requires of them. Brokers who expect that 20% commissions in an age of 80% medical loss ratios can continue are being unrealistic. And attacks on all carriers for unfair or inappropriate actions taken by a few insurers are unfair. Yet doing so is all too easy – and human.

Whether as a non-broker you believe producers have been overly compensated or not, the reality is that the imposition of commission cuts understates and undermines the perceived value of the profession. Brokers may have been reassured by the resolution passed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners expressed their concern about the negative impact the PPACA could have brokers this past summer. They may be heartened to know that state regulators was calling on the Administration to “protect the ability of licensed insurance professionals to continue to service the public.” But outcomes trump good intentions. And while the position of the NAIC may impact the role of brokers in the future, what producers are seeing now is a devaluation of their work.

I believe that’s the greatest source of anger. Yes, selling and servicing individual health insurance will be less profitable next year than this year. Producers will determine on a broker-by-broker basis whether selling and servicing individual health insurance will be profitable enough to justify continuing to do so. What works for one broker may not for another.

The income being lost today will, I predict, be replaced through an influx of new customers and increases in the cost of coverage. What will be far harder to set right is the diminished trust between brokers and carriers. Loyalties and relationships have been strained and must be reforged. Harder still, however, will be restoring brokers’ sense that the value they provide is recognized and respected. Doing so will require carriers, lawmakers and regulators to treat brokers differently than has been too often the case to date.

Whether they are inclined to do so remains to be seen. Until they do, however, broker anger will continue, even when the lost income is replaced.

California Hospital Charges Increase 150% in 10 Years

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does a great deal to address insurance industry practices. The new health care reform law, however, has been rightly criticized as failing to directly and forcefully attack rising medical costs, the primary driver of insurance premiums. Yes, the new law establishes.

The PPACA has a number of pilot projects, demonstration programs, and studies buried in its provisions that could, in time, lower overall cost spending. And supporters of the bill will argue that the Medical Loss Ratio provision is aimed at keeping down the cost of coverage. (Ironically, the MLR limits may have the unintended consequence of raising insurance costs. Administrative costs are usually fixed and independent of the premium paid. The cost to have a claims representative process a claim is the same whether the coverage cost $1,000 or $3,000 per year. But the $1,000 policy makes only $200 available for administrative expenses under the medical loss ratio calculation; the $3,000 plan makes $600 available. In other words, because the MLR rules apply percentages, carriers have an incentive to eliminate low-cost plans).

Carriers need to educate lawmakers and the public about the elements that go into a premium rate. Yes, profit and overhead are a part of the cost. But the biggest driver of health insurance premiums is the underlying cost of medical care. And the carrier community may have begun this educational process.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade association, released a study showing that, in California, hospital charges increased 150 percent between 2000 and 2009. The Sacramento Bee, quotes AHIP spokesperson Robert Zirkelbach as observing “What this data shows is that there needs to be much greater focus on the underlying cost of medical care that is driving those premium increases. At some point, people will have to address these underlying cost drivers if health care costs are going to come down.” In other words, you’ve taken your shot at the insurers, now, if you’re serious about reducing costs, let’s look at the hospitals.

Interestingly the AHIP report acknowledges that hospitals and other providers of medical care need to make up for underpayments by government health programs. In California, between 2000 and 2009, hospitals charges to health plans rose by 159 percent. This is more than twice the rate of increase for Medicare and eight times the increase hospitals received for Medi-Cal – the state’s version of Medicaid.

Needless to say the hospitals didn’t appreciate AHIP pointing this out. “It’s really tough for a pot to call a kettle black,” the Sacramento Bee reports Scott Seamons, the regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California. I don’t know if Mr. Seamons intended to acknowledge that hospitals are at least as much at fault for rising insurance premiums as carriers, but if the insurance companies are the pot and the hospitals the kettle, that is what he’s saying. If so, that would be a refreshing dose of frankness to the dialogue. Meanwhile, consumer groups, not unexpectedly, accused the AHIP of trying to shift the blame for rising premiums. Apparently they can’t accept that anything other than insurer greed and profiteering drives insurance premiums. Any correlation with hospital charges or medical inflation are merely accidental.

All of this rhetoric and accusing is standard issue among advocacy groups and trade associations. And if all that comes out of the report are fingers among these usual suspects pointing at the usual places, then this report will have done little good. If, however, the study represents the beginning of a concerted effort to bring to the public’s attention what drives their insurance premiums; if it leads lawmakers to ask “why” hospitals needed a 159 percent rate increase over 10 years; if it gets people thinking about the monopoly position some hospital chains enjoy – and employ – in parts of the state, that’s something altogether different. Because if these possibilities become reality, the AHIP report may be seen as an important start to what will be a long, but critical, educational effort.

The Three Year Approximate Commission Calculation

Individual health insurance policies don’t stay on the books with a particular carrier for long. There’s a variety of reasons for this lack of persistency, but the most common reason for a policy lapsing is that the insured has been offered coverage through their job. Since employers usually subsidize at least half the the premium, dropping one’s own policy and taking the company’s is invariably a better value. Actuaries are pretty good at anticipating the lapse rate for a particular plan.

Lapse rates are highest during the first year a policy is in-force. This reflects the loss of consumers who purchased coverage while between jobs or the like. As a result, it’s not uncommon for one-third of individual and family medical plans to terminate in their first year. It takes roughly two years, however, for the next one-third to lapse. Put another way: sell 100 individual policies on January 2011 and you can expect to have 67 still on the books come January 2012 and 33 remaining on January 1, 2014. These are estimates and averages applied over large numbers. Your results may vary.

It’s also important to note that carriers and brokers have different experiences with lapses. A broker moving a client from Carrier A to Carrier B represents a lost case to Carrier A, but not to the broker.

How does all this tie into commissions? Because persistency is an integral part of the very idiosyncratic way I compare different commission schedules. And given the changes going on with broker commissions in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s medical loss ratio provisions, comparing commission schedules has become, by necessity, an obsession of most brokers.

The method I use to evaluate the commissions is what I call the Three Year Approximate Commission Calculation. Here’s the “thinking” behind it:

1. According to the lapse rates by actuary friends have shared over the years, a typical individual health insurance sale remains is on the books for approximately three years. Some never make it that far; others stay far longer, but three years is a good rule of thumb.
2. Broker compensation is usually (but not always) based on a percentage of the premiums paid by the consumer. Which means one way to compare broker compensation resulting from any particular sale is to add up the commission percentages paid each year and apply it to the first year’s premium. This is, admittedly, just one way and would, no doubt, make my actuary buddies cringe). Using this approach, a commission schedule that pays a flat 10% commission each year over three years is paying out roughly 30% of the first year’s commission over that period. A schedule that pays commissions of 15% first year and 7.5% on renewals is also paying out roughly 30% of the first year’s commissions.
3. Yes, this fails to take into account the impact of rate increases, but I’m not claiming to offer a precise way of determining commission equivalence. This is a way to approximate the value of a commission schedule on the fly – no spreadsheet software or calculators required. There’s a reason “Approximate” is in the name of this calculation.Besides, guessing at the net impact of future rate increases is just that, a guess.

The result is the Three Year Approximate Commission (or TYAC). While it was developed for comparing individual medical plan commissions it can be used on small group health insurance commissions, too, which also are likely to remain with a carrier for roughly three years on average.

The Three Year Approximate Commission Calculation is especially useful in comparing the “before and after” of commission schedules being announced by carriers seemingly on a daily basis. As I’ve written before, the math imbedded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act demands broker compensation be cut (absent regulatory or legislative relief). Put simply, carriers will have 7-to-8 percent of individual and small group premium available for broker distribution after allowing for administrative costs and margins. This works out to a Three Year Approximate Commission of 21-to-24%.

Which is pretty close to what brokers are reporting in the Tracking Commission Changes post (please note: these are reported commission schedules and have not been independently verified – if anyone has corrections, please send them along).

In Arizona, Cigna is reducing individual plan commission from a Three Year Approximate Commission of 30% to one of 22% – a roughly 27% cut.

In California, Anthem Blue Cross’ 40% TYAC is dropping to 28% for the top tier – a 30% reduction. Their lowest tier pays has a TYAC of 21% – a reduction of 47.5%.

In Georgia, Humana is going from a Three Year Approximate Commission of 33% to one of 25% – a 24% drop.

Illinois BCBS’s TYAC is moving from 30% to 23% for top producers – a change of roughly 23%. For those selling less than 25 cases the TYAC is dropping from 25% to 20% – a decline of 20%.

You’ll note some carriers have tiered commission schedules paying more to larger producers at the expense of those writing just a few cases. While you may disagree with this approach, it is “broker-friendly.” A producer writes less than, say, 10 cases a year isn’t really in the business of selling individual major medical plans. Such producers earn the bulk of their income from other product lines. Selling an individual policy is often done as a convenience to an existing customer. The amount they are paid on these sales is secondary to the income they receive from clients on other lines of business.

A broker selling dozens or even hundreds of individual health insurance plans a year, however, is relying on this line of business for the bulk of their income. That carriers would want to soften the impact of commission cuts on these produces is reasonable and, for these large producers welcome.

Still, commission cuts of 20%-30% or more in one year are life changing. Name a city or state who who could withstand a 30% decrease in tax revenues in one year? A CEO announcing a 25% drop in revenue would not be CEO for long. And the resulting cutbacks in service, layoffs and closures would be a devastating on citizens and employees.

That impact – how big it is, what it means and what brokers can do about – will be the topic of upcoming posts. For today I just wanted to introduce the Three Year Approximate Commission Calculation so we’d have a common way of describing differing commission schedules.

HHS Certifies MLR Rules Lack Commission Relief

The Department of Health and Human Services certified the rules surrounding the calculation medical loss ratios carriers will need to meet beginning in 2011. For the past few months there had been considerable concern expressed by state Insurance Commissioners, the National Association of Health Underwriters and other agent organizations, about the negative impact the MLR provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would have on broker commissions and, consequently, on consumers.

While the Department had engaged in considerable discussion on how to handle this, the medical loss ratio regulations HHS promulgated today does little to resolve the issue. Yes, they leave the door open for addressing the reality that the treatment of commissions under the MLR rules could “disrupt” the market, but they had the chance to do a lot more.

In future posts I’ll address the impact of this result, but for now, so readers know what happened, here is NAHU’s report on the HHS certification of the medical loss ratio rules.

(By the way, brokers reading this who are not members of NAHU should be ashamed. The most important legislation of your career is being reviewed, refined and revised. No organization speaks more loudly or effectively on behalf of brokers than NAHU. You owe it your clients, your profession and to yourself to support those efforts by joining NAHU today).

This morning, the Department of Health and Human Services issued interim final rules on the MLR provisions in PPACA. The rules include agent and broker commissions as part of the non-claims costs in the MLR calculation and does not allow for any portion of the agent and broker commissions to be considered a passed-through expense and excluded from the MLR calculation. NAHU is extremely disappointed in this result because, in our meetings with HHS, the White House and state insurance commissioners on this issue, all repeatedly acknowledged the potentially negative impact of the MLR calculation could have on agents and brokers as well as consumers’ access to affordable health plans.

However, the regulation does permit states to seek waivers from the MLR requirements, including the possibility of seeking a waiver to have agent and broker commissions taken out of the denominator of the MLR calculation for policies sold in that state. The regulation specifically states that the impact of the MLR standard on agents and brokers will be a factor in considering whether a particular individual market would be destabilized. Furthermore, the regulation establishes a process by which stakeholders will have input on the waiver decision-making process and specifically included agents and brokers among the stakeholder groups that must be included.

The interim rule is effective on January 1, 2011, but HHS is actively seeking comments on the regulation and will issue further guidance and a final rule later this year. HHS specifically requested comments on how this interim rule will impact agent and broker compensation and how that may lead to marketplace disruption, and NAHU will be submitting detailed comments on behalf of its members on this critical issue.

Over the next few weeks, NAHU will also be coordinating with the leadership of each state chapter and insurance commissioners in each state to encourage their participation in the medical loss ratio waiver process. We expect that many state insurance commissioners will wish to submit waiver applications based on the impact the MLR rules may have on broker compensation and individual and small-group market competition in their states. The states of Georgia, Iowa, Maine and South Carolina have already indicated to HHS their intent to do so, and Florida and West Virginia have indicated publicly that they are in the process of considering moving forward with a waiver application. NAHU expects that many more states will follow suit once they have finished analyzing the impact the 308-page MLR regulation will have on them.

Finally, NAHU has been working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers for the past few months on federal legislation to exempt agent and broker commissions from the MLR calculation. The regulation delays the time that MLR rebate payments must be made to policyholders until August 2012, providing some time for a legislative solution to be enacted. Pursuing a legislative strategy to permanently solve this problem will be NAHU’s top goal with the 112th Congress.