Tag Archives: BREAKING NEWS

By Bob Herman, October 6, 2014 The world’s largest retailer is jumping into the health insurance game, unveiling a program that will help its customers find and compare health plans.Wal-Mart Stores said Monday that it is teaming with online health insurance brokerage DirectHealth.com. Wal-Mart shoppers will be able to sign up in … Read More

By Dan Verel, October 1, 2014 The world of health insurance is about to be turned on its head. Even with the well-known shifts brought on by the ACA, the fundamental business model for health insurers will change dramatically, shifting largely from serving employers and group business to serving individuals who demand a level of customer service not previously offered …

By James L. Green, September 30, 2014 Speaking at IRI conference, Lincoln Financial Distributors’ CEO says the retirement readiness gap provides a big opportunity for the industry Kicking off the Insured Retirement Institute’s second annual conference on Monday, Dennis Glass, CEO of Lincoln National Corp., made the case for life insurance and annuities in general. He said the industry now …

By Frank Goad, September 11, 2014 For the past decade – the last three years in particular – increasing numbers of insurance companies and agencies have been part of merger and acquisition deals. In a classic “big fish eats little fish” consolidation scenario, smaller independent agencies and companies are being gobbled up; larger ones are merging with other firms, and …

By Wesley Young, September 19, 2014 The path to purchase differs from product to product, but there’s much all local businesses can learn from the “last mile” of the insurance-buying process. Every purchase is a unique journey. A consumer starts with a need, desire, impulse or inspiration; he or she takes actions that lead toward the satisfaction of that feeling; …

By Kathryn Mayer, September 4, 2014 What does practically every other industry have that the insurance industry doesn’t? A connection with its consumers. That’s one reason Americans are, well, just not into insurance, argued Maria Ferrante-Schepis, managing principal, insurance and financial services at Maddock Douglas and co-author of the book “Flirting with the Uninterested: Innovation in a Sold Not Bought …

By Michael Idinopulos, August 27, 2014 It’s the dawn of a new day for social in the insurance industry. I spent last week at LIMRA/LOMA’s Social Media conference in Boston. I always like LIMRA events. As an industry association, LIMRA convenes a high-powered group of insurance executives. It has traditionally been a refreshingly open and non-commercial environment, where industry leaders …

By Caitlin Bronson, August 18, 2014 More than 300 patient advocacy groups took to pen and paper this week to tell Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell health insurers are discriminating against the sick, despite the goals of the Affordable Care Act. Insurer tactics, which the industry defends as legitimate cost control measures, are “highly discriminatory against patients …

By Diana Manos, August 20, 2014 Hold on to your seats and gear up for the most dramatic changes the health insurance industry has faced yet, says Aegis Health Group CEO Phil Suiter, in an interview with The Tennessean.  Suiter spoke with Tennessean reporter Shelley DuBois about the growing power of healthcare consumers and why insurance companies will look “radically …

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, August 17, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) – Ending insurance discrimination against the sick was a central goal of the nation’s health care overhaul, but leading patient groups say that promise is being undermined by new barriers from insurers. The insurance industry responds that critics are confusing legitimate cost-control with bias. Some state regulators, however, say there’s reason to …