Monday, June 29, 2020

Medicare, Group Plan Cost Control Dominate NAHU Meeting Agenda


 By Allison Bell | June 29, 2020 at 01:42 PM
The top sponsor is a field marketing organization.
The National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) has moved its 90th annual meeting online, due to COVID-19, and focused the meeting agenda mainly on Medicare plans and group health plan administration, due to ongoing uncertainty in the major medical insurance market.
The Washington-based group represents about 100,000 health insurance agents, benefits consultants, and other health coverage professionals, and it has attracted about 1,000 members to the annual meeting, which started Sunday and is set to last until tomorrow.
But, as in most recent years, companies other than health insurers dominated the meeting sponsor list.
The top-level sponsor is AGA Inc., a field marketing organization.
The insurers on the meeting sponsor list are Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and Cigna Corp.
The other sponsors are marketing organizations and services providers, such as BenefitMall, HealthEquity and Ritter Insurance Marketing.
NAHU is running “Knowledge Channel” breakout session tracks for Medicare and employer group health plan cost containment, but no separate session on individual major medical insurance.
The closest thing NAHU has to a session on individual major medical insurance this year is a session, presented by Michelle Berndt of OneShare Health, on health care cost sharing ministries.
Janet Trautwein, NAHU’s executive vice president and chief executive officer, gave an update on the top health finance topic of the times: politics and COVID-19.
NAHU also offered a virtual expo, in place of an exhibition hall, featuring exhibitors such as Alan Katz’s new company, NextAgency Inc., an agency management software company.
NAHU President Patricia Griffey and other NAHU leaders promoted NAHU’s Just Ask One membership campaign. This year’s campaign, which calls on current members to ask one non-member to consider joining, is taking place today.
NAHU leaders note that they play an important role in representing health insurance professionals in key policy discussions in Washington, such as the fight to protect employers’ group health coverage cost income tax exclusion.

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