Why isn’t anyone taking healthcare reform seriously?

This is the question I keep asking myself almost daily.  I just don’t get it.  It seems like insurance agents, insurance companies and employers really aren’t taking healthcare reform seriously.  Literally, everywhere I turn there seems to be a good percentage of those in the industry who don’t appreciate the comprehensive changes to insurance that healthcare reform made.  They don’t understand all the changes that go into effect starting this September and then throughout the next few years up until 2014 when most of the changes go into effect.  Very few people are creating timelines for compliance or implementation strategies that are calendared based on dates of compliance for certain things.

I think this is going to create a lot of compliance issues and violations of the new healthcare reform law.  A majority of health insurance agents have not read the law, don’t understand it and have not tried to understand how it really affects their employer clients.  Instead they have taken the approach that they will try to understand it “to the best of their knowledge” without spending to much time researching it and role with the punches as they come.  If that doesn’t smell like a lawsuit brewing in the future I don’t know what does!   I think many health insurance agents will find themselves losing clients left and right when their employer clients realize they can’t help the employer comply with healthcare reform, and even more so, never prepared them for the changes they need to implement in the future.  You can’t simply turn on a switch.  It takes a long time to build processes and implement backend software and systems to comply.  Many employers are looking to their agents to help them with this.

Employers are also looking to their health insurance companies telling them how to comply.  What they don’t realize is the insurance companies may not have all the answers, but even more important is the insurance companies want to avoid liability, therefore they aren’t going to give “legal advice” to their employer clients on how they need to comply and the insurers certainly aren’t going to give employers their “interpretation” of the healthcare reform law in the even they are wrong.

So who is supposed to each who about the healthcare reform law?  I think we know it’s not the government.  It’s going to take them years to figure out what they really passed and how to administer it.  How about the big name consulting houses specializing in healthcare reform?  Guess what, they don’t know the answer either.  Some of these leading “experts” in healthcare reform “declined” to speak at the upcoming healthcare reform conference because of fear of people finding out they weren’t really experts.

Some of you may be surprised to hear that some insurance companies are unhappy with us even having a healthcare reform conference.  Why?  Because there are certain changes coming under healthcare reform that they are not ready to share with employers and agents, because of fear of their reaction.  So, everyone is keeping comfortably quiet.

I could not think of a more amazing opportunity for HR, Agents, Consultants and employees for insurance carriers.  The opportunity is in becoming one of the few experts in healthcare reform.  For those select few who realize that if they learn everything there is about healthcare reform, what is coming down the road and how to comply with it, they will become invaluable, a valuable asset,  one of the most sought after employees in the country.  Knowledge is power.  Knowledge of healthcare reform will lead to being able to open different doors that previously were not available to you.

I hope to see al of you at the Healthcare Reform Conference in LA, September 20-22nd, 2010.  We have some amazing speakers we have lined up http://healthcarereformconference.com/speakers.html .  All of who are experts on healthcare reform .  I think what is even more valuable than the speakers is the ability to meet with colleagues in similar positions to you around the country who can share who they are dealing with healthcare reform and the unique solutions and answers they have come up with.

About the Author

Jonathan Edelheit is editor-in-chief of the Healthcare Reform Magazine and has been involved in Health Insurance industry for over ten  years.  His background includes running a national healthcare administrator, designing insurance products for employers and insurance companies and working with thousands of health insurance agents and consultants around the country.  Mr. Edelheit has been mentioned or featured in hundreds of magazines and media over the past few years and is  considered an expert in health insurance and healthcare.  Mr. Edelheit is also the editor of the Self Funding Magazine, the Corporate Wellness Magazine, the Voluntary Benefits Magazine and the Expatriate Healthcare and Travel Insurance Magazine.  Mr. Edelheit also runs one of the largest healthcare conferences in the country, the Employer Healthcare Congress, www.employerhealthcarecongress.com which takes place September 20-22nd, 2010 in Los Angeles, which also includes the National Healthcare Reform Conference, www.healthcarereformconference.com , the Corporate Wellness Conference, www.corporatewellnessconference.com, the Self Funding Employer Healthcare and Workers Compensation Conference,
www.selffundingconference.com, and the Voluntary Benefits and Limited Medical Conference, www.voluntarybenefitsconference.com