The Trench Reynolds Report

  • Are health insurance companies getting rid of customer service?

    The trend among health insurance companies used to be to outsource their customer service overseas. United Healthcare was the biggest proponent of this practice in my opinion. Recently I received word through my job that a national carrier and a large east coast regional carrier are moving towards eliminating customer service reps altogether. I work…

    Trench Reynolds

  • Obamacare stifles competition

    Little Competition, High Premiums In NC Health Insurance Marketplace: Ok, first I need to get some prefaces out of the way. The first is the usual about I have 20+ years of working in the healthcare administration field. The other is that the article I linked to came out before the October 1st health exchange…

    Trench Reynolds

  • Home Depot and Walgreen’s cut health benefits because of Obamacare

    Home Depot Transitioning Part-Time Workers to Health Insurance Exchanges: Walgreens Drops Employee Health Insurance Coverage: Following in the footsteps of UPS national retail chains Home Depot and Walgreen’s have both announced drastic cuts to their employees’ health benefits. Home Depot is getting rid of healthcare coverage for their part-time employees while Walgreen’s is cutting healthcare…

    Trench Reynolds

  • What can Obamacare do for you?

    UPS cuts insurance to 15,000 spouses, blames Obamacare: UPS announced to its employees recently that they were eliminating benefits for the spouses of some 15,000 employees. This should not come as a shock to anyone. The only thing that should be shocking was that it was only 15,000. UPS is putting the blame squarely on…

    Trench Reynolds

  • Forced health insurance ruled constitutional

    Federal appeals court rules health care reform bill is constitutional: This is the part where I remind you that I worked in the healthcare industry for 22 years. Not only have I worked for several major health insurance companies but I have also worked for medical practices and for a company that did annual enrollment…

    Trench Reynolds

  • The healthcare war of attrition continues

    A new wrinkle has developed with the company that I do annual enrollment for and I would imagine that other companies are doing it as well. Last time I talked about how they were more or less excluding spouses from coverage in order to make up the cost for the mandate of covering adult dependent children. Now…

    Trench Reynolds

  • More on Healthcare ‘Reform’

    The last time I talked about healthcare reform I bemoaned the fact that the new healthcare regulations allow adult dependent children to be covered under their parents’ plans until the age of 26. I’m sure some of you are kicking up your heels about that. If you are you don’t realize at what price that…

    Trench Reynolds

  • Healthcare reform Part 2

    When I was 19 I was going to school part-time. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. My dad told me that since I was 19 I either needed to go to school full-time or I needed to get a job that had health coverage. So I went to work…

    Trench Reynolds