TAHU Update Volume No. 5 Issue No. 4 December 2003
Next Meeting
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Brier Creek Country Club
Main Clubhouse
11:45 am, Luncheon Meeting
Please RSVP before Friday, December 5, 2003
to Mike Alexander, at
Jmalexander@nc.rr.com or 919-544-5681
GUEST SPEAKER
Brad Crone
Regional Director, Healthcare Leadership Council
Since 1993, Brad Crone has served as a regional director for the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of CEO's advocating quality, innovation and access for the nation's health care delivery system. The Healthcare Leadership Council, formed in 1988, has been recognized as a leading trade association promoting market-based reform health care policy in Washington.
H-L-C is known for its national grassroots program emphasizing in-district meetings with members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate.
Mr. Crone has been providing governmental affairs and public relation consulting services since 1991. Prior to that he was a daily newspaper publisher at The Thomasville Times in Thomasville, N.C. He was the first desk-top newspaper publisher in the state with his weekly publication The Clayton Star, which he sold in 1989. He served as a special assistant to N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Graham and deputy press secretary to U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth during his 1984 gubernatorial campaign. During his college education, Mr. Crone served as a political reporter and then afternoon editor for WPTF Radio 680, a 50,000 watt news/talk station in Raleigh, N.C.
Mr. Crone has 18 years experience in regional politics, managing grassroots campaigns in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. He has consulted on a number of issues including: health care reform, prescription drug policies, free trade, NAFTA, Bankruptcy Reform, Animal Waste Management, Agriculture Labor policies and Volunteerism in America.
He holds a B.A. degree from North Carolina State University in Political Science and a concentration in Communications. He has additional studies at Mount Olive College, N.C., and the N.C. Institute of Government.
He is a former Rotarian, former Board of Directors member and volunteer for the Clayton Rescue Squad, former Board of Directors member for the Davidson County Salvation Army, former Board of Directors member for Branch Banking & Trust in Thomasville, NC. He currently serves as a volunteer for the N.C. Deaf-Blind Services Project.
SPONSORED BY
Hartford Life
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President's Message:
Nancy Gibson, HIA, MHP |
December is one of the busiest months in our industry: enrollment meetings, renewals, pushing to get CE hours completed are just a few of the tasks that face us along with sharing time with our friends and families. It’s a busy time – but also a time to reflect on what we have accomplished in the past year.
TAHU has made one of those tasks a little easier by providing end of year CE credits – 3 hours after our December 9th meeting and our Compliance Seminar following on December 11th. We thank David Smith for organizing both of these opportunities.
(Editor's Note: The Dec 11 seminar has been postponed - details will be announced later.)
David joined our board at the beginning of this year. He stepped out of nowhere at the end of last year and has volunteered a significant amount of time to TAHU.
I would ask, as you reflect on your achievements over the last year, to consider the benefits you have received from your local chapter and see if there is some time in your schedule next year to help us become more successful. Can you recruit just one new member? Could you assist by taking responsibility for the banners and posters to be transported to and from our meetings? Would you mind spending a few extra minutes at the beginning of each meeting in greeting new members and guests? How about making a phone call or two each month to someone who has not attended for a while?
Each of these takes just a few minutes a month. I am reminded of the old saying, “Many hands make light work.” If each of us were willing to give just a few minutes a month to our organization, how much stronger would it be?
I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for the support that you give through your membership and attendance throughout the year. I especially want to thank the members of our Board of Directors for giving much more than a few minutes of their time each and every month.
Get to Know Your Board . . .
Continuing our effort to let you know more about your board members, following is the bio for David Smith, our CE Chair.
David C. Smith, JD
Continuing Education Chair 2003-2004
David C. Smith formed The Benefit & Insurance Law Center in 2003, as a law and consulting firm focusing on serving the needs of insurance agents, employers and plan administrators throughout North Carolina and the United States. He is of counsel with Davis Bibbs & Smith, PLLC, which he was a founder in 2000. A native of Banner Elk, David is a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, North Carolina’s statewide public residential high school for academically gifted students. David earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1991 and graduated from North Carolina Central University School of Law’s competitive Evening Program in 1999. He has been a member of the North Carolina Bar since 1999.
During David’s work in the early 1990’s as policy and research advisor to Lieutenant Governor Dennis A Wicker, he was responsible for drafting North Carolina’s major revisions to the Small Group Health Insurance Reform laws. He also served as policy director for the State Health Plan Purchasing Alliance Board, coordinating relations with numerous health insurers, agent associations and other major constituencies during the start-up of the Caroliance program, North Carolina’s experiment in health insurance purchasing cooperatives.
From 1997 until earlier in 2002, David worked with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s major health insurer, in numerous capacities in the sales and marketing division. For the last three years, David coordinated relationships with producers throughout the state and developed one of the best-in-class agency performance management tools for the insurer. In addition, he was responsible for managing numerous major projects, including creation of a coordinated business support unit for agents as well as the transition of 12,000 Conseco policyholders to BCBSNC.
David’s practice focuses on employee benefits and insurance related matters as well as real estate, litigation and corporate law. His clients include a number of the largest health insurance agencies throughout the state of North Carolina.
He recently co-authored an article on HIPAA privacy for the national magazine, Broker World, concerning the impact of the new privacy rule on agents.
David is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and is licensed to practice before its state courts and federal courts in the Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina. He is a member of the North Carolina and American Bar Associations as well as the National Association of Health Underwriters.
David is active in various organizations, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a member of the General Statutes Commission and on the State Governing Board for Common Cause of North Carolina. He has previously served as Chairman of the Durham Area Transit Authority and as a member of the most recent Durham City-County Merger Commission in 2000. He is also a member of local, state and national boards for the National Association of Health Underwriters.
May the Holiday Season bring you and your families many blessings and joys.
Nancy Gibson, HIA, MHP
Principal Financial Group
1616 East Millbrook Road, Suite 210
Raleigh, NC 27609
919-783-7790
919-783-9748 Fax
gibson.nancy@principal.com
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HUPAC/NCPAC:
Sam King, CHC |
ALOHA! Time is running out for the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for the trip to MAUI. Someone next fall will be there enjoys the beautiful Pacific Ocean. They will have the opportunity to motor to the top of a dormant volcano and then perhaps coast down on a bike. I have made that journey and if you can imagine riding along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and looking down on the ocean below through clouds you will have idea of the experience you will encounter. December will be the last opportunity to purchase raffle tickets see me at the meeting!
By supporting HUPAC you can win a trip to the islands, how can you beat that! Tickets are $10 call me @ 815-0433 to get yours or shoot an e-mail to SamKingTAHU@aol.com and we will get you entered.
Last month a beautiful cake from MadHatters was raffled for NCPAC and $55 was given to the NCPAC from the donations. We thank all who participated.
Until December ALOHA!
Archie Samuel King
1711 Mohegan Drive
Durham, NC 27712
919-815-0433
SamKingTAHU@aol.com
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Law and Legislation:
Bill Hendrickson |
HEADLINES:
—Congressional Conferees Agree on Medicare Bill
—Universal Care Has a Big Price: Patients Wait
—Families Could Save 20% on Health Care with
—Health Savings Accounts
—Some Physicians are Shunning Health Insurance
These stories and more made the headlines recently. As for the Medicare Modernization Bill, a final vote may have taken place by the time you read this Newsletter. With the endorsement by AARP, reluctant Congresspersons might be encouraged to vote in the affirmative. This bill is the Republican sponsored bill that is estimated to cost $400 billion over ten years and allows some competition between the government and private insurance to provide prescription drugs for those insured by Medicare. Read the November 17 release from NAHU sent to all members and written by Janice Kupiec.
An added bonus for the American people was the inclusion of Health Savings Accounts (HSA) in the Medicare bill. As you see in the above headline, this type of consumer oriented plan is expected to be a money saver for those who participate. With HSA’s included in the Medicare bill, they should have universal availability in all 50 states.
The second headline is a direct quote form the November 12 issue of the Wall Street Journal. The article discusses in detail the health care rationing that is prevalent in Canada. Canada spends far less on health care than is spent in the United States. Needed surgery is frequently delayed, modern technology is limited, and there are fewer specialists for patients to see. In the province of Ontario, heart patients are assigned a “patient score” between one and seven and receive surgery depending upon the severity of their condition. With a “2” rating the wait should be no longer than 48 hours, but with a five to seven score, the wait could be up to 120 days.
Overall, the reported outcomes of medical procedures in Canada are on a par with those in the United States, but the extended waits, the limited amount of technology, and the reduced supply of specialists have caused many Canadian citizens to cross the border into the U.S. for necessary treatment.
We have previously reported the news about physicians who are avoiding insured patients, or who are not participating in managed care networks. This allows the physician to run a more cost effective and efficient practice. One such physician in Tennessee has reduced his office visit charges from $55 to $35 and charges only $20 for blood work compared to $100 charged by other docs.
Even insured patients prefer these more efficient facilities, less crowded waiting rooms, and health care of equal quality compared to physicians who accept insurance.
While the anticipated Medicare prescription drug legislation allows reimportation of drugs from Canada only, there remains a high risk to Americans who knowingly, or unknowingly, purchase imported drugs. Counterfeit drugs arrive here from Austria, China, Israel, Ireland, Mexico and several other countries. Drugs available on the internet or through unregulated storefronts may have passed through several wholesalers on theeir way to the retail market. At least 8 percent of bulk drugs imported into the U. S. are counterfeit, unapproved or substandard. DO NOT BUY DRUGS ADVERTISED ON THE INTERNET!
Many of the population that calls itself “baby boomers” are fortunate enough to have dental insurance. This coverage has helped train those so insured into following good oral health habits. However, as the “boomers” age, they will very likely to lose the coverage, since very few plans for retirees include dental insurance. Fewer than 20 percent of those over age 65 have dental insurance now, and many of those who do have it are covered through Medicaid. Often these Medicaid insureds must settle for dentures. This lack of dental insurance for older Americans will be an issue to be dealt with in the near future. Will this be another added benefit for Medicare?
Do you know the unfunded cost to provide Medicare and Social Security benefits for America’s presently covered as well as future generations in today’s dollars? Well, I’ll tell you: 50 trillion dollars. That’s 12 zero’s. This is money we should have on hand now, but don’t. Since we don’t have the money on hand now, it means that the liability will be way up higher that 50 trillion. But don’t worry, that’s not our problem. It’s one for our grand children and great grandchildren to figure out. It should be fun.
William Hendrickson
Hendrickson & Company, Inc.
2219 Lawrence Road
Hillsborough, NC 27278
919 644-8636
919 644-6433 Fax
bill2219@mindspring.com
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Public Service:
Allison Tolksdorf, RHU |
This month, we will be collecting monetary donations for the Food Bank of NC. We chose to do this rather than collect food items to make it easy for more members to participate.
Thank you so much for the fantastic response we had for our collections to the American Red Cross in October. Our state association, the North Carolina Association of Health Underwriters (NCAHU), made a donation to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Isabel relief. We have also continued with our enormously successful drive to collect personal toiletry items for the men’s shelter in Raleigh.
I will have a donation basket available at our meeting in December for the Food Bank of NC. Please contact me with any questions. Thank you for your support!
Allison C. Tolksdorf, RHU
Jones Insurance Agency, Inc.
P.O. Box 190
Garner, NC 27529-0190
919-772-0233
919-772-4783 Fax
allisont@jones-insurance.com
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Website:
Michele Gregory, MHP, RHU, REBC |
Sorry if you missed the annual website trimming party. Since it’s an annual event, you’ll have another opportunity next year.
You can see the results of our efforts at: www.nctahu.org
For those of you that wish you could have been there, here are some of the seasonal songs performed by our attendees:
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“Hark,” the herald angels sing,
“check our website more this Spring”
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God rest ye, merry members,
May your address lines display
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Angels we have heard on high
Telling what events are nigh
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TAHU bells, TAHU bells,
TAHU all the way
Michele Gregory, MHP, RHU, REBC
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
2501 Aerial Center Drive, Suite 200
Morrisville, North Carolina 27560
919-765-4671; 800-228-6216
919-467-2823 Fax
Michele.Gregory@bcbsnc.com
As the success of the Triangle Association of Health Underwriters largely depends upon the benevolence of corporate contributors, we are proud to honor the following organizations for their continued support of our many programs and activities:
Diamond Sponsors
2003-2004
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of NC
Cigna
UnitedHealthcare
Please extend your appreciation to the Triangle members representing these organizations and remember their generosity when placing coverages.
Triangle Association of Health Underwriters
P.O. Box 19177
Raleigh, NC 27619-9177
