Ask your Medicare Advantage Organization to lower them.
In 2003, the stop-loss rates for our Medicare Advantage Contract were schedule to more than double.
The claims for 9/11 were working their way through the system and rates had to be adjusted to recover the loss.
Our contract was evergreen, but one of the few items that could be adjusted to market prices every year was our stop-loss rates.
I shake my head at myself as I think about how my partners and I met to decide what to do.
We discussed and brainstormed until someone came up with the bright idea of taking our performance back to our Medicare Advantage Organization and asking them to mitigate the increase.
They did more than that—they said, “Oh, yea. That increase doesn’t apply to you.” We got off with no increase in rates at all. Simply by doing good work and asking.
A lesson for the ages.
The contacts I have in the insurance space are telling me they are expecting significant increases in stop-loss insurance rates this year. All the losses from multiple natural disasters are working their way through the system.
Now is a good time to re-visit our hard-won lesson with you.
If your rates go up—try asking your Medicare Advantage insurer to lower them.
It’s a tactic that worked for us multiple times, and it will work for you too.