“We show up with bells on our balls when you need us the most!”
Client opines about stop loss insurance in preparation of their upcoming plan year renewal. This case has been on a reference based pricing plan for many years. Claims have remained static without any benefit reductions. Rx claims have been tamed by transferring risk to pharmaceutical manufacturers and secondary coverage.
Here is an excerpt of an email the company owner sent us this week:
Martha sent a report of our numbers for the 12 months through May. They look pretty good, and are almost exactly what we saw for the 12 months through July of 2018. The perennial question is what, if anything, do we want to change going forward?
I have a couple of thoughts. Fist, Stop Loss. I know you’ve been a proponent of getting rid of it, but I just can’t quite bring myself to do that. We might look at a higher limit, and I’ll entertain (though may not adopt) any other funky thing you can come up with. Maybe some kind of participation where I get some money back if the experience at the end of the year is good. The SL carriers have been able to buy a lot of beer with the excess premiums I’ve paid them over the last few years. The problem, of course, is that I know there could be a catastrophe around the corner, and I will expect them to show up with bells on their balls when that happens.
Stop loss carrier advertisement piece should read “We show up with bells on our balls when you need us the most!”
