New Era « Neishloss & Fleming Inc.

New Era: Medicare Supplement

New Agent Contracting: 2011 - Philadelphia American - New Agent Contracting | 2011 - New Era - New Agent Contracting

Customer Service: 1-800-552-7879

Website: www.neweralife.com

New Era News

April 19th, 2012

New Era Increases Rates for Pennsylvania

New Era Life Insurance Company has obtained rate increase approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance for their Modernized Medicare Supplement plans effective July 1, 2012. The rate increase will be as follows:

Modernized Plans A, B, & C will have a rate increase of 9%
Modernized Plans G & N will have a rate increase of 6%

Some items to note for our brokers:

Applications with effective dates prior 7/1/12 will receive the 2011 rates
Applications with effective dates after 7/1/12 will receive the 2012 rates

To review these rate changes, please see the attached document.

2012 - New Era - Rate Increases - 7.1.12 (26)

June 6th, 2011

New Era Reduces Commission on PA MedSupp

New Era has announced a decision regarding their commission structure for their Medicare Supplement product in Pennsylvania. For any Open Enrollment applications received on or after 7/15/2011, New Era has reduced the commission rate in agents’ contracts by 50%. Letters concerning this matter have recently been mailed out to all contracted agents. This decision affects new business for the following insurance companies:

NEW ERA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
NEW ERA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF THE MIDWEST
PHILADELPHIA AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

Here is the statement from New Era explaining the commission reduction:

We have been experiencing an extremely high loss ratio on Open Enrollment business. In addition, the ratio of Open Enrollment business to underwritten business is at an unhealthy and unsustainable level. Therefore, due to our driving philosophy of maintaining stable rates and rate increases for the consumer, we are taking this prudent action. We truly appreciate our business relationship with you and your support in this matter.

May 13th, 2011

New Era Increases Rates in Pennsylvania

New Era Life Insurance Company has obtained rate increase approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance for both their Standardized and Modernized Medicare Supplement plans effective July 1, 2011. The rate increase will be as follows:

Modernized Plans A, B, C, G, & N will have a rate increase of 9%
Standardized Plans A, B, C, & D will have a rate increase of 9%

Some items to note for our brokers:

Applications postmarked on or before 7/1/11 will receive the current rates
Applications postmarked after 7/1/11 will receive the new rates

Existing policyholders will receive the rate increase on the next premium due date after their initial 12 months in the product.

Download: [Download not found]

January 24th, 2011

Get Educated on Medicare High Income Guidelines

Are you aware that your high income clients could be paying more for their Medicare Part D coverage in 2011? Do you understand what the income guidelines are, and how they can also affect their Medicare Part B premium?

If the answer to either of these questions is “NO”, we’ve got some resources for you. You can find below two documents, one from CMS and another from Social Security, that are excellent tools to help you understand these guidelines. We’ve found the Social Security piece and excellent briefcase item to help your clients explain how it works.

Downloads:

December 13th, 2010

Congress Clears 2011 Medicare Pay Fix for Physicians

The following article was taken from the Highmark Weekly Capitol Hill Report — Dec. 10, 2010

An agreement was reached this week on legislation that would head off a 25 percent cut in reimbursement to physicians under Medicare, taking the ‘doc fix’ issue off the table in Congress until this time next year. The Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 (H.R. 4994) provides a one-year freeze in physician payments through 2011 at a cost of $14.9 billion. The Senate cleared the measure by unanimous consent Wednesday and the House passed the bill 409-2 on Thursday. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law.

The bill is largely paid for by increasing repayment amounts for individuals receiving excess premium tax credit payments from the federal government to purchase health insurance on newly created exchanges, slated to open in 2014. The bill increases the repayment limit from a previous cap of $400/families ($250/individuals) for those below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to a sliding scale from $600 for households below 200 percent FPL up to $3,500 for households between 450 percent and 500 percent FPL.

The bill also includes several one-year extensions of expiring Medicare provisions such as the therapy cap exception and ambulance add-on payments and extends a number of programs targeted at low-income beneficiaries.

Neishloss& Fleming Inc.