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Open Enrollment – Confusion Spells Opportunity
What a MESS Open Enrollment is this year! No matter where your health insurance comes from – an employer, the Obamacare exchanges, or Medicare – it’s changed up, switched up, and more confusing than it has ever been. YOU, as an independent health or patient advocate or care manager live (and fight) in this world of “let’s make money from patients even if we have to deny the services they need” world. You know what it’s like having to get a treatment, or claim, or hospitalization approved for someone who has inadequate insurance coverage. You know what it’s like when they ask you to help them get a bill reduced, or when the doctor they have been seeing for years suddenly won’t accept their insurance anymore. You know what it’s like when they realize that the hospital they were rushed to in an ambulance isn’t even in their insurance network. You understand their confusion. You may even be confused yourself. This year we’re going to experience the added confusion of the changes the new administration in Washington has made, including reduced subsidies, reduced Open Enrollment period, and the resulting upset when people find out their current coverage is no longer being offered (several of the largest insurers have dropped out of the ACA marketplaces). And that’s just Open Enrollment. What’s going to happen when the reality of 2018 sets in, and we all have to function under the new rules? But – here’s the good news. We are business owners! As such, we never hear negativity in the word “confusion.” Instead, when we hear the word “confusion” – we hear OPPORTUNITY! Yes – 2018 Open Enrollment is a HUGE opportunity for all advocates – not just those who work in cost side of advocacy (health insurance / medical billing / claims, etc), but even those who work within the care side of advocacy (medical / navigational / eldercare / hospital bedside, etc). HUGE. Why? Because everyone has to choose health insurance, and most people are clueless about how to go about it even though many have finally figured out that…
