HEALTH/BENEFITS SURVIVAL COMES WITH A MASSIVE PRICE TAG
15%–20% of people who seek treatment for COVID-19 may need a hospital stay. The cost runs more than $73,000 for those without health insurance and nearly $40,000 for those with private insurance using in-network providers. will a single-option critical illness plan. The newer critical illness plans provide many options so your clients and their employees can tailor coverage to their unique needs. Your clients should expect a choice of several different plan designs with different features. For example, a plan that includes more cancer coverage provides a combined benefit to employees. If your clients already offer a cancer plan, they may prefer a critical illness design with less emphasis on cancer benefits. Employees should be able to choose from different levels of coverage to meet their financial situations. They also may want to further personalize their coverage with riders that pay additional benefits for infectious diseases, cancer, first diagnosis, heart procedures or progressive diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. • Infectious disease coverage. The news tells us every day that COVID-19 is still spreading rapidly. And even though the vast majority of patients survive, treatment can be costly. FAIR Health, an independent nonprofit that collects health insurance claims data, estimates 15%–20% of people who seek treatment for COVID-19 may need a hospital stay. The cost runs more than $73,000 for those without health insurance and nearly $40,000 for those with private insurance using in-network providers. One way the benefits industry is responding is by adding infectious disease coverage to critical illness insurance plans. The coverage may be offered as a rider that provides a lump-sum benefit that employees can use to help pay health care expenses, nonmedical costs or even day-to-day bills. The benefits typically are payable for hospital stays of a set number of days, such as seven or 14. Covered conditions can include COVID-19 as well as a wide range of other infectious diseases such as those 44
caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Legionnaires’ disease, meningitis, Lyme disease, sepsis and more. • New wellness benefits. Your clients and their employees also may not realize they can get value from their critical illness protection even if they’re never diagnosed with an illness. The well-being assistance benefit on some plans pays a benefit for one of many different health screening tests, such as a colonoscopy or a mammogram. Some newer plans include coverage for the BRCA genetic test that identifies breast cancer risk. Critical illness insurance can help your clients’ employees survive a serious illness both physically and financially.
Educate your clients on the importance of critical illness insurance as an affordable option that can help employees better protect themselves and their families from the unexpected — and keep racking up those gold stars. Pam Jenkins is assistant vice president of product development at Colonial Life & Accident. Pam may be contacted at pam.jenkins@innfeedback.com.
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The High Cost Of Survival
Source: National Cancer Institute
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » October 2020