When you start combining major medical plans with ancillary plans, is when you will start separating yourself from your competition, protecting your book of business from client poachers and increasing your average commission per client. Ancillary or supplemental plans are your tools for closing benefit gaps created by trying to decrease premiums. For example, for most clients the premium for a $5,000 or even $10,000 deductible plan is attractive, but the high deductible can make them nervous. So here’s what I do. I automatically include the A&I (accident & injury) coverage into the proposal and many times even the CI (critical illness) coverage as well depending on the age of the adults. And here’s exactly how I propose it: “Mary I am going to recommend that you consider the $5,000 deductible plan over the lower deductible plans and here’s why. The premium is $200 per month less than the $1,500 deductible that you were interested in. What we’ll do is add the ancillary accident and critical illness coverage to your plan. This will only increase the premium by $70 per month still saving you $130 per month compared to the $1,500 deductible plan. But more importantly, the supplemental coverage will cover your deductible and maximum out of pocket expenses for what is most likely to hospitalize a family member, and that is an accident, injury or critical illness. If someone in the family should need to go to the doctor, urgent care, emergency room or even the hospital for either of those reasons, your maximum out of pocket for that year would be $100-$250. Not only will this plan set up save you over $130 per month versus the lower deductible plan, it provides better coverage for your family. I have another reason why I would like you to seriously consider the supplement. You see if you or someone in your family has to be seen in an emergency room you will be looking at a $1,500 minimum bill if you haven’t met your deductible. If that happens you are going to call me up raising Kane that you have been paying premiums for X amount of months and you are STILL getting a bill for $1,500! And Mary, you are going to be mad. Furthermore, you are going to forget that we had this discussion about the deductible. Additionally, if someone IS diagnosed with something scary we have a built in stop loss to cover the maximum that you are financially exposed to, while at the same time, saving you quite a bit of money every month. So Mary, to avoid that angry Saturday afternoon phone call to me and to protect your money, I am going to strongly recommend that you add the accident injury plan to supplement the medical plan”. That’s how you sell HSAs, save your client monthly premium, cover their deductible and maximum out of pocket costs, increase your average commission per client by $20-$30 per month and make yourself look like a health insurance genius all at the same time!
In 2008 Rick Liuag co-founded Integrated Resources. A company created to train and mentor insurance agents on how to market & increase insurance sales online. In 2009 he authored "How to Build Your Own Online Insurance Agency", an interactive training manual teaching which web based tools and strategies work best for agents to succeed in the new internet economy. Learn more about the ebook at http://www.Theautomaticagency.biz or blog http://www.theautomaticagency.biz/blog
