Rodney: We’re back with Vincent Blair of the Vincent K. Blair agency. Getting right back on track Vince, as everyone knows from the first segment, a few months ago we had a very good conversation and leaning into this segment is pretty simple: why Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield?

Vincent: Well Rodney, like I said I have been doing specifically individual health insurance for, oh, one of these days I’ll count the years, like twenty-five or twenty-six or something, but over that time you see a long history of companies. I’ve seen companies come and go. I’ve been very fortunate not to have any of my policy holders in any of the companies that left. So we’ve been fortunate there. But you see a long history of the way companies operate, the way they function, and their products. Anthem, I could go through a history of theirs, they have always been a top carrier, they have always been, of course a PPO network is huge and one of the first things everyone asks me is, ‘Well, Vince, I like what you’re telling me but are my doctors in it?’ Well, you pretty much can’t be in practice or be a physician without being in the Anthem, Blue Cross network so your doctors are almost assuredly there, the hospitals are, it travels well if you are out on vacation. Again we talk about being anywhere. The Blue Card network, if the companies accept Blue Cross and Blue Shield, you’re probably in the network. I don’t know what the number is, maybe someone would caution me on it, but maybe eighty or eighty-five percent of the doctors throughout the country and the hospitals. So, from a stability standpoint they’re very good and their networks are wonderful. What we were talking about cost before and insuring people for the large bills, you want a clean policy. Their policies that might limit, health care reform has changed this a bit, but they never ever had a history really of leaving off benefits. I mean, if you’re at the doctor’s office with a cold or a flu or God forbid some sort of dreaded illness we don’t want to think about, the doctor’s fee is going to be covered, the labs are going to be covered, and so we start there. The products are very good. But beyond that, I’ve watched them develop, literally watched what I think is a change in the company where twenty years ago when everything was low co-pays and costs weren’t as big they were a leader in that. But I have always been a proponent of a very good policy with what I’m going to call a medium or large deductible. If you have a very outstanding company writing a very good policy, again you can control the cost through that. Not immediate dollar benefit. Now, they have all ranges of products. We can write a five hundred dollar deductible and have co-pays on it but that’s not generally where I go. They have literally been the leaders, and I’ve watched this transformation in the last, I’m going to say four to five years, where their products are the most competitively priced and their benefits are the highest and it’s reflected in the premiums. So, I have to tell you, they haven’t always been my number one carrier over the last twenty years but certainly have always been a partner of mine and today I’d have to say it is my primary company and has been for years just because, I have to tell you, I followed their products, their lead in the industry, the health care reform whatever we think about it, I’ve got to tell you, they made that transformation as quick as you could ever see a company make that transition. So, stability and cost, I’ve got to tell you, they’ve got a pretty good act put together.

Rodney: One of the things that have stuck with me from our previous conversation Vince was that you said and I love this phrase, ‘That Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield writes smart policies.’ And by what you were just talking about, it seems like they really understand what I like to call is the mentality of the market. They understand their market. They understand, like you’ve said, they’ve been in business a very long time, they’re on the front end of adapting to change, just like with the health care reform. So it seems like even like right here like you are today, how they are in the publication, they always put themselves out there because they want to be heard by the public. It just seems like they make every effort to get you the education to get the individual and or the group, the company, the information as well as they can. That seems like it goes hand in hand in the end by writing the smart policies.

Vincent: Oh, I think very much so. Again, when you do something, I’ve watched this industry develop for twenty, like I said, plus years. You’ll see over the years, a company try to make their premiums more competitive, cutting out this benefit, or omitting that benefit. That is not the way you want to save on your health insurance premiums. We don’t know what our claim is going to be. So, if something, you know, out here people say well I don’t need prescription medicines; we’re not on any prescription medicines. Well, we haven’t developed a heart disease either, you know, or diabetes. So, that would be the wrong time to find out that you’re not covered for something. They’ve never taken that path really. I’m going to be honest, I don’t think they were the first at the health savings account policies, they always had one, but boy in the last three or four years they have been the policy to really hold up in comparison. And by smart, for the people that want what we call a consumer driven health plan, that’s a little higher deductible, watch your own costs as we talked about throughout the previous segment. They reward that. I mean, the premiums are there and that’s what I mean by smart, good benefits, and rewarding that person that lives a healthy lifestyle or perhaps they’re on one or two medicines that doesn’t impact where they could shop for those medicines. So they’re willing to take a little bit bigger deductible on that and watch those costs of those prescriptions. So it’s rewarded in the premium and that’s what I mean by a smart product.

Rodney: In my travels in the past couple weeks, I went out West, my wife Lola and I went out to Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of our favorite places, and the individuals we rented a house from, they were reading the latest RSVP Health publication and they noticed the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield ads in there. Well, that conversation turned into that is their carrier. We started talking and kind of asking them what were some general thoughts there and they said that the main thing with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for them is the access, the network, but the support behind the scenes. Whether it’s the phone calls inside, processing the claims, you know, always there to answer the questions, whether it’s through some of their brokers or through their company itself. But that was this family, that was their main thing that they hammered on was the support.

Vincent: Well, I couldn’t agree more. As a broker, I have a choice of which products I represent. I won’t mention names other than Anthem being good at what they’re doing, but there are companies that literally as a broker, now these are companies that are trying to get brokers to sell their products, and if I call about an inquiry about their rates and whatnot, and I’m directed to me, the broker, I’m directed to a website or to get something online, and to fill out my contract papers online and you leave a message and no one returns your phone call. Now, I’m the broker. I’m the one that’s got to bring them the business. Well, if they’re doing that to me, what do you think they’re going to do to their clients? I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but the people at the policy support know my voice by name so we know them too. We call them, not on a daily basis, frequently throughout the day. Part of that is my service I present that I provide for my clients so that they don’t have to make those phone calls. Most of the time we know those answers or know how to get them pretty quick, so I don’t necessarily want someone to spend ten minutes on a phone or twenty minutes if I can get them an answer in a couple. So the support is, without any question or any doubts, is just A+.

Rodney: I think you hit a very important point. Not just for the individual or company but for yourself as a broker, having that support behind you, and that access to their staff and their products, you can make that available to your customers. You don’t want them calling into your main company, as you said, it allows you to turn around the response very rapidly to those individuals that have bought policies through you that are Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield products.

Vincent: Well, it’s the whole package. I said earlier that if you had a policy that covered the potential losses, again I’m thinking of things that on a daily basis, you know when the sun is shining and it’s warm outside and everyone is happy, you’re not thinking about that day that you’re going to need your health insurance. But I am. So when the labs are covered, and the prescriptions are covered, and the doctors and you don’t have to worry very much at all about is my doctor in it? So, when you’re covered, number one, and then there’s support on the other side when you need to speak with somebody. Pretty much put that package together. I just think they do a great job.

Rodney: And by them, this is where I’ve been trying to redefine continuity of care throughout the health care arena, meaning more on the hospital and the actual medical side because I think insurance carriers and you are part of that continuity of care. If you’re the patient and you’re inside the hospital and God forbid, the last thing you want to do is to be worrying if your claims are being paid, and going through all the hassle of your family members not being able to contact the broker or the insurance carrier. In my experiences I haven’t found that to be the case with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, so that’s why I think when we talk about continuity of care you have to include the insurance carrier. A lot of people, you’ll hear a lot of politicians say that the insurance carrier doesn’t need to be between the patient and the provider. Well, that’s not necessarily true, because they are a part of this team. They are a part, especially if you have their products and they’re paying for that care. To me, they are a part of that continuity of care, and even yourself, if you’re the go between and you’re the main person they bought the policy from, everybody has something in this for the overall health and well-being of that individual.

Vincent: Well, you know, you hear horror stories of course about different insurance companies, not anyone particular, claims, you know, something’s not paid or whatnot. Well, let’s think about that from a practical standpoint. If you have a policy and the benefit is a covered expense, which that is one of the reasons why I hold Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to be a good company, because I’ve already said that pretty much anything you’re thinking about, it could be a cold, it could be cancer. If you’re at the doctor’s office, that’s a covered expense. If that doctor’s ordering a lab or an x-ray, that’s a covered expense. It does away with the horror stories. I mean, if you have a reputable company and those things are covered, you know, a lot of this is in the news or something that you hear. If you dig down, the stories are not what they appear to be. You don’t have a person with a quality company and a quality policy turn in an x-ray for a broken arm and not have the bill paid. I’ve done this, as I’ve stated, for many, many years and it just doesn’t happen. That’s why we look at using not only, as I said earlier, name brand companies and of course Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield fit that category. So it does. It goes back to the policy and the company.

Rodney: and I think, going back to when we talked earlier and throughout even this segment that everyone has to research their own health and wellness and they also need to know their own policy. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield make a wide variety of resources available through the brokers, through their online services so people will know and what to expect when that time arises, nobody wants that time to arise, but if you’re in the hospital or you have to have some procedures done, you’re able to research this stuff either through your broker or straight through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield through their numerous resources online.

Vincent: Well, what I would say, Rodney, to that and I don’t want to make it sound that simple but it is, if the policy, if you’re with an A+ policy with an A+ company, you pretty much just have to know what you’re deductibles are. I’m very serious about that. One of the things I hear from people is well, I guess I wouldn’t know what I was covered for unless I used it. That’s kind of the public perception, you’ll hear different things and I immediately correct them. I say, ‘Mike that’s not true.’ I’ve talked to you for twenty minutes and I’ve told you about how this company functions and you’re covered for all of these, the doctors, the labs, the emergency room, and the hospital and so forth. So what you pretty much need to know is what you’re deductible is because after that it’s not your bill. It’s ours.

Rodney: My guest is Vincent K. Blair with the Vincent K. Blair agency. We’ll be back for the next segment.