Blue Cross to Stop Paying Brokers

When the Marketplace opened, I said that brokers like Veritas Risk Management would only get paid for 3-5 more years....Looks like I was right...

With the many carriers exiting the individual health insurance market in Tennessee and leaving Blue Cross as the only option for many, Blue Cross, who anticipates losing almost $500,000,000 since they began selling Affordable Care Act Plans, has taken the step I expected them to take.  They will not be paying brokers commission on any new policies written pushing brokers out of the picture, although Navigators will continue to get paid (click here for more on that).  If you look at the rules involved in the Affordable Care Act, you could see the writing on the wall so this is not surprising.

We entered into this market with this in mind in an effort to stand in the gap where few ventured, to help you, our friends in Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol and the rest of the great state of Tennessee, understand and navigate through the crazy new laws in hopes that we would be able to build stronger relationships and build trust that you might allow us to serve any of your other insurance needs such as Business, Auto, Life, Home, Workers' Compensation and Employee Benefits.  

So here are the details...

1- Blue Cross will only be offering polices to people who live in 5 of the 8 regions.  They will not offer coverage to the Knoxville, Nashville, or Memphis regions.  So if you live in my region, you will be able to stay with Blue Cross.

2- They will only offer 4 plans total so you will not have much to choose from.

3- If you are getting tax credits right now, you should be OK but if you are not.... look out...

4- From the wording of Blue Cross' statements, unless there are more backstops that are put in place by the federal government (this means more federal money to keep it afloat) they may completely exit the market.  Check out my video about why the rates are going up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jds_HaOSs6o - this is not unexpected.

For more information, you can go to the Blue Cross website -

http://www.bcbst.com/why-bcbst/about-us/news-center/2017ACAplans.page

We will do our best to continue to keep you up to date on the changes going on with the Affordable Care Act and feel free to contact us if you have any questions - 423-292-4142 or Help@VeritasRM.com