By working closely with professional organizations, brokers can begin to influence regulators to change how they view broker services. For example, the medical loss ratio provision requires insurance carriers to spend a specified percentage of premium revenue on either reimbursement for clinical services or on “activities that improve healthcare quality.” As it stands now, sales commissions to brokers are typically seen as unnecessary administration costs, but there is an argument to be made that their activity – enrollment assistance, claims advocacy service, billing and collection – serves to promote healthcare quality.
As they say, with change comes opportunity. Now that the economy has started to recover, we are beginning to understand where the insurance industry fits in the new structure for American healthcare. Despite the drastic changes, brokers are positioned to survive and flourish, but only if they stay sharp, keep up with developments and demonstrate creativity in how they do business.
Samuel H. Fleet is President of AmWINS Group Benefits of Warwick, RI, a leading wholesale broker of comprehensive group insurance programs and administrative services. Sam can be reached at sam.fleet@amwins.com
