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Easy Peasy Navigation of the Health Insurance Maze

Easy peasy navigation of the health insurance maze? Do you think it’s possible? If anyone can make it easy, it’s my Papa, Lee Davis.

My Papa, Lee Davis, founder of Lee Davis and Company, worked in healthcare for 25 years prior to starting Lee Davis and Company. Thus, he has the know-how to help you navigate the maze.

I know, not because I’m his daughter, but because I watched him at work. As a secretary at one of the offices my Papa managed, I watched him explain to many, many patients about how their insurance worked.

In fact, it was probably the biggest part of his job as an administrator of orthopedic groups. So, if you are looking for easy peasy navigation of the health insurance maze, you have found the right post.

Here is what Lee Davis has to say:

The health insurance maze is very challenging for both employers and employees. Because of this, it’s very easy for the employers to just throw up their hands and ask their insurance broker to take care of purchasing the insurance policy. 

With a tighter employment market and the cost of benefits, particularly healthcare costs on the rise, it is increasing important for the employer, employees and their healthcare agents to work together to maximize benefits, control costs and provide excellent communication all year long to all parties involved. That is why I am writing this post. I want to make navigating the health insurance maze easy for my clients and potential clients.

Tips for Easy Peasy Navigation of the Health Insurance Maze:

1. Understand your current insurance policies. 

Before you make any changes to your current healthcare options, you should read your current policies and understand their key provisions. 

Questions you should ask your insurance providers or employers:

Just save the picture below and use it when you are going to talk with an insurer or employer about your health insurance.

Know what the insurance has to offer.

  1. You first want to know if your personal doctor is covered under the health insurance plan.

Is it too much work for you?

What are the administrative task that could be a burden for employees and employers in managing the plan?

A review of your current plan to answer the questions of affordability and access to health benefits should be conducted to understand any challenges that need to be addressed.

2. Communicate Communicate Communicate

Many small employers put a large amount of forms and paperwork in front of their employees without giving them adequate support and assistance to navigate this very important phase. 

For small employers the answer is having your insurance broker partner with you in the communication and education of both new employees and current employees to help them understand their benefits, including their health insurance. 

Many times employees don’t understand they can utilize their insurance professional if they are denied benefits after submitting an insurance claim.

3. Select an insurance broker who works with you all year, not just a renewal time. 

Employees are often frustrated with the costs of healthcare eating away at their paycheck. Compounding that problem is the increasing amount of money being taken out of their other pocket for actually using the services they are paying for. 

Working with employees all year long, giving them the assistance and help they need when they need it, is one of the keys to controlling costs and employee satisfaction and retention.

If you have more than 10 employees, you should go to an employee benefits firm like Caitlin Demet at Northeast Planning, who specializes in health insurance. 

4. What do you do when the Affordable Care Act is the best option for employees?

For very small employers, when the group plans are too expensive, the employer and employees need to consider other options.

One of those options is to work with your insurance broker to navigate the health exchanges or the Affordable Care Act. If you provide an expert to help your employees navigate this complex decision, you will make the navigation of the health insurance maze easy peasy.

5. Work with your employees to find the right solution.

The employers and employees should work together to find the right solution for the company. The employers should consider how to control premiums and out of pocket expenses.

Lee Davis and Company can help we have spent over thirty years working with insurance companies, employees and medical providers facing the ever rising costs of healthcare costs.

6. What should you do if a claim is denied?

When a claim is denied, most people just accept that it is denied and pay the denied amount. However, if you want to do a little work and you feel that you shouldn’t have to pay for the care in questions, you can follow the steps below.

  1. Look into the reason why your claim was denied. 
  2. Based on the reason, figure out what you need to do to get the claim paid.
  3. Call the insurance company. 
  4. If it’s still not paid, write a letter to the insurance company asking for the claim to be reviewed. 

How can Lee Davis and Company help you with the successful navigation of the healthcare maze?

Lee Davis and Company is a bookkeeping and management company. We provide our clients with the support and knowhow to increase a business’s profitability and efficiency.

If you need help with healthcare solutions, that sounds like a management problem. We could certainly advise you further on how you might better navigate the health insurance maze.

If you need help deciding how much you could afford for your company’s health insurance, perhaps you need our bookkeeping services or QuickBooks training which will help you to keep a tighter rein on your expenses.

What can you expect from Lee Davis and Company? 

Lee Davis standing outside in the sunshine
Lee outside

Lee Davis is the president of Lee Davis and Company. He prides himself in helping his clients make their dreams of running a successful business a reality. He has the tools and advice that will help you, the client, get to the next level. 

What services can you find at Lee Davis and Company? 

  1. Bookkeeping Services
  2. Small Business Advising 
  3. Quickbooks Training
  4. Management Services

Read more posts by Lee Davis 

  1. Main Street Relief Fund Application
  2. Getting your SBA Loan Approved
  3. Growth Mindset Development
  4. Adding Clients in Quickbooks


Solving Business Problems Like an Expert

Do you need help solving business problems like an expert?

If you want to run a successful business, you need to become a problem solving expert. In a business, there is no end to the problems that you will face. Perhaps you are smooth sailing, and then COVID-19 hits, that’s when you need a problem-solver-in-chief.  Thus, successful businesses have expert problem solvers at their helm. 

Become a Problem Solving Expert

This post is going to walk you through how to become that expert-problem-solver-in-chief. Are you ready? 

According to Business Insider, there are nine steps to becoming a problem solver, which they borrowed from Brian Tracy and his book, The Power of Self-Discipline

  1. Define the problem.
  2. Understand that somethings are not problems but “facts of life”. 
  3. Look at the problem from all angles. 
  4. Question the cause of the problem as many ways as possible. 
  5. Identify many solutions. 
  6. Find a solution that can be implemented quickly. (maybe not the best, but most expedient)
  7. Make a decision. 
  8. Decide roles to solve the problem. 
  9. Set a deadline to measure the solution. 

Let’s look at a real life example of problem solving in action: 

1. Define the Problem:

I am 15 pounds overweight. 

2. Is it a fact of life?

No, being overweight is caused by a lack of exercise and overeating. 

3. Look at the problem from all angles:

Being 15 pounds overweight: 

  1. causes me to feel bad about myself
  2. gives me less credibility as a Life Coach
  3. wastes my time and brain power because I am constantly thinking about that
  4. is something unfinished in my life

4. Why – Why am I overweight?

  1. I eat a lot of desserts. 
  2. I eat while I make food. 
  3. My exercise isn’t very intense. 
  4. I eat because I want to feel good. (emotional eating)

5. My solution:

  1. Go very hard losing weight for 2 months (September to October) to lose 15 pounds (goal weight – 125 pounds)
  2. Intermittent fasting, only eating at certain specific times during the day
  3. Pray when I feel hungry
  4. Exercise for 6 five-minute mini workouts during the day
  5. Exercise for an hour in the morning and 30 minutes at night
  6. Only eat on a small plate during dinner time and a cup during snack time. 
  7. No desserts for two months 
  8. Only make food 3 days a week
  9. Exercise hard for three days, and then take a relaxed day 
  10. I will not finish Margaret’s meals ever. She is responsible for that. 
  11. Continue on with my current way of eating and exercise, but have Margaret monitor my overeating.

6. I think I can implement all of these solutions. 

7. All of these decisions are necessary for my success. 

8. I need help. 

  1. I have asked my daughter to monitor my eating. Thus, I have asked her to remind me to not eat nuts or desserts. 
  2. Furthermore, I will blog about my weight-loss journey on my website to get more accountability. 
  3. I will also ask Margaret to finish her meals. If she doesn’t, I will put them in the trash. 
  4. Exercise accountability is also a problem at times. I can justify skipping an exercise session to work, but because I have committed to do a block of two months of work to become more fit, so this is my sprint to become more fit, so perhaps I can blog about my exercise as well on my blog. Sometimes friends are not encouragements to me because they give up as well. 

9. Set my deadline to lose weight.  October 31st 

Success Measurements: 125 pounds, 26-inch waist

Follow-up: How did it go?

Well, loosing weight as I prescribed for myself didn’t go very well. I didn’t get enough protein to support my exercise, so I couldn’t sustain the weight-loss challenge.

When I did decide to take a break from the challenge, I ate more protein and food than I should have. I am still a little nervous about checking the scales, but I can safely say that I didn’t make my goal.

This exercise to lose weight was not in vain.

Deciding to go through the process of trying to lose weight…

  1. taught me to implement strategies right way.
  2. gave me an idea – get Margaret to stop me if I’m overeating. I have been using this strategy.
  3. supported that what I am doing right now is the best course of action.
  4. gave me more compassion for people who go on diets.
  5. confirmed that what I have been doing is a great way to stay fit.
  6. taught me that loosing weight quickly is not a good strategy.

If you want to read more about my weight loss journey, check out my Goal of the week to lose 5 pounds in a week.

Coaching Sheet at Lee Davis and Company

Check out our Coaching Sheet at Lee Davis and Company that helps us work through our client’s problems.

Example of Solving Business Problems Like an Expert at Lee Davis and Company

This is from Lee Davis on “How He Rocked the Week” –

We were working with a client this week, and the client had a problem they couldn’t solve.

It doesn’t matter what the particular situation is because every problem presents an exciting challenge for us. Furthermore, it was exciting because solving problems is what we do.

Clients call us because they have a problem, and we are happy to solve it.

You might ask how we solve problems. 

Solving the problem requires getting all the information and bringing the necessary parties together.

This task took a couple of weeks to solve. It involved working with people, technology, skill building and persistence.

What did we learn?

Having a company that is committed to learning, brainstorming and taking responsibility for the solution will bring about positive results. We further learned that we take our learning with us to use in our next assignment.

What can you expect from Lee Davis and Company? 

Lee Davis is the president of Lee Davis and Company. He prides himself in helping his clients make their dreams of running a successful business a reality. He has the tools and advice that will help you, the client, get to the next level. 

What services can you find at Lee Davis and Company? 

  1. Bookkeeping Services
  2. Small Business Advising 
  3. Quickbooks Training
  4. Management Services

Read more posts by Lee Davis 

  1. Main Street Relief Fund Application
  2. Getting your SBA Loan Approved
  3. Growth Mindset Development
  4. Adding Clients in Quickbooks


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Address: CoWork Peterborough, 6 School Street, Peterborough, NH 03458

Location: Across from Toadstool Bookstore parking lot and next to Movie Theater

Address: 836 Old County rd South, Francestown, NH, 03043

 

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