Tag Archives: business
Health Insurance Exchanges Vs SHOP Exchanges – a view
Anyone who has been following the U.S. healthcare landscape closely is well aware that President Obamas Affordable Care Act of 2010, mandates U.S. states to set up online insurance marketplaces. The marketplaces or exchanges for both individuals and small businesses are to be addressed as Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) and Small Business Health Option Program (SHOP) Exchange, respectively.
The fundamental principle behind setting such exchanges is to make the U.S. consumers well-informed about the health insurance choices available to them, so that they can take an educated decision while purchasing a plan for themselves, their families or employees. Both HIX and SHOP will serve the basic purpose of providing affordable insurance options to individuals, groups and small businesses. The exchanges will allow consumers to avail of high-quality health plan choices from various insurers and carriers, albeit at standardized rates.
Although the basic premise on which both health insurance exchanges and SHOP exchanges have been proposed remains the same, both the individual exchanges and SHOP exchanges have a few key administrative differences between them.
In health insurance exchanges, individuals can apply for federal subsidies and tax credits if they are eligible, so individual exchanges need to verify applicants income data and also need to offer an online functionality where consumers can calculate their net costs after subsidy deductions etc.
SHOP exchanges have been proposed to primarily cater to the small business community. Small businesses offering employer coverage through the SHOP exchanges will not be eligible for premium tax credits except in certain cases where the premiums from SHOP-coverage exceed 9.5% of employees income.
Secondly, Individual exchanges are not required to act as health premium collection centers or transfer these collected premiums to health plans. Also, to reduce the administrative burdens for small employers, the SHOP exchange may need to collect premiums from employees and transmit the appropriate amount to the respective health plans.
Health insurance exchanges and SHOP exchanges also differ with respect to the time period for which the premium rates of health plans remain fixed. In Individual exchanges, every new health plan applicant receives the assurance that his/her premium rates will not increase for a defined period of time, which is usually set for 6 or 12 months.
On the other hand, employers usually prefer having a precise idea about their yearly contributions in employees plans, before they even decide to offer health insurance coverage. So, SHOP exchanges may also need to devise a clearly defined strategy that addresses the premium rate escalation concerns of small businesses participating in SHOP exchanges.
Health Insurance Exchanges and SHOP exchanges were proposed to service different insurance markets individual and small business, respectively. While there are talks about the efficacy of merging both SHOP exchanges and Individual health insurance exchanges together, it may not be a viable option as in spite of functional similarities, both the exchanges differ on several key administrative aspects. Nevertheless, it would be too early to surmise which insurance exchange model will be a better option vis`-a-vis´ other models.
Working with a Professional Local SEO Company VS DIY SEO
Some business owners are squeamish when it comes to working with a local search engine optimization (SEO) company. This is mostly due to the unfortunate truth that many local SEO firms are scams or use unaccepted SEO techniques. However, not all SEO companies are out to get you and although many SEO tactics and tools are free to use, getting to the top of the search engine rankings takes extensive time and knowledge. Here are the pros and cons of both utilizing the services of a top local SEO provider or taking a DIY approach.
DIY SEO:
Pros:
Most tools used for SEO are free and there’s plenty of free information about improving SEO on the Web. So to do local SEO for your company, it would essentially cost for your website and time.
It’s a great learning experience. Teaching yourself this valuable skill is advantageous and will continue to be as your business grows.
Cons:
DIY SEO is extremely time consuming. Achieving top rankings on Google and other search engines can be tedious and a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of misinformation available on the Web and if you aren’t sure which sources are reliable, you could end up hurting your rankings or wasting your time and effort on an SEO campaign that doesn’t work. Carrying out an SEO strategry is a full-time job. SEO is a long-term growth strategy and a huge commitment. It requires a lot of research, repetition and as time passes it only gets more complex. Building an effective website or landing page can be expensive. You must pay for web hosting, copy writing, optimization and design.
Professional Local SEO:
Pros:
Let the professionals do all the heavy lifting. The hard, time consuming work can be passed off to a professional or company that has the time, tools and knowledge to get the job done efficiently. You can throw some money at the situation and leave the worries and stress to someone else. Results come faster. Since an SEO company’s sole purpose is to perform Internet marketing and search engine optimization for companies like yours, they already have systems and tools in place to get started right away. They don’t need to teach themselves SEO first like you would have to do. Since they’re experts, they know all the best techniques and have the necessary connections to get you ranking as quick as possible. Internet marketing is constantly changing. It’s hard to keep up with the ever-changing world of SEO. Search engines are always changing their algorithms and as a business owner, it would be hard to keep up with your employees, business location, customers and the ever-changing Internet marketing industry. Chances are, you don’t have the time. A professional can put full attention on the search engine optimization of your business so you get maximum results.
Cons:
It can be hard to find a legitimate company to work with. There are many unreliable black hat SEO companies out there, you must be tough when deciding who to work with in order to avoid the Google black list or losing money on less than desirable results. Check out the company’s credentials before deciding to work with them. It costs money. Help from a professional costs money. However if your SEO company is doing its job and getting your business found on the first page of the search engines, you will be getting more leads and it will be well worth the money.
When you weigh the pros and cons it’s easy to see that if you have the funds, leaving the local SEO to the professionals is your best option. Although SEO can be done on your own, if you’re inexperienced it can be easy to make a mistake and hurt your rankings or waste your efforts on techniques that don’t really work. When choosing a local SEO provider, be aware of possible black hat SEOs and be sure to gather as much information about the company as possible before agreeing to work with them.’
Health Insurance Exchanges Vs SHOP Exchanges – a view
Anyone who has been following the U.S. healthcare landscape closely is well aware that President Obamas Affordable Care Act of 2010, mandates U.S. states to set up online insurance marketplaces. The marketplaces or exchanges for both individuals and small businesses are to be addressed as Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) and Small Business Health Option Program (SHOP) Exchange, respectively.
The fundamental principle behind setting such exchanges is to make the U.S. consumers well-informed about the health insurance choices available to them, so that they can take an educated decision while purchasing a plan for themselves, their families or employees. Both HIX and SHOP will serve the basic purpose of providing affordable insurance options to individuals, groups and small businesses. The exchanges will allow consumers to avail of high-quality health plan choices from various insurers and carriers, albeit at standardized rates.
Although the basic premise on which both health insurance exchanges and SHOP exchanges have been proposed remains the same, both the individual exchanges and SHOP exchanges have a few key administrative differences between them.
In health insurance exchanges, individuals can apply for federal subsidies and tax credits if they are eligible, so individual exchanges need to verify applicants income data and also need to offer an online functionality where consumers can calculate their net costs after subsidy deductions etc.
SHOP exchanges have been proposed to primarily cater to the small business community. Small businesses offering employer coverage through the SHOP exchanges will not be eligible for premium tax credits except in certain cases where the premiums from SHOP-coverage exceed 9.5% of employees income.
Secondly, Individual exchanges are not required to act as health premium collection centers or transfer these collected premiums to health plans. Also, to reduce the administrative burdens for small employers, the SHOP exchange may need to collect premiums from employees and transmit the appropriate amount to the respective health plans.
Health insurance exchanges and SHOP exchanges also differ with respect to the time period for which the premium rates of health plans remain fixed. In Individual exchanges, every new health plan applicant receives the assurance that his/her premium rates will not increase for a defined period of time, which is usually set for 6 or 12 months.
On the other hand, employers usually prefer having a precise idea about their yearly contributions in employees plans, before they even decide to offer health insurance coverage. So, SHOP exchanges may also need to devise a clearly defined strategy that addresses the premium rate escalation concerns of small businesses participating in SHOP exchanges.
Health Insurance Exchanges and SHOP exchanges were proposed to service different insurance markets individual and small business, respectively. While there are talks about the efficacy of merging both SHOP exchanges and Individual health insurance exchanges together, it may not be a viable option as in spite of functional similarities, both the exchanges differ on several key administrative aspects. Nevertheless, it would be too early to surmise which insurance exchange model will be a better option vis`-a-vis´ other models.