Yesterday I wrote about the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s decision not to exclude broker commissions from the calculations carriers will use to determine their medical loss ratio as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Some brokers have indicated, on this blog and elsewhere, that this result spells certain doom for brokers.
I respectfully disagree. And I had started to draft a post explaining why. The post was going to revisit an explanation I offered once of the math that will drive broker calculations. Then I was going to note that many carriers offering small group and individual coverage were already fairly close to meeting the PPACA’s medical loss ratio requirement. And finally I was going to highlight the expenses currently treated as “administrative” by carriers that will now be either excluded from the calculations (e.e., many taxes) or that will now be reclassified to the “claims” side of the calculation (e.g., quality improvement and disease management programs).
But then I read a comment to yesterday’s post submitted by Ann H. setting out her perspective on the impact of the NAIC’s decision on brokers. Knowing that not everyone visiting this blog reads the comments I wanted to give her statement the prominence it deserves. That this spares you from wading through my math calculations is an added benefit.
So here’s Ann’s comment. Other than correcting a spelling error or two, it’s presented as she wrote it.
I didn’t know about these facts, Alan, and thank-you for telling us. But even before I read this, I can tell you that I wasn’t overwhelmingly disappointed that broker commissions were not removed from the MLR.
I guess there are 2 reasons. First, I expected it, so I’ve already crossed the bridge of disappointment and even fear. On 3/23/2010 when President Obama signed the law, I realized that my commission would be squeezed, and my business would suffer in other ways including a reduction in the number of carriers, frustration of my clients, higher premiums that puts further pressure on my book of business and so forth. I guess I’ve already dealt with this emotionally and logically.
The second reason today’s news about broker commissions didn’t affect me much is because there are other factors involved. One of my carrier reps said this to me several months ago — he said, “Half of the commission rate on double the premium is still the same amount of income.” He also said, “half the commission rate on twice the clientele with half the work due to guaranteed issue is still the same income.” And he also told me that the insurance company he works for was planning to keep premiums and expenses at much the same rate as they had done before anyway. He said that once 2011 is over and the accounting is done, if they find that they must make rebates to customers, then they will rebate. But they aren’t going to freak out now.
I think, “don’t freak out yet” is a good idea. Another of my carriers told me that they aren’t going to make major changes in business practices until the election is over, and they’ve analyzed the result. And even then, they expect more modifications to the rules on the national and state level. They don’t want to make drastic changes now that affect their position in the market, their position with brokers, and their public relations. They said 90% of their business is driven by brokers, and they can’t afford to replace the workload brokers provide for that 90%. They would actually survive better by paying a rebate than by manning and maintaining workers to replace brokers, then watching their backside for loss of sales due to the deletion of sales brokers.
Cutting broker’s commissions is a balance walk. If one carrier cuts deeper than others, sales may severely diminish for that carrier. Carriers can’t afford to lose fresh input of new customers and be left with an aging risk pool!! I’m not saying broker commissions won’t suffer. They will. But to what extent they suffer is an important issue. And how long the commissions will be at the floor before economic realities make them rise is another issue. I remember when group commissions were cut from 10% level to the 4-6% they are now. It came at the same time as the HIPAA laws with Portability and Guaranteed Issue for groups. Premiums spiked, commission percentages decreased, but after the initial drastic dip it all equalized to be the same amount of income.
There are other balance walks insurers must make. If brokers go out of business, who will service the client? Some NAIC commissioners said they expect their consumer complaint departments to have triple the amount of work if brokers aren’t fielding questions and finding resolutions. That’s what the States think. How about insurers? What strain will there be on insurance company customer service departments if brokers leave the business? How will insurers pay for the administrative expense of those customer service departments when they must meet 80% MLR? Isn’t a larger customer service department just as expensive as broker commissions, and don’t they both affect the MLR? Another thing to think about is quality of service. If an insurer cannot compete based on underwriting, or creative benefit structures, or even premium outside a specified range controlled by the government, then competition on the basis of quality of service is paramount. The amount of money an insurer has to spend on it’s administration and customer service departments is squeezed by the MLR. Will our insurers’ service departments be manned in India or the Philippines? The need for brokers is actually larger now than ever. Maintaining Service Departments is a fixed expense of wages, benefits, office space, overhead and taxes. If insurers were able to replace us with in-house service departments they would have done it a long time ago, trust me. We are less expensive.
Granted, not every broker can survive the dip that will come until things equalize again. The dip may be drastic, especially in some markets. But if you can see past the temporary into the inevitable, you can see light. Some of the things in the PPACA are just not functionally possible. It’s inevitable that the functionally impossible will fail and a solution will rise.
My thanks to Ann H. for sharing her perspective and insight on this issue with readers of this blog.
