Can’t We All Just Get Along?

By: Chris Aguiar, Esq.

It always baffles me when sides whose interests should be very well aligned can’t seem to get on the same page.  The Right and the Left blame each other for the problems in America.  Payers chastise providers for charging too much while providers point the finger back at payers for paying too little. The reality is, if we all took a seat at the table together in the spirit cooperation and compromise, we could probably figure out something that worked for everyone.

In today’s blog installment, I’m looking at the relationship between stop loss carriers and benefit plans.  Now, talk to any of us lawyers at The Phia Group, and we could talk all day about horror stories, as far as subrogation is concerned, its comes up in the same way almost every time.  Now, it doesn’t happen often – but every once in a while I’ll  come across a plan that doesn’t want to comply with its stop loss contracts and/or obligations.  It’s important that everyone realizes that we need each other to survive.  Those plans who perhaps don’t have the cash flow or population to sustain large losses especially must consider the importance of stop loss to the health of their self-funded plan.  And let’s face it, if companies didn’t make money offering a stop loss product, it wouldn’t be available in the marketplace.

The truth is, we’re on the same team.  If we can’t get on the same page, how can we expect state regulators to see the value in what self-funding brings to the benefit plan table?