The Basics of Selling Hospital Indemnity Insurance - YouTube

Brad:

1/3 of Medicare beneficiaries or nearly 22 million people are enrolled in Hospital Indemnity

plans today.

And those same 22 million people are vulnerable for different coverage gaps.

Filling those gaps is an important part of being an insurance agent.

Hi, I'm Brad Sumski.

Josh:

And I'm Josh Hurley, and we're your agent sales specialists here at Ritter Insurance

Marketing.

Brad:

Today, we're going to look at how you can help your clients fill those coverage gaps,

specifically in that hospital inpatient stay area by using hospital indemnity plans.

So let's get started.

Josh:

So Brad, I'm sure many people out there have heard about hospital indemnity, but what exactly

is it?

Brad:

So basically, at its core, a hospital indemnity plan is a cash indemnity benefit for an inpatient

hospital stay.

What indemnity means, basically, is a reimbursement or compensation for in this case, hospitilization

stays.

But, since it is a cash indemnity, that's money coming to the client.

Which means they can use that money however they want, it's not a designated set of money

that they have to use for a specific reason.

So they can use it for copays, deductibles, medications, services, or even to fly family

members in to help them recover.

Josh:

Wow, that sounds pretty great, Brad.

Um, so it sounds like they'd be really good for covering the copays associated with my

client's Medicare Advantage plans.

How flexible are these plans, exactly?

Brad:

So these plans are extremely flexible.

We can design these plans, like you said, to fit your client's specific needs with their

Medicare Advantage plan and help cover those copays.

So, some carriers will offer a benefit of up to $750 in a daily benefit amount.

And also, benefit periods up to 31 days.

Josh:

Wow.

I've also heard that some of these plans offer lump sum benefits for your first admission

to a hospital stay.

Brad:

Yeah, absolutely.

So what those are commonly called is a first confinement or first admission benefit.

Which basically means that the carrier will offer a lump sum for your first hospital stay.

In some cases, they will offer benefits of up to $2500.

In other cases, it's associated as a rider, to attach along with your daily benefit, so

you get that first confinement amount and the first daily benefit amount, so you're

getting that lump sum up front, the first daily benefit, and then your daily benefit

period after the fact.

But the best part about these plans, is the restoration benefit.

Josh:

Now restoration of benefits is when a client stops going on a claim for a designated period

of time and their policy restores to the base benefit amount.

A client now needs to stay out of recovery, stay out of care, for that designated period

of time, before this can be restored, and sometimes that can be as low as 60 days.

So Brad, what are some of the additional benefits that someone can receive with these plans.

Brad:

So hospital indemnity plans have a veriety of other benefits that are offered just in

the base of the plans, such as an observation stay benefit is common.

In some cases, the full benefit of the daily amount.

They also have a variety of different riders that we can add to these plans to increase

those benefits, such as an ambulance service rider, or a skilled nursing facility rider,

outpatient services riders just to name a few.

Josh:

Wow, so with all these riders, how can I choose which riders are best suited for my clients?

Brad:

The easiest way to do that is just to look at your client's Medicare Advantage plan.

So take a look at that plan, find out which copays they have for different services and

insert the riders as neccessary.

Josh:

We've actually created a hospital indemnity worksheet to show you what this looks like

and just how flexible these hospital indemnity plans really are.

So, as you can see, for this Medicare Advantage plan, your inpatient stays are $300 a day

for days 1-7.

Now, your ambulance ride there is going to be a $250 copay and your emergency room stay

is going to be a $100 copay.

This is totaled up to $2,450.

Brad:

So with this example hospital indemnity plan that we've created, we can design a benefit

to cover all of those copays.

In this example, we have a $300 copay for a 7-day stay, an ambulance rider which has

a $250 benefit, and the emergency room benefit which we said earlier was included in the

base of the plan, offers $150 in benefit, for a total benefit of $2500.

In this instance, the client came out $50 richer.

Josh:

So as you can see, it really is that simple to show the need to your client.

Brad:

So I bet you're wondering how or even if these plans are underwritten.

The answer's simple.

Simplified underwriting.

Josh:

Now, simplified underwriting simply means that if your client can answer no to all of

the questions on the application, then they'll be eligible for the policy.

Brad:

But be aware, a six-month lookback on pre-existing conditions is typical, and even have a two-year

contestibility period in the policy.

So just to recap what we've covered here today, hospital indemnity plans can be designed to

cover or reduce your client's copays or high out-of-pocket maximums.

Josh:

And flexibility is key.

We can design these plans to fit any need.

And remember, hospital indemnity and Medicare Advantage need to be paired together.

Kind of like milk and cookies, you can have one without the other, but they're so much

better together.

Brad:

So, if you're ready to offer your clients the coverage they need, reach out to Josh

or myself and we'll find the plan that's right for your client.

Brad Wistia:

So if you're looking for more information, just click the link at the end of this video.

Brad YouTube:

So be sure to like and subscribe if you're interested in looking at more Ritter content.

And if you want more information on hospital indemnity, click the link in the description.

Oh, and one last thing, here at Ritter we are...

Both:

More than Medicare.