September 2020-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volume 14 Issue 1
A special thank you to our 2020 Platinum Sponsor:
President's Message
Greetings fellow IAHU members, it is an honor to serve as your state chapter President. When I accepted the role of secretary in 2018, I had no idea I would be serving as the state president during such unprecedented times. The worldwide pandemic certainly created challenges that no one could have foreseen. The cancellation of our annual 2020 IAHU Health Symposium was an incredible disappointment for me and those on the committee. Fortunately, these challenges have been met by our local, state, and national association with professionalism and creativity. NAHU lead the way this June with their first ever virtual convention. They successfully converted the Annual Convention from an event scheduled in Chicago to a virtual event within months. They even figured out how to spotlight their sponsors and vendors. While it was difficult to give up the in-person connection and camaraderie, when necessary, they found a way to bring us together. Our local chapters have done an amazing job of working together to share resources, programming information, and venues for virtual meetings. This is advantageous to all IAHU members as it allows access to different trainings and events statewide. Unfortunately, as we move into the new year, I believe we will continue to face challenges with large gatherings and social distancing. Our state board is moving forward with the planning and execution of in-person and/or possible virtual events such as the Day on the Hill and the 2021 Annual IAHU Health Symposium. Although we all prefer in-person meetings, the board is preparing for both scenarios just in case.  
Besides the pandemic, our industry faced the unexpected loss of several outstanding agents and friends this year. They will be dearly missed by all! Their sudden loss is a personal reminder of how much we serve our clients and communities. You make a difference every time you help a client choose a plan or assist them with a claim or benefit question. You make a difference when you participate in a charity event; when you volunteer on a committee and when you participate in the association. I am proud to serve with such amazing professionals who work through the challenges and move beyond the distraction to assist their clients and communities every day. I love this organization and those that work in our industry. I want to end with this saying by C. S. Lewis:
“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained” 
Eastern Idaho Association Honors David Parker
David Parker tragically passed away Thursday, September 3rd, 2020 in a motorcycle accident. He was a great agent and friend to all that knew him. Throughout his years as an agent, he was very committed to NAHU, going through his local EIAHU chairs and serving as president twice during his membership. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. David was survived by his wife Traci Nate Parker and his 5 children Riley Parker, Braxton Delgado, Jasmine (Dylan) Hathaway, Paisley Parker, and Jace Parker. On October 2nd EIAHU will be holding the David Parker Memorial Bowling Tournament at Skyline Lanes in Idaho Falls. We will also be holding a silent auction with all proceeds going to the David Parker Family. If anyone would like to participate or donate please contact Matthew Semons at matt@realbenefitsolutions.org. You can see the obituary and send sympathy cards to the family using the following link David Parker Obituary.   

Local Chapter Reports
brought to you by our Gold Sponsors
Treasure Valley Association of Health Underwriters
Stacie Anthony - President
As we continue in these strange new times, the Annual TVAHU Fall Forum was held virtually on September 3rd.  We had 63 members/non-members attend the event. It was a great event and to date we have received positive feedback on all the speakers, topics, and the addition of GrubHub. Overall, the event was successful! Thank you to all who helped put this event together. The survey is still open until September 28th. If you have not yet answered the survey questions and would like to, please do so as soon as possible. I will send out the full survey results to the attendees the first week of October.

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. As many of you know, we had to cancel our golf tournament this year but wanted to continue with the donations for the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline. We are happy to announce that TVAHU will be presenting the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline with a check for $5629.00. Thank you to each one of you who donated to such a worthy cause.
Open enrollment is just around the corner! Are you ready? We would like to encourage everyone to continue to seek out events listed on the IAHU calendar of events. In this new virtual world, IAHU and all Idaho chapters are coordinating and collaborating our events so that you can attend any event you choose, no matter your location. Simply go to the event calendar on the IAHU website and click on the event you wish to attend. You can then register with the appropriate chapter. This truly opens a window for many CE opportunities and growth.

The Annual TVAHU Christmas Auction is coming up. We are currently working out the details of this wonderful event. This year we plan to have a hybrid in-person and online event. A sneak-peak… The auction will be LIVE and online! If COVID numbers spike and we are unable to have an in-person auction, we will already be covered by planning the online auction in advance. More information to come – but you won’t want to miss this!!

Here’s to a successful open enrollment season! Hoping to see you all in person soon.
Southern Idaho Association of Health Underwriters
Eastern Idaho Association of Health Underwriters
Northern Idaho Association of Health Underwriters
Ernie Kroll - President
Dear North Idaho Association of Heath Underwriters members,
Thank you for your continued membership that supports the work at your local chapter, state, and national levels. I wanted to take a moment and highlight our chapters formation date, territorial limits, and mission statement. The NIAHU by-laws were adopted on 03/07/2001; The territorial limits of the association are confined to the counties of; Kootenai, Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone, Idaho, Clearwater, Nez Perce, Latah, Benewah, and Lewis.
NIAHU MISSION STATEMENT
Through education, advocacy, and professional development, we will improve our members’ ability to meet the health, financial and retirement security needs of all Idahoans                                                                
I recently sat down for an interview with one of our members, Bradly V Miles, who joined NAHU in 2004. Here are some highlights from that recent interview.
                                                    
How did you get involved with NAHU?
Carey Spears who worked for Blue Cross of Idaho was doing a one on one orientation and she invited me to a free breakfast meeting for health insurance agents.
What are some of the positions you have held at NAHU?
NIAHU Membership chair, Treasurer, Vice President, President and Hupac chair-presently
IAHU Secretary, President elect and President, Region 7, LPRT chair for almost 1-year and 4-years Hupac chair-presently
What was your initial passion for getting involved?
Someone asked me to help and I got involved to help!
Let us discuss your view on the importance of NAHU to our industry.
I think NAHU is important to our industries survival and our industry is a benefit to the American people.
Give us an example?
For example, the Cadillac tax which NAHU helped to repeal penalized employers for providing really good health insurance to their employees.
What is the agent’s role to NAHU and vice-versa?
Agents support NAHU through membership. NAHU supports agents and our industry, which benefits all the American people.
I would like to turn our conversation to the new virtual normal born out of COVID-19 and how you see this affecting the agent, positively or negatively.
Positives are agents have opportunity to learn new technology. Negative’s for agents, are being forced to take on new technologies even if they do not want to and risk losing personal touch with customers. But I do not expect COVID-19 to affect my business at all.
What are your thoughts on agents that do not think their membership is important?
It just about makes me want to cry, when I hear agents rationalize why they do not need to be a member of this great team of agents called NAHU, who is vital to the future of this industry!
Can you explain a little more?
NAHU supports the future of this industry and every health insurance agent in America!
Finally, what does retirement look like in your future?
My vision for my future pre-retirement is to spend about 2-3 month’s a year in Maui and the balance of time in and around the inland empire. I may dabble with insurance until I hit my 80’s.

Thank you for your service to NAHU!
August 2020 NIAHU Social, left to right: Malia Rogers, Carolyn Shultz, Carey Spears, Leslie Wolf, Angela Friesen, Brian Glidden, Scott Ramirez
While we ponder our chapters beginning and territorial limit, we find in our mission statement purpose with no boundary. Every day we and our teams can help someone’s grandmother, grandfather, mother, father and more. While it is easy to get caught up in deductibles, co-pays, premiums and out of pocket expenses and sometimes these terms sound monotonous. For the person we are helping, these terms can often become confusing and create anxiety for them. We can help folks through the maze of their health insurance decision, whether this is for Medicare Supplement & plans, employer group or individual insurance. We often share in our customers joy’s and tears and are not surprised when we find ourselves helping several generations with their health insurance needs. It is easy to take for granted many things. One thing I am thankful for is the Health Insurance industry we have today in Idaho and the opportunity we have in helping people with their health insurance decision. This enriches the customers lives we serve and provides a meaningful living for ourselves and our family.  

Your membership counts!
If you would like to join/rejoin or recommend someone to join NAHU, they can go to:

                                             http://nahu.org/membership/join-now
 
Legislative Update
Phaedra Anderson & David Wilcox Co-chairs
Your IAHU Legislative team is continuing to work with the Department of Insurance and NAHU and on issues that affect YOU!
 
Here are some priorities we have this year:
 
  • We’re working to remove the restriction on writing back-to-back Short-Term Medical plans.
  1. We heard you! The results from our member-driven polls show overwhelming support towards this issue. View the results here.
  2. To attack this, we support changing Administrative Rule 18.04.15 – “Rules Governing Short-Term Health Insurance Coverage”.
  3. We ideally prefer to remove the entire section 021.03, a single line which reads, “Nonrenewable Coverage. Carriers are not to renew nonrenewable short-term coverage and are not to reissue or replace nonrenewable short-term coverage issued by the same or another carrier." – This change would allow you to re-write a Short-Term medical plan with your client’s current insurance company. No 63-day gap in coverage required.
  4. We would be satisfied, however, if we could only remove two words from the end of that sentence, changing it to read: “Nonrenewable Coverage. Carriers are not to renew nonrenewable short-term coverage and are not to reissue or replace nonrenewable short-term coverage issued by the same carrier." – This change would allow you to re-write a Short-Term medical plan with a new insurance company. Again, no 63-day gap in coverage required.
 
  • Bring back the Household Discount
  • Most Medicare Supplement insurance companies provide for a “Household discount” when (couples/roommates/housemates) apply for coverage through the same insurance company. Idaho Law now disallows this “Household Discount” We are working to bring back the ability for insurance companies to offer a “Household discount” again.
 
  • We would like to see legislation that promotes commission equality in the following scenario’s:
  • Equal compensation based upon AGE:
  • When a client who is under age 65 becomes Eligible for Medicare (typically because of a disability), the Agent’s compensation for helping them enroll in a Medicare Supplement plan is usually $0 (or very close to $0). If the client were age 65 or older, there is no compensation reduction. We’re working on fixing this compensation disparity (based solely upon Age).
  • Equal compensation based upon enrollment circumstance:
  • When a client signs up for a Medicare Supplement plan during a “Guarantee Issue” scenario, the agent’s commissions are reduced by half or even down to $0. Several surrounding states legislative rules disallow this reduction. We’re working on fixing this in Idaho.
 
  • Help Medicare recognize COBRA as “Creditable Coverage”
  • We’re promoting federal legislation that will allow COBRA to count as “Creditable Coverage” for someone delaying Medicare enrollment. Currently, if an individual delays enrolling in Medicare when covered under COBRA (even if that COBRA was provided as a severance package, a retirement bonus, or otherwise obtained), Medicare doesn’t recognize that COBRA coverage as “Creditable Coverage”! It’s crazy, we know. This can saddle your client with LIFETIME late-enrollment penalties to the individual.
 
  • Annual “Day on the Hill” event
  • We’re working with our sister association, NAIFA-Idaho, to put on a visit to Boise to meet with our local legislators. The fun begins January 20th! Hours of exciting CE provided. Hob-knobbing’ with friends and competitors, working to steer the direction of health insurance and its delivery in Idaho. You won’t want to miss this event.
 
  • NAHU’s Capitol Conference
  • Although determined to be a virtual event this year, and not in-person, look for updates from your Legislative team as to this important annual event coming early next year.
HUPAC - NAHU's Political Action Committee Click to Learn More
"Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has the moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere."
Leading Producers Round Table Happening Now:
  • The online qualification application is open – apply for 2020 LPRT from 2019 production/commission – Application closes on June 1. Go to NAHU.org/Resources/LeadingProducersRoundtable/on-line application

  • Video challenge – we are looking for LPRT qualifiers in our region to post to social media, a short video of themselves sharing why they qualify for LPRT and the biggest value to them. Make sure to use hashtag: #NAHU, #LPRT and make the ask to their NAHU friends to do the same. Help us meet our goal of 500 qualifiers.

  • We will have someone at the Idaho State Symposium in April recording the LPRT testimonials.


  • Watch for the next edition of the LPRT toolbox coming out in March. This toolbox is provides several simple ways in which state and local chapters can promote the value and benefits of LPRT and promote LPRT qualifiers in their chapters.
THANK YOU TO OUR 2020 SPONSORS!
PLATINUM
Blue Cross of Idaho

GOLD
PacificSource Health Plans
Regence BlueShield of Idaho
SelectHealth
SILVER
Willamette Dental Group

BRONZE
Delta Dental of ID
IPN, Inc.
National General Benefit Solutions
United Heritage Insurance
Your Health Idaho
Mountain Health Co-op
Ameritas
P.O. Box 8102
Boise, ID 83707