Employee benefits

Summer 2023 Issue

When and why to schedule a life and disability insurance policy review with your agent

Pins on a calendar

By Lisa Koerner, Insurance Advisor

Many people think that once they have a life insurance or disability policy in place, they can file it away and forget about it. However, as your life changes, your needs often change as well. The policies that you took out when you were young, single and starting your career may not still cover your needs after you get married, buy a house, have children and start your dream job. As your life changes, it’s a good idea to review your policies.

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The power of planning: a physician’s journey to financial wellness

Stone walkway in grass

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

With uncertainties and change a constant, financial planning stands as a beacon of security and peace of mind. Today, we bring you a remarkable story that sheds light on how a dedicated physician and her family reaped the rewards of a well-structured financial plan, proving that even the busiest of physicians can find stability and fulfillment through proper financial planning.

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Innovation and improvements

Employee benefits manual with stethoscope on it

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

June marked my eighteenth year in the insurance industry; my entire career has been focused on employee benefits and helping clients save money and improve employee confidence in benefits. When I was asked to join the WisMed Assure team, I was given the chance to be innovative and truly build something the way I felt it should be and that’s exactly what my team and I are doing!

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Workers Compensation rate decreases

By Brian Fowler, WisMed Assure Account Director

Starting October 1, 2023, for the eighth consecutive year, Workers’ Compensation rates in Wisconsin will drop. Work Comp rates in Wisconsin are set by the state and are the same for every insurance carrier. Overall, we’re seeing a decrease of 8.4% across all employee classifications. Physician rates remain low and competitive, with no change to the rates this year. Rates have decreased for physicians within hospital systems and hospital employees other than professional employees.

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You bet your life

Cropped shot of young woman hugging her grandmother & helping her with her finances on a laptop

By Mary Krueger, Medicare Specialist

Most of us don’t spend our time concerned about our life insurance because it’s “set up” already through our employer, parents, bank or other sources. Have you really investigated how life insurance works? Is term insurance the best purchase or should you look at long term cost averaging?

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Innovation and improvements 

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Chris Noffke

June marked my eighteenth year in the insurance industry; my entire career has been focused on employee benefits and helping clients save money and improve employee confidence in benefits. When I was asked to join the WisMed Assure team, I was given the chance to be innovative and truly build something the way I felt it should be and that’s exactly what my team and I are doing!

When I was hired in 2016, I was asked to help strengthen our employee benefits programs and services. At that time, we did not offer many services, nor did we provide a lot of in-depth consulting regarding health insurance. Now we have launched a new pooled Dental insurance plan with Delta Dental of Wisconsin, a pooled disability plan, an association health plan with WPS and The Alliance and added a dozen new services and assessments. We continue to add services and programs to provide the best coverage for our clients.

I am very excited to announce our next innovation. WisMed Assure will be adding a second Association Health Plan eligible for all health care companies in the Madison/Dane County area. Our new Association Health Plan will offer Group Health Cooperative (GHC) of South-Central Wisconsin as the insurance carrier, providing access to GHC clinics and all the UW Health clinics in Dane County plus UW hospital. This benefit offering will be available starting on September 1, 2023. We are proud to have an additional plan option that will better serve our clients in Dane County and surrounding areas.

This option provides HMO rates to our members and those of the health care community. If you’ve ever thought, “We’re a low utilizing group, we don’t really use our health care,” this is a great opportunity to explore. These plans are medically underwritten and can provide a glimpse into your company’s utilization.

If you would like to see how our rates look, please email me at chris.noffke@wismedassure.org or call 608.442.3734. Wishing you the best of your remaining summer!

Note: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as insurance advice related to your specific policy or situation. Please consult with a qualified insurance advisor or professional before making any policy decisions. Full disclaimer and contact information.

Group disability insurance can coordinate with individual policies 

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Chris Noffke

Planning for the unexpected is the only way to protect yourself, your family, your business and your finances. Unfortunately, the death of a loved one or becoming disabled are often unexpected. If you no longer had an income, how would you and your family fare?

In 2023, the social security disability income payment is $914 monthly for individuals and $1,371 monthly for couples. Be aware that these benefits have a five month waiting period and processing times can be slow! Could your family manage for six months without income, or after the six months, would $1,371 even be enough? How long can you and your family live at these low income rates? 

Many physicians are good at making sure to buy an individual disability policy before finishing residency. This is a fantastic time to get a $5,000 disability benefit because you’re the youngest and most likely the healthiest you may ever be. But, when your income surges to more than $10,000 a month you would still be missing more than 50% of your standard income if you became disabled. Group policies can coordinate and offer additional reassurance that your income is protected. Plus, there are ways to make these disability income dollars tax free!

We have a variety of products exclusive to WisMed Assure that other agents don’t know about. Plus, we have experience protecting physicians. You would be surprised how often I find policies sold to physician groups that don’t protect you as a specialist or insure you for your exact physician role.

Please contact me at chris.noffke@wismedassure.org or call 608.442.3734 if you would like to learn more. 

Spring 2023 Issue

Why purchase individual disability protection during residency

physician looking at forms

By Tom Strangstalien, Insurance Advisor

As a resident or fellow, your biggest asset is quickly becoming your ability to earn an income. Until you become independently wealthy and can sustain a loss of earning power without consequence, it is imperative that you have disability protection. But why do this as a resident or fellow, before the dramatic income increase of becoming an attending physician?

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Group disability insurance can coordinate with individual policies 

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Planning for the unexpected is the only way to protect yourself, your family, your business and your finances. Unfortunately, the death of a loved one or becoming disabled are often unexpected. If you no longer had an income, how would you and your family fare?

Read more…


What’s in a financial plan?

piggy bank on pile of money

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

A financial plan is like a roadmap that helps you navigate through the twists and turns of life, whether you’re saving up for a new car or preparing for retirement. Think of it as your secret weapon to achieving your financial goals and living your best life.

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WisMed Assure can assist you with your Medicare decisions

Medicare keywords chart

By Mary Krueger, Medicare Specialist

Many Medicare eligible participants are familiar with Medicare, but the process is confusing to them so we’re here to assist you with those issues. Here are the answers to some common questions.

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Log in to the new IPFCF portal to ensure compliance

By The WisMed Assure Service Team

The Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund (IPFCF) has implemented a new policy and administration system. The new system allows participants to review correspondence from IPFCF and pay their bill online.

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Winter 2023 Issue

Long-term care insurance – but what if I don’t need it?

By Tom Strangstalien, Insurance Advisor

We all know the risks of a long-term care event devastating our family’s finances as well as our mental and personal well-being. Roughly half of those who reach the age of 65 will require some form of long-term care assistance during their lifetime.

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Rising health insurance premiums

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Health insurance premiums are constantly on the rise. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “U.S. health care spending grew 2.7 percent in 2021, reaching $4.3 trillion or $12,914 per person.” Everyone from employees to employers are feeling the squeeze of high-cost premiums.

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Exercise your financial muscles to get financially fit

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

“Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” This ancient advice from Proverbs illustrates the importance of financial fitness.

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Medicare questions to ask

By Mary Krueger, Medicare Specialist

Before enrolling in Medicare, there are several decisions Medicare recipients need to make regarding their existing coverages or changes in their health insurance needs.

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Small business claims that can be surprisingly expensive

By Society Insurance Human Resources, reposted with permission from Society Insurance

While running a small business, there’s a decent chance that throughout its course you’ll have to file some sort of insurance claim (often unexpectedly). Whether due to fire, theft, on-site injury or other incident, some experts estimate that 75% of small businesses faced an insurance-worthy incident just last year.

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Rising health insurance premiums

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Chris Noffke

Health insurance premiums are constantly on the rise. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “U.S. health care spending grew 2.7 percent in 2021, reaching $4.3 trillion or $12,914 per person.” Everyone from employees to employers are feeling the squeeze of high-cost premiums. As rising premiums keep employers frustrated, benefits-users are also enduring less and less being paid by insurance. Business owners are having to make decisions like sacrificing benefits to save money on premiums to afford higher wages. Many employers are asking if they should self-fund. 

Having a really big company with lots of the employees covered by the health plan means these employers have more money being paid into the premium pools – the basic rule of large numbers. In Wisconsin, any group with more than 50 employees is considered a large group and is not qualified for the Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. While companies with as few employees as 50 may qualify for a self-funded benefit, it could also be a liability that causes a business bankruptcy. An employer can hedge their premium dollars against only having a few high-cost health care claims per year. These same strategies don’t work for smaller companies, because they may not have many employees enrolled in the health plan (especially if the employer contributions are too low) which means they have even fewer premium dollars to cover when their work family does have a high-cost claimant(s).

For example, if a smaller group (50 employees for this scenario) has a high-cost claimant who costs $50,000 a year, that means a lot of your collected premiums are needed just to cover this one claimant. Assuming an average employee premium of $1,000 a month per employee (averaging employee and family), your employer premiums are $50,000 a month ($600,000 a year). That means one employee used one-twelfth of your premium funds.

In our example we have only covered $50,000 in claims and we still have 49 remaining insureds who may each spend the $12,914 average. The math, 49 persons at $12,000 means $588,000 potential you may have to pay. This is not yet taking into account that there are multiple people in your employee’s families who may have claims.

It is not just claims you pay for when you are self-funded, you are also responsible to pay for a selected insurance company or third party administer (TPA) to process your groups’ claims, your use of a network for discounts, a pharmacy benefit manager, stop loss insurance, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), terminal liabilities, aggregate accommodations and other administrative costs just to name a few.  This all may not make sense yet or it might sound like another language. Just let me know and we can talk. Give me a call at 608.442.3734. While true self-funding may not be the best answer for your company, utilizing strategies, other funding arrangements and even our association health plan may be a solution.

Fall 2022 Issue

Affordability testing

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought a lot of extra work to employers and insurance companies. Whether you are pro-health care reform or against it, per the Health Affairs article, the ACA has not made insurance more affordable.

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Don’t forget to call your mom – and your insurance agent

By WisMed Assure Service Team

With the intention of easing administrative burden for WisMed Assure client physicians, several of our Medical Professional Liability carriers have significantly reduced or suspended asking for renewal applications over the past few years. While this does save time, renewal applications were an opportunity to touch base, review and discuss any changes to your practice that could impact your premium or coverage.

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Year-end tax planning for 2022

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

Want to put thousands of dollars back into your pocket? Who doesn’t. Choices you make during your employer’s open enrollment period and for year-end tax planning can really add up.

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Graded premium disability? Yes, you can!

By Tom Strangstalien, Insurance Advisor

I recently worked with a young physician to set him up with personal disability protection to provide some financial security if life throws him and his family a curve ball. Prompting our planning was that one of his peers in the general surgery specialty sustained a serious hand injury, ending his ability to perform hands-on surgery.

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5 ways to develop inclusive hiring practices

By Society Insurance Human Resources, reposted with permission from Society Insurance

Inclusive hiring practices recognize diversity and embrace a wide range of perspectives that candidates from all walks of life bring to the organization. And according to research from Monster, “Four in five (86%) candidates globally say diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace is important to them.”

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Affordability Testing

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

Chris Noffke

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought a lot of extra work to employers and insurance companies. Whether you are pro-health care reform or against it, per the Health Affairs article, the ACA has not made insurance more affordable. Many health insurance carriers have stated the ACA, Summaries of Benefits and Coverage, machine readable files and other changes imposed added costs to insurance companies, which simply passed these costs on to employers and employees in premiums.

Insurance premium affordability is very important because it allows for more money to employers and employees and is a requirement for groups with 50 or more employees. As you may know, health care reform requires employers with 50 or more employees to offer a group health insurance option that is affordable and meets the minimal essential coverages or the employer can face a potential monetary fine (the 2022 fine was $4,120 annually per subsidized employee). Additionally, the employer should be testing to confirm the affordability requirement is being met for their employees’ premium charges. Based on health care reform’s 2023 rules, to be considered affordable in 2023, an employee cannot be charged more than 9.12% of the employee’s household income.

Do you need to test your affordability? Are you offering a plan similar to other health care companies in your areas? WisMed Assure is the only insurance agency in Wisconsin focused on health care clients and we would love to tell you more about what we can do! Please call me at 608.442.3734 or email chris.noffke@wismedassure.org.

Summer 2022 Issue

Do you have the old or the new life insurance?

By Tom Strangstalien, Insurance Advisor

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month and is the time when I urge all our members to take a moment to reflect on the life insurance protection they have in place. Not too long ago, life insurance (especially term life), was generally viewed as a commodity.

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Build your financial wisdom

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

Join us for online educational sessions presented by WisMed Financial exclusively for Wisconsin Medical Society members. Session topics include retirement planning, social security and tax planning.

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Open enrollment

By Chris Noffke, GBDS, CSFS, Vice President of Employee Benefits

We’re rapidly approaching autumn and it’s time to start thinking about your open enrollment. Many companies fail to properly do an open enrollment, or maybe it’s your first time.

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Workers’ Compensation rate changes & good news for health care professionals

By Brian Fowler, WisMed Assure Account Director

Starting October 1, 2022, Workers’ Compensation rates in Wisconsin will drop for the seventh year in a row. Unlike many other states, Work Comp rates in Wisconsin are set by the state and are the same for every insurance carrier. The decrease is 8.47% over all employee classifications.  

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$111,000 more from Social Security

By Mark Ziety, CFP®, AIF®, Senior Advisor, WisMed Financial

With more than 2,700 rules and 567 separate filing strategies for Social Security, 96% of people fail to make the optimal claiming decision and miss out on $111,000 of benefits for the average household.

$111,000 – that’s a lot of money. Let’s look at some of the rules for Social Security so your decision is better informed.

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How to prevent floods from damaging your business

photo of cars on a flooded road

By Society Insurance Team, reposted with permission from Society Insurance

The continued impact of extreme weather events isn’t lost on businesses: according to one report, businesses can expect to see roughly $13 billion in flood damage in 2022. Tornados, derechos, and severe thunderstorms all threaten billions in damage, but with spring just ahead, let’s focus on how you can protect your business from the threat of flooding.

Businesses everywhere are susceptible to flood damage—so how can they prepare?

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