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Old 07-16-2008, 08:33 PM
 
34 posts, read 120,104 times
Reputation: 18

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Does anyone know what would be the advantage of using a broker/agent to enroll in BCBSNC for my business or should I call BCBS direct? Does the agent make money on the quote? Does using a broker make my monthly premium higher?
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Old 07-16-2008, 09:14 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
331 posts, read 1,311,466 times
Reputation: 129
You do not pay extra to have a broker and you still have the advantage of his expertise for guiding you to the right plan for you and your business as well as helping you down the road if there are any service issues. I used to work for Blue Shield in California so I know how this works. If you go direct, once they get the sale, they have absolutely no interest in helping you in the future. Trust me, you are much better off with a broker.
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Old 07-17-2008, 03:05 PM
 
Location: Beautiful Raleigh, NC
532 posts, read 2,845,621 times
Reputation: 415
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lori1961 View Post
You do not pay extra to have a broker and you still have the advantage of his expertise for guiding you to the right plan for you and your business as well as helping you down the road if there are any service issues. I used to work for Blue Shield in California so I know how this works. If you go direct, once they get the sale, they have absolutely no interest in helping you in the future. Trust me, you are much better off with a broker.
I'm a former employee benefits consultant, a former business owner and individual plan consumer and I fully agree with Lori1961. A "commission" is built into the rates so you do not pay anything extra by using a broker and a broker comes in very handy when you are shopping for a carrier and coverage and possibly going through underwriting, or have issues with claims payment, rate increases, etc. They have much more clout than you would with insurance companies. A broker also knows the ins and outs of group plans vs. individual, etc.
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Old 07-17-2008, 05:04 PM
 
Location: Virginia (again)
2,697 posts, read 8,697,862 times
Reputation: 1565
Quote:
Originally Posted by cstleddy View Post
I'm a former employee benefits consultant, a former business owner and individual plan consumer and I fully agree with Lori1961. A "commission" is built into the rates so you do not pay anything extra by using a broker and a broker comes in very handy when you are shopping for a carrier and coverage and possibly going through underwriting, or have issues with claims payment, rate increases, etc. They have much more clout than you would with insurance companies. A broker also knows the ins and outs of group plans vs. individual, etc.
I couldn't agree more. My husband started a company about a year ago. We had 3 employees on insurance when we started and have about 30 now. Having a broker has been a life saver. We probably would have had to have hired an additional administrative employee if we hadn't had the broker handling a lot of the paper work. Also, it's very true that they have better contacts at the insurance companies. If I call BCBSNC, I'm likely to get three different answers from three different CSRs about any question I have. They have better contacts and get faster and more accurate answers. We're in the process of switching carriers and there is no way we could have dealt with this without a broker. Also, I don't know if this is of interest but we were able to get our dental, life and disability insurance as well as our 401k plan from the same broker which made life much easier.
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