HealthChoiceOne.com LifeChoiceOne.com Insurance Agents and Insurance Agencies - Beware of HealthChoiceOne.com and LifeChoiceOne.com Greenwood Village, Colorado
If you're considering being contracted through HealthChoiceOne.com or
LifeChoiceOne.com (Same Company) beware that the current advertisements (Recruiting) statements are extremely exaggerated and false.
They over promise and under deliver....
If youre an active life or health insurance agency/agent and intend to contract agents through Health Choice one or Life Choice One, Beware!
In some cases you won't get paid your commissions or overrides, or they will be significantly delayed by Months. (Yes Months!)
When getting contracted with Health Choice One / Life Choice One you are at risk of having the contracts not submitted to the insurance companies. It could take months!!!! If you want to bring on sub agents for Life Insurance or health insurance it may become a very embarrassing situation for you and you will potentially lose agents during the process as I did.
They dont seem to understand the importance of communication; emails, voice mails will go unanswered to the point you'll want to drive
Remember that once you have production with any carrier through Health Choice One / Life Choice One you are stuck! You would have to stop writing business for 6 months to transfer to an agency that will provide you with the proper support.
Again if you intend to contract sub agents for Life Insurance through Health Choice One/ Life Choice One I strongly recommend that you look elsewhere.
This is from my personal experience of many hours of aggravation, countless lack of communication requests and NOT getting paid!
HealthChoiceOne is not worth the risk, don't find out the hard way! You'll regret the decision if you get contracted through HealthChoiceOne.com, LifeChoiceOne.com -
additionally their Life Insurance contracts are not the best or highest
available. The contract levels are on the low end.
They Claim: Due to Changes in the Insurance Industry Brought about by Healthcare Reform, this is the Best Opportunity in the Last 20 Yrs to be a Health Insurance Professional!
This is a very false statement. Health Insurance companies are reducing commissions and are reducing advancements.
It's not worth the hassle to deal with HealthChoiceOne.com- Please look elsewhere for more professionally run organizations. This is coming from a stuck agent with health Choice One and they owe me money!
Regardless of what they say to you to get you contracted don't fall prey to this company.
Good luck and plenty of great Marketing organizations are available to you that will provide better insurance contracts and support.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Scott M. Slutzker
Greenwood Village,Colorado,
United States of America
HealthChoiceOne.com
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, September 10, 2010
Dear Reader,
The Health Insurance business is quite competitive. From time to time we will see a competitor attempt to tarnish our good name and solid reputation by filing a fraudulent report. The false report is meant to cast doubt in the minds of potential new agents seeking to join HCO, so they'll join their agency instead of ours. We have also seen this type of misleading information posted by folks who don't follow directions and want to blame others for their misfortune.
However, we are not perfect. So in the unlikely event that this report was not filed by a competitor, I'll address the allegations in the order they appeared.
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1. "...In some cases you won't get paid your commissions or overrides, or they will be significantly delayed by Months. (Yes Months!)..."
Response: Not True - HCO typically doesn't even pay commissions...the insurance companies do.
First of all, we have over 100 carriers available at Health Choice One. Of those 100 carriers, we only pay commissions for one of them and overrides for four of them (two health carriers and two life carriers). Therefore, in 99% of the cases, HCO isn't paying commissions, the Insurance Company is. We prefer it this way.
In the rare instance where HCO DOES have the responsibility to pay the agent his/her commissions and/or overrides, we do so consistently and without delay.
The only situation where a commission would not be paid as referenced above happens to be the most common reason in the industry..."The Agent Owes the Insurance Company Money for a Chargeback (Cancelled Policy)". When an agent owes the insurance company money for a cancelled policy they have already been advanced commissions on, the insurance company applies all new commissions to the agent's debt until it is paid off...then commissions resume as usual.
NOTE... Of the 4 carriers we pay commissions/overrides on, we have a standard policy and documented history of paying agents out of our own pocket when the carrier makes a mistake or commissions are delayed at the carrier's home office... We really do care about our agents.
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2. "...When getting contracted with Health Choice One / Life Choice One you are at risk of having the contracts not submitted to the insurance companies..."
Response: Not True - We submit contracts to the insurance carrier within 24-48 hrs.
At Health Choice One, we have an automated contracting system. Once the agent completes the Agent Data Form and submits it to our office along with a copy of a voided check for direct deposit, proof of E&O and a copy of their insurance license, we populate all the contracts requested and email them to the agent for their signature. Once we receive the signed carrier contract back, we submit it within 24-48 hours to the insurance company.
There are two situations when there could be a delay in submitting a contract to the carrier...
1. The carrier requires that a piece of business (client app) be submitted before the agent contract is processed.
2. The agent's contract is missing information, signatures or required documents such as E&O, Voided Check, Insurance License, etc...
When this is the case, we notify the agent immediately and we do it several times. The carriers will not accept incomplete agent contracts, so our hands are tied if the agent submits an incomplete contract and fails to respond to our requests for the missing information.
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3. "...They dont seem to understand the importance of communication; emails, voice mails will go unanswered to the point you'll want to drive the office to get results..."
Response: Not True
We have 21 staff members at HCO who are ready, willing and able to help agents with any and every need.
We don't use an automated voicemail system; our phones are answered LIVE from 9:00am-7:00pm EDT M-F.
All of our employees are available by phone, email and Google chat. We email our staff directory to ALL new agents and it's posted on our website as well.
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4. "...Remember that once you have production with any carrier through Health Choice One / Life Choice One you are stuck! You would have to stop writing business for 6 months to transfer to an agency that will provide you with the proper support..."
Response: Not True
We DO release agents, even though most of our competitors don't.
The only exception to this would be if you owe the insurance company money for unearned advances or chargebacks. If this is the case, once you pay back your debt to the carrier, we release you immediately. If you didn't take advances and are on as-earned contracts, we release you immediately.
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5. "...additionally their Life Insurance contracts are not the best or highest available. The contract levels are on the low end..."
(This one makes me think this entire report was posted by a competitor as it pertains to our commission levels in relation to our competitors. Typically only another competing Agency would be able to make this comparison. It is also completely false).
Response: Not True
We pay as good or better commissions than our competitors. We have over 3,000 agents that can attest to this. In addition, in the unlikely event where a competitor offers a higher life commission than we do, we MATCH it.
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6. "...They Claim: Due to Changes in the Insurance Industry Brought about by Healthcare Reform, this is the Best Opportunity in the Last 20 Yrs to be a Health Insurance Professional! This is a very false statement. Health Insurance companies are reducing commissions and are reducing advancements..."
(This one also leads me to believe a competitor wrote this report based on the reference to a recruiting ad headline that was only recently written and published).
Response: Depends on Who You Ask...
In my opinion, this IS the best time in decades to get into the health insurance industry. There are professional salespeople from other industries who are entering the health insurance field BECAUSE of the changes brought about by healthcare reform. They see it as an opportunity.
Two years ago the Real Estate / Mortgage industry went through significant changes that led to 50%-65% of the sales reps leaving the industry. The same thing is happening in healthcare. So do the math... 50% less competition and no guarantee issue healthcare until 2014 (or not at all depending on future elections) means MORE BUSINESS for agents who get into the industry. The number of health insurance consumers hasn't decreased; it's increasing...only the number of agents has decreased...
As for commissions, nobody knows yet what the commissions will look like in 2011 for Major Medical plans. The most recent word from the NAIC was requesting that agent commissions be "passed through" and not counted towards the minimum loss ratio.
But it doesn't matter... Here at Health Choice One, our agents are being taught several different sales strategies using products that are not affected by healthcare reform. We have two conference calls each week at 10:00am EDT (Mon & Thurs) to discuss these strategies and the products used in each one.
So this is why I believe we have a GREAT opportunity in Health Insurance Sales...
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7. "...This is coming from a stuck agent with health Choice One and they owe me money!..."
Response: Doubtful
This statement actually contradicts itself. If the author of this report is "stuck" (meaning he can't get a release). It can only mean one thing... HE OWE'S MONEY to an Insurance company...not the other way around.
From time to time an insurance company makes a mistake and we have to send the check back to be audited and re-cut, which can delay commissions, but this is a RARE exception and has only happened with one of the carriers we represent...
I can assure you that if he was truly owed money by our agency or one of our carriers, and that money was in our possession, he would have been paid...Period.
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8. "...Regardless of what they say to you to get you contracted don't fall prey to this company..."
Response: Do Your Homework
I believe everyone should do their homework and due diligence before changing agencies or joining an agency for the first time. Don't let one disgruntled sales rep out of 3,000 satisfied ones or a competitor of HCO keep you from doing your own research.
If you called all of the major insurance carriers Aetna, Assurant, HumanaOne, United (Golden Rule), World, American General, etc... and asked them about Health Choice One, you'd get a VERY different picture than the one painted by this complaint. I encourage you to do so... These companies talk to our agents every day. See for yourself why we have the solid reputation we do for our sales and industry training with new agents, proven sales tools, live support staff, top commissions, ethical dealings, etc...
Please contact me personally at scott@healthchoiceone.com if you would like to discuss further. I'm happy to speak with anyone reading this report. You'll be glad you did. :o)