I was there for a short time and didnt get the help and support that I needed.......not enough help to go around so the company needs to take responsibility for its failures.

Rick...

I am guessing that you lasted no more than 6 months and probably didn't make much (if any) money.  The fact that you stated things the way that you did, proves you didn't pay any attention, at all.  The fact that you failed and want to blame it all on a company, claiming wrongdoing...lying...or cheating...and more...come on!

Not only was I a client of this company for years, prior to working for them, but I have all the same products we offer to our clients - and saw the "benefits" long before selling any of them. 

If you paid any attention at all, in any training, perhaps you would have been able to help a client or two.  If you felt like you were cheating anyone...you were...by not knowing what you were doing, before attempting to work with them.  You cheated every last person you went to, by not paying attention in the most basic of training.

Are there people we cannot help?  No.  But you need to understand more than sales, before you can even get a clue.  I have had people who have absolutely no money or ability to afford insurance.  But I still spend a few minutes helping them find help.  Why?  Because this is relationship building, not simply sales.  If you help every single person you get in front of, even if they have no money or budget, they will still refer you to others.  But, I have almost no one that I cannot help - AND SELL - in some way and within the budget they provide. 

The claim that no money or living can be made...if true, perhaps I have wasted the nearly 6 years I have been with the company.  Maybe my sister wasted the 5 years before that.  Wait.  You know what...maybe I don't really get the commission checks twice a week, automatically deposited in my account, that pay all my bills.  Nope.  It's real.  So are the bonuses that I have gotten, every year, by simply doing my job well.

If you made no money, it is because of you...not the company.  If you think what is being offered to clients is a ripoff - well, that's a huge reason you failed.  But, that is you, not paying any attention during training.  That is you, not listening to Sales Leaders or your Territory V.P.  Sad.

Ok - truth.  I am an agent with Insphere and have been since 2010.  My sister has been an agent for 6 years prior to that.  My experience is not one of negativity.  The one thing that I have seen and learned, about the individuals who complain of wrongdoing and unfairness as to the reasons they failed with Insphere...and that is simply that they were either never fully committed, did not pay attention, or simply were not cut out for this work.

This line of work is one of the most rewarding, incredible positions you could be in.  The treatment of agents by the company has always been extremely positive.  There have been various leaders who leave a lot to be desired.  But, the accessibility of the highest leaders in the company - and the level of attention they give to both agents and clients, I have never seen, anywhere.

Bonuses have changed.  But, there is never a shortage of bonuses to be earned.  I ought to know.  I thrive on challenges and have won many, every year since starting with this company.  I have also helped new agents to win, as well.  So, stories of bonuses being taken away...no.

It may have been a few years since many complainers worked for the company.  But, it has only improved, with time.  Anyone who wants to work with a company that truly stands "with" its employees and agents - and promotes a real "team" atmosphere...this is where you should look.  If you don't like to work...don't like to pay attention...don't follow instructions...or simply never show up...you will fail at everything you do. 

Have a nice day.

In response to you sales leaders and agents spitting out the bullshit that you've been told, think of this as a little reminder that while you can have all the education in the world, sometimes all you need is a little common sense. Open your eyes and stop being stupid!!

Everybody walked into this company ignorant about the way this organization compensates their agents. While most of us couldn't pay for gas, Healthmarkets executives are making millions on a yearly salary and bonuses!!! But only the smart ones got the hell out as soon as we saw the writing on the wall, while you chose to keep working hard to remain stupid. It's pitiful to see you all surrender to self-chosen ignorance!!!

You are d**n right that Healthmarket Insurance it's not for everyone, because not everyone can stand in a room full of struggling americans and senior citizens and fill their heads with empty promises of big money making working for this company. This is only for the ignorants that enjoy the feeling of praise and pats on the back for writing all those policies. You will never make enough money to pay your bills and you will retire in total poverty while the CEO and Executives including Gary Socha will retire millionaires with your money! Another thing I'm going to have to agree with you, "you always get what you put in" but just in case you still have your thick head buried in the sand, here's some news for you, that's true everywhere you go you idiot. Try it and see.

As for those "type of people" as you call us; those that you have seen come and go, it is not the lack of time spent, nor the lack of effort that we left Healthmarkets or Insphere but rather the lack of ignorance. We saw the things you so blindly refuse to see; we chose to believe the truth while you were busy being sucked deeper into believing the lies but so desperately wanting to believe they are true, or is it because you are afraid they may be true?

Anyway, but you "just want to help people" don't you? Well then, let's see how humanitarian you really are. Help me to "grasp the concept of helping people". Agency managers and Sales Leaders, why don't you start by helping your agents, on your next meeting, give to each one of your agents a printed copy of the Healthmarkets Commission Guidelines (even though it is right there in the Resource Center webpage please do print it out) highlight and explain out loud to them their "Unearned Balance Account" and how much interest they will pay on every advance that they take, explaining clearly that the more policies they sale the bigger their debt accumulates. Also, explain the "Agent Account" and the interest that they will pay on that one too. But most importantly, please don't forget to explain to all of your agents that if they choose to leave the company, Healthmarkets will also take an additional 33% of their hard earned commission as a fee called "Vesting Service Fee" and wait... it's not over yet, after one year of leaving, HealthMarkets will keep 100% of your commissions!!. Ask if any of that was mentioned to them during the hiring process or training process or even during the years that they have been working their a*s off at the company. And just in case they wonder where is all the money going? Well, don't trouble yourself trying to explain that one, send them to check it out for themselves at salary.com and secform4.com and have them search for HealthMarkets CEO and Executives salaries, stock award compensation and bonuses. Also, show them all the videos and photographs of all those lavish parties which Healthmarkets throws only for those who choose to "hang with the big dogs" and they dare to drink their Kool-Aid. Once you have done all these and if you're "still laughing" please praise yourselves and feel free to give yourselves a pat on the back because you just helped a few people make informed decisions about working for HealthMarkets. Now, that's what I call "being extremelely upfront about the way you get paid"!!

Shame on you, shame on all of you!!! 

I hope that I had also "made your night" tonight! and before you go on and make a fool out of yourself again by putting your stupidity in wirting on here, please quit with the ignorance and stop rejecting of something you know nothing about but yet refuse to investigate. Do your homework people!!!

I honestly am laughing right now. So we have ex- agents whom are outraged with Insphere; a leading nationwide Agent based company. Well let me tell you this, if you got fired from Insphere you must have done an awful lot wrong. Insphere is a great company to work for, you are trained. This company is extremely upfront about the way you get paid. The fact is, you get what you put in. Ok let’s read that again ready...?? You get what you put in.

I have had so called good jobs in the past. I have an education and yes still go to school. However I can tell you right now. You won’t find a more understanding supportive and motivational company. I have had up and downs in my personal life. Insphere did not toss me out and say see you later. Any hospital I have ever worked for would have. Insphere is a place for opportunity. It’s not for everyone though. Some people can’t hang with the big dogs. You have to fall a few times to get to the top.

The best part about Insphere is, you may fall but you will absolutely always have someone there to tell you to get up and keep going. The American dream is not a hand out. So if you want to make it to the top, you’re going to have to work for it. The advantage is simple. You are on the winning team. Co works who will share there "secrets to success" share there ups and downs. Then tell help you along the way. Come on what where you doing there in the first place, what did you expect; to show up get rich? Our agents focus on the client.

So I can tell you right now if you wanted a hand out only cared about making money and then feel the need try and tarnish the name of this company. You are right where you should be; not with Insphere. I’m am so happy you found you spot with whomever that is again. Oh and its 2013 guess Insphere didn’t burn to the ground. This has been a nice laugh thanks for the posts keep it up. They say no one likes a cry baby, I however find them amusing. Have fun arguing I need to get back to reality now. Have a good night I wish you the best of luck. 

I was not with Insphere long enough to dig into the past corporate culture but wish I had read some of these prior to signing on the dotted line.   Having a 15 year background in healthcare and health plans and working at home the past 10 years I thought Insphere would be a good fit as an "INDEPENDENT" agent.   After sitting in on about 6 of their mandatory Monday morning 10 am meetings and then the newly announced mandatory Friday AM meetings if you were not making the numbers THEY thought you should be, I decided to call it quist before I got in too deep.  

Really, Monday and Friday meetings?   Do you people not have a life outside of cold calling people?   As a former project manager those were THE two days I would absolutely avoid having standing weekly meetings.  Why?  because alot of people take those two days off especially in the summer?   That was enough to sell me on the fact that I would not be independent even if I worked 12 hours a day 4 days a week both nights and weekends.    

Oh well, I will take my 250 leads from my travel business and either contract directly with several companies to truly be an Insurance Consultant,and  not be lead towards their higher dollar commission companies and move on.   Anyone know of a competing independent broker company with a similar model but better commissions and less restrictions please let me know.  Thanks.

Yesterday I went into Insphere in Brentwood, TN. I asked about health insurance as its coming to an end because my cobra is expiring in June. I received Cobra in June 2010 after my husband passed away from his company. The high presured salesmen taked me into a 11 month policy, saying I was uninsureable due to High blood presure and weight. He also included a few suppliments by companies owned by insphere. I went on the web and checked and I do qualify for a TN state policy because I am coming off of cobra. I also qualify for HIPPAA , which is expensive. Tomorrow, I'm calling a company direct as I was told by my husbands company that only 20% are turned down. It not I'll take the state policy.
The agent refused to cancel the policy this morning  and told me to go to the bank and stop the check. Meanwhile, he did cancel the United Health Care (A reputable company) but did not cancel Chesape and 2 other things. He refused , so I had to do that thru the Bank. Normally they chare a fee for this, but I was not charged because of my account status. It was less than 24 hours when I asked for the cancellation. I have contacted the BBB and also the State insurance office. Its illegal what he did. He also scared me as usuring me out the door . I thought he was going to hit me. His voice was stern and mean. He claimed to be the VP sales leader. His Card reads Sales leader.
You just don't treet your customers like that.

I have received 6 calls now from Insphere. They call me "lead" not a person on the phone; I had a conversation with Michelle, who I told what my interest in health insurance was for our market research firm employees in the US; Since that call I received 6 more calls at our office from 'agents following up on a lead'. And I have never received the information I said I was interested in, in the first place; Today was the kicker, a man named Curtis called from Insphere; He was the second caller today from Insphere; He was not aware of the other Insphere person that called earlier in the day, he said:"Oh I'm sorry I'm just following up on a lead here from Michelle"; So I explained to him - again - what I am interested in and what I am not; He said he got it but then proceeded to ask again a question I had already answered, so now I'm really out of patience and told him "You know what, please take my name out of your system entirely" to which Curtis answered "I already did that 5 minutes ago" and then hung up on me.

If all is as you say, why are you even investing time looking at this site? This site allows people to try and prevent adverse experiences for those who have not sold their souls. I am not living in the past, i have moved on, but I do feel a civic duty to educate those who are not in debt yet to look at other options before signing a contract with Insphere.

Best of success and I trust you will be staying the full ten years so you do not owe a large sum of money to just walk away...

I am only writing this rebuttal because I have been with Insphere since it was Healthmarkets. I was hired on under the Healthmarkets name and worked under it for awhile before it became what we are today, which is Insphere Insurance Solutions.

When I came into this company I knew nothing about insurance. I have a nursing and technology background and so this was all very new to me. This is not a job that everyone can succeed in. You

have to have the work ethics and time management skills to be able to do this and do well. You also have to be a likeable person and have good people and phone skills as you will become the personal insurance advisor to your customers and in turn they will become your friends. Treat them well and they will refer their friends and people they meet to you, treat them bad and they will in turn make sure your business goes no where.

I can say that I have taken pride in what I do and have done during my career here at Insphere and for that I have been rewarded with a truly great careeer, and alot of customers that consider me their friend as well.

I started with very little money and in a mere agents position, and now I have worked my way up to being a sales leader with a team under me and being able to help those people work to achieve the same goal of making money as I have. Yes I guess I you can tell by all this, I am making money doing what I am doing, because I myself have worked very hard at it.

I am a single mother of 2 with a grandson as well and I have recently with this job moved from Missouri to Florida. I have worked to pay for one of my sons college, as well as being able to help the other one with his money issues as well, oh and yes I also support myslef through my earnings.

I can honestly say that it does take a lot of hard work and efforts to make the money but I have weighed it all out, and there is no more stress in this job than any other job, and I can make a schedule around what I want to do with my time as well. When my dad became ill in 2010 I was able to work my schedule around working and still being one of his care providers during the last few months of his life. I did not have to ask for time off, nor did I have to worry about losing my job due to being off or have to concern myself with getting a replacement for myself, I simply worked when I knew I could and still had my paychecks coming in on Tues and Thurs of each week.

I have worked hard, but Insphere has been a very good career choice for me. I have made money and have stock in the company that I work so hard for. All in all if the people that have left had what it took to work at it and get themselves to where I am, they too would have been speaking alot better about this company. It is the ones that really either did not put the amount of time and effort into it or should not have been in it to begin with that dont make it. I have seen these types of people come and go as I am sure I will continue to do so. As I stated earlier this is not a career for everyone, but I do think that each person has to find out if it is right for themselves. If it isnt dont whine and complain about it, just take it as it is and go on. Life is what it is, and we each have to be grown up enough to make choices in our life and if it isnt the right choice go out and find something different and just keep going.

I grew up in business and have owned both a tree and lawn service and an exercise and tanning salon, and both at the same time. I knew how to work long hours and put all 100++% of my time and effort into making this work. I only closed the businesses due to some major happenings in my life. I have had my share of heartaches but through it all preserverence and a good work ethic went along way in making my sucess with Insphere.

Has this company had its share of bad publicity...YES! But, what some want to get on these rip off reports and do is have a childish whining session. (Look up Walmart or any big company and you will also find reports such as this on them). Get Over Yourselves and go on!! Let go of whatever it is that caused you to leave this company and move on with your life. The ones of us that want to work and make it do, and for those of us that work at this, all you are doing is making us look even better because we do go out of our way for customer service and help our customers. Just because some of you either couldnt grasp the concept of helping people or couldnt handle change and got out...well I just have one thing to say to you, Stop living in the past and get happy. Life is way too short to have to spend all your time writing negative things. Think positive and live.

I drank the koolaid down hard at Insphere...I fell in love with the concept, loved the advances and was very successful for a little while.

But I joined this organization at the time they were just cutting all the bonuses for agents, and it kept cutting and cutting and cutting... after I started listening to some of my independent friends, I did discover there is life after insphere and there were people making a LOT more money than I was making.

I did not look to change at that time, because I was still believing they had my best interest at heart. The stock program, the advances, the bonuses as a sales leader...
But it kept getting tighter and tighter, I was getting further behind on my bills while being told to project the successful image.

Then I did it, I terminated my contract after careful reading of the contract and making sure I covered ALL my bases.
Not a chance... that contract was written to benefit this multimillion dollar machine that eats agents for fuel.

After paying off my unearned balance, my agent balance and waiting for three weeks for my earned commissions to be direct deposited into my account as agreed upon, I discovered one last sting. According to the compensation guidelines, which were not in the same planet as the contract, since I was there under three years, they get an additional 33% of my earnings as a vesting service fee.

IF you don't have to make money working, this is a great place. Great training, great team spirit and some good leadership.
BUT, if you want to build a business and make money, PLEASE work somewhere else. This place will continue to suck your money from all of your hard work even after you think you did everything right.

They do not have the best interest in mind for anyone but CAREER agents, if you can last that long.

You must be new and ill-informed.  Healthmarkets is not a "merger", what are you talking about?  Insphere is the agency created by Healthmarkets to get around negative press on the internet.  It is an agency that they created to offer GoldenRule at first and only GoldenRule because if you leave they can keep you stuck without a release INDEFINITELY.  Fortunately, they have backed off of that because of the negative postings.

What Insphere is doing is nothing "new", there are thousands of agencies across the country, many of which pay much higher commissions for the exact same products.  Heck, you can go direct an make the same or more than what Insphere offers without the hassle and getting "stuck" there forever.  Hey!  How is the vesting program over there?  Is it still 10 years????  Guess what?  Most companies vest immediately.  If they don't you are getting Ripped Off.

I feel obligated to reply to such false propaganda. Insphere Insurance Solutions is in fact a merger of Health Markets, a once captive company, but now has joined forces with many A rated or better companies being the first pioneer in the industry to do so. Many corporations change names for various reasons. Insphere has truly set up its company to be untouchable as far as services provided to clients.

As an independant broker for this company, I couldn't be happier with my abilities now. Our financial backing, wouldn't be as secure as it is if this company was a scam. In short, we've gone from focusing on health insurance and supplemental insurance to skies the limit. Agents have the best of both worlds, combining a captive and broker environment to truly addresss and meet our clients needs.

There is no other company like it, period. So to reply, yes we are new, and improved. Had we not merged relationships with so many new carriers, the company would still be called Health Markets. Our leadership had a revolutionary vision to expand our capabilities, and with such carriers as Humana, United Health Care, Aetna, ING, John Hancock, AARP, Beacon Financial, Minnesota Life, etc. under our portfolio now, it would be a grave mistake to call us "business as usual", but thats OK, think what you want, leaders are often mocked and rediculed.

Andy, you say you don't have access to Mega?  That's funny, because the supplements we were told to push in CA are MEGA products! And it's funny you say you are on your way to "$75,000 commission" when the supplements were the majority of an agent's commission. As for your limited expenses, let's be realistic and add a "0" or two at the end (more like $2000 to $4000 per month expenses?). Even Insphere admits per its national survey the leads generate very little success. Per Insphere's own national survey, the way agents made money was the old fashioned way, "boots on the ground". So I am sorry to deflate your balloon, but as an ex-agent(and glad of it) Insphere is full of sh*t! I am glad I wasted only 3 months of my time trying to push their bullsh*t. I had much better training from the carriers themselves. And my contract specifically states I will be given the "highest level of support" which never happened. If they even attempt to send me a post employment bill, I will not hesitate to sue them in court for breach of contract.

As for your statements at the end, yes, I agree, do your own research. But part of that research SHOULD be to read posts like this, which is what I wish I would have taken more seriously before I signed on.

For "I am a believer" and all of you Insphere employees who are too cowardly to properly identify yourselves, try telling the people what will REALLY happen when a customer gets screwed over!! First, the state's DOI (Department of Insurance) will contact the insurance company for their version. The company (ING life, Minnesota Life, et al) will tell the DOI, "Look, WE didn't know about this! The appointed agent failed to follow our specific guidelines and rules, signed an attestion that what they submitted was true and correct, and besides, he isn't even OUR employee, he is an independent contractor with Insphere!" At that point, the DOI will contact Insphere, which will basically follow the same thing. The independent agent, however, will say, "I was not trained properly (probably true from my experience as a former employee), I did not intend to harm the client (more than likely true) and here is my E&O (errors and omission) policy info. At this point, the agent will probably start sweating out what the DOI will do and if the client will take legal action against him. Insphere will "sanction" the employee (if he is consistantly selling, "0" real penalty. If he has a spotty selling record, "Submit your resignation now!")  The insurance carrier will basically walk away, unharmed. So you ask, "Why would a legitmate company associate themselves with Insphere?" The truthful answer is, if they have basically immunity from any negative action, why not associate yourself with a large marketing firm?  Duh!!

In the agency I worked for all the agents seemed to be struggling and some of the agents were part of the top 20% for the company nationwide. They always got plenty of praise, high fives and pats on the back but that don't pay the mortgage or put food on the table. It was almost like they were trapped and couldn't leave. I left before I was in too deep. If you want to earn 80 grand a year it won't happen here unless your a recruiter or in the upline.

I was recently told making $80,000 per year was very do-able - also I would be fully vested in stock program after TEN years - do any salesmen ever last that long?

First of all, MEGA, HEALTHMARKETS, AFS, ALLIANCE, CHESAPEAKE, INSPHERE, etc.  are all owned by the same group. 

Yes, the previous poster is right about the fact that they act as brokers for a few different carriers.  However, agents are technically captive to only those carriers, so in essence they are bias.  If agents find they need other carriers, then they would be in violation of Insphere's agent contract.

The Ripoff here is two-fold.  Insphere's commission structure creates an environment that burns and churns through agents.  Agents, because they are paid 1/2 of 1/2 of industry average (Advanced 1/2 of 5-7%, most never see other half due to agent balance.  Industry average is 8-14% as earned) , must burn and churn through new clients in order to keep food on the table.

Clients get bad service, agents leave and the cycle continues.

If they want to improve, they need to pay agents more, disclose the true costs of "advances" and let agents be independent agents, as they imply but in a sneaky legality, don't allow.

Wow.. This has been an interesting read!

I came onto this site as I too was contacted by Insphere for a sales opportunity with the company.

I was laid off my job 8 months ago and I am a single mom looking for a company that I know will be around for the long haul.  I figured Insurance was the way to go, as just like toilet paper.. everybody needs it.  However, with our lovely president I am thinking that health Insurance is not the area to get into and should look into other types of Insurance.

I have read several comments about how other Insurance companies are better to work for and pay much better as well.  THIS is what I need to know!  Is there ANYWAY I can get an idea of somewhere else to send my resume? I REALLY cannot afford to waste anymore time and need some advice/input/suggestions.

What do you think of Property or Life Insurance?  I am thinking about paying for my license and try to get in from there. This is new career for me and I need a change for my family.  A finger pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.  :)

Concerned mother who needs a job! 

I worked for Insphere Insurance Solutions over a year and I left recently, every paper check I recieved was from Health Markets almost all the correspondence by mail from Insphere was on Health Markets letterhead my stock certificates say Health Markets. They even have a website now aimed at clearing up their name http://truth.healthmarkets.com/  They are not a good company to work for, you will always be in debt with them, keep your money go independant agent.

Maggie,

You are obviously new to the insurance and brokerage business.  Please simply review what has been stated on this string as the complaints are true and valid.  Having worked for the company for nine years, the same people are still steering the ship.  Bottom line is there are better income opportunities with less restrictions when you leave than this company.  Just ask yourself or any other broker if they forbid you from selling for 6 months after you leave.  Doesn't happen.  Commissions elsewhere are higher and lastly, you are not an employee who should have to meet quoteas or be penalized.  Think about that.

Well Good for you, you did the right thing.  I don't know why any insurance company would contact a nurse.  You would first need to get a license, at least where I am, before you work for them.  For my work at Insphere my total commission on sales was $200.00.  I spent hundreds on leads and my supervisior made money off of me and othere working for him buy a internet program, it cost $300.00 month that automactically calls you leads,  I could go through my list of 1500 in a few minutes, I did 3 - 4 days a day, got nothing for it.  After leaving I was sent a notice from Insphere, I owe the $500.00. 

I am a nurse and submitted my resume online today at careerbuilder.com, not eight hours later I recieved this email from this company. I typed in the name to research and found this website. Thanks for the advise, even though I would have not responded to this email in the first place since it is soliciting.

Thanks for the info Maggie. What do you think of the initial (week long) training session? I am a newby looking for direct training and mentorship and have begun the process for eventually working at Insphere. How long have you been there?

Good gracious.....large insurance brokers change their names all the time as they are all being bought out by other companies.  Insphere Insurance Solutions works with major carriers (Aetna, Humana, United Health, etc).  There is nothing to 'BEWARE' about!  

As far as the one who said you have to sign a contract....well, yeah....just as you would with any other brokerage.  Most large companies have their sales professionals sign a 'non compete' and insurance is no different.  

Insphere is an honest, ethical company who pay their agents quickly and generously. Do not have any qualms about doing business with or working for this company.

Of course the above post is from an Insphere employee, from Ohio..when the previous complaint was about a bogus agent...from Ohio. Haha this company is going down in flames. Its too bad the dbags on the 95th floor in a suite office aren't burning also. Hopefully they catch the HIV. Also, the idiot who wanted to be contacted directly, gave an email and a 800 number. If the claims of so many are false...why would you not contradict and answer truthfully in the post? Instead, gave an 800 number..ya ok..we all know how well 800 numbers work. Its probably automated, trying to recruit new bogus agents.

I have joined the company within the past year, and would like to report my experience thus far.

As an agent in the state of Ohio I am proud to offer multiple life, and health insurance solutions to all of my potential clients.  I have worked with, and helped multiple individuals and families in and around central Ohio.  My primary source of applications come from Aetna, United Health Care(Goldenrule), Humana, ING, and Minnesota Life.  All of which have Excellent or Superior ratings with agencies like A.M.'s Best and S&P.

I have not sold a single product for mega, midwest, or NASE.  This fact isn't due to my personal like or dislike for the company, but is due to the fact that those companies simply do not offer products that I have access to.  I have never been persuaded or steered into selling any product that I didn't feel would truly help my client.

I am on pace to make about $75,000 in commission for my first year.  I have invested a very small amount of my own money into internet leads, and fuel for my car.  The company does supply me with 5-15 leads per week that are legit leads.  As any business owner/entrepreneur can attest to, you get out what you put in.  I personally don't mind spending a few bucks ($200-$400) a month on marketing and travel expenses. 

In networking with other insurance agents, and insurance brokers I find that InSphere offers several advantages to their agents over the competition.  First, I set my own schedule.  If I want to work Monday's and Wednesday's and no other day out of the week than that is what I do.  I have no boss, no direct supervisor, and no sales quotas.  Secondly, I am not stuck selling one company's product.  So many agents these days sell for one or two companies and think it is a big deal.  Anyone in Health Insurance knows that some companies accept certain health conditions, and other companies simply do not.  So this diversifies my portfolio of products and enables me to help the most amount of people.

Finally, it doesn't take a genius to write a negative report on the internet.  I strongly recommend  anyone who is thinking about working for or with InSphere to do their own research, and not rely on the handful of posts on a site like rip off report.  Get in contact with your state's dept. of insurance, or your states attorney general.  Many times it is the blind leading the blind when it comes to random slanderous internet posting. 

Whatever you decide to do with your life, do not waste it blaming others for your downfalls or poor decisions.  Make a promise to yourself to stay true to yourself, treat others as you wish to be treated, and don't trust people just because they say that you should.  Do your own homework, and make your own decisions.  Be your own person, and most importantly be happy.

I stumbled on this web site when researching this company due to a bad experience from an Insphere agent.

Wow, I had no idea there was such a history of corruption in this company. I wish to report the agent from Insphere I experienced was a total liar and scam artist. Luckily I knew what to ask for and was able to correct my situation without signifcant loss.

I applied for Insurance through einsurance after the sudden death of my husband and my inability to pay the COBRA insurance after 5 months for myself and my children. My daughter has epilepsy and I could not get any regular insurance for her at any price. I have to wait 6 months to get her in OHIO high risk pool. I applied for only myself and my son (perfectly healthy)

This "agent" stated she could get myself, my son and my daughter on catastophic health insurance for 6 months. Premiums were $485.00 per month. She stated this also included "add ons" which would pay me $1000 p/day if I was hospitalized and had vision coverage etc (I assume this was the so called discounts) I stated over and over again I needed full health insurance. She said that this was it.She took my checking acct and routing number.

After she left I reviewed the policy she left and called her saying this is only supplemental insurance and not full health insurance. She said she would e mail me the health insurance policies. Again she sent me only supplemental and discount policies and some Alliance Group benefits. Apparently I had to pay this group also for the Insurance. I called AGAIN and said This is NOT Health Insurance. She said they would be sending me the policy in the mail!

Weeks went by and I never received any Health Insurance policy in the mail. I called and called and she finally said she would check on it. I repeatedly asked her if I was covered and she assured me I was. She said the Health insurance policy was throught Aetna....Again nothing...Finally after three weeks she said she would call HUMANA to see why I didn't get my policy. I reminded her she told me it was Aetna and she said oh, that was a mistake it was humana. Well, she called me back and said Humana declined my application-which of course was a lie.. I called Humana personally and they stated there was no applicaton filed for myself and my  children through them.

Luckily my bank has a very good charge dispute program and I was able to get my money back for the supplemental insurance and the charge for joining Alliance. I called Chesapeake Life Insurance Company aka Mega aka Health Markets and told them what had happened. They sent me a letter stating that since they did not know personally what the agent presented me regarding the insurance it was "her word against mine"-and they declined to take any action.

Luckily in the letter they sent me they stated that she told them Humana had turned me down. I called them again and told them she never filed and application for me with humana. I also told them I have emails and phone messages she had left me stating I was covered through Humana for Health insurance...I also told them I have proof that she lied with her own words and with your letter to me proof that you now know she lied. I am currently filing a complaint with Ohio Department of Insurance.

I have very good Health insurance now with Medical Mutual of Ohio and really my only loss in this situation was a month that I went without any health insurance.

However, I know if I was not dilgent it could have been catastophic. And these people need to be stopped before they prey on others. They ARE the same company with the SAME business practices

STAY AWAY

I have worked at Insphere in the KS-MO area for over a year now. I have never had any issues with compensation nor have I had any complaints from customers. Insphere is a legitimate, nationwide insurance agency. Don't be duped by our competitors. Why would top tier companies such as United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana, ING, Minnesota Life, John Hancock, EyeMed, Carrington, and MetLife allow their products to be sold by some scam organization? The truth is that they wouldn't as it would tarnish their brand and image. The only people talking smack about Insphere is our competitors as they now see how we can help more people find affordable insurance solutions.

Having said all of this, Insphere is the largest independent insurance agency in the US. I have heard by co-workers that there were some internal problems prior to my arrival. Being a nationwide company, I'm sure that there are different management styles in various parts of the country. I can only speak of my time and my experience here in the heartland. If you're looking to work for or work with Insphere, you're safe.

ME 2...IM SO GLAD I DID NOT MAKE A MISTAKE BY WORKING FOR SUCH A CRKD COMPANY I MEAN WOW!!! DRAMA IN THE COMP 4 REAL...GEEZ

I actually had an interview with this company and did a little of my own research before hand. I thought It was odd I had never heard of this company and was just wondering a little more about it is all. You really know this company very well and I am grateful I did not make the same mistake as others. WOW!

Greatful......

Hmnd:
Not sure if your way of communication is the best approach but I do like your specific questions, there are so many posts I've simply lost track.  Has anyone answered the specific questions in your #30 post?  If so please direct me to post #.

I notice many people attacking and defending this company & associate a lot of emotion with it (non sense really) simply state and answer facts to allow people to make the best determination.

I have been approached for a career opportunity with Insphere and intertesting to see so much negative and positive feedback on same company.  I am not going to make my determination without an in person interview and some more research but definitely appreciate everyone posting their feedback on this company.

Best regards,

Sam

For all of you who want to defend this company, go ahead... but as an employee and commissioned sales person, I have been promised bonuses and screwed out of thousands of dollars and the Insphere Financial department won't even respond to me....

If they had a bad reputation in the past, don't think much has changed.  I'm not dissing the companies they represent, ING, Aetna, etc... it's the Company itself that is screwing it's own sales people and they have to keep recruiting because they are losing reps at a fast pace.

DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY!!!

As a former agent, please tell me the dotcom site to help from being scammed out of money by InSphere?

look...all insurance is a scam. Dump a bunch of money into a company over the course of years, who then decides what is or isn't covered and how much you need to pay...and you still end up coming out-of-pocket while employees of insurance companies make a generous living off your premiums. If you work for a company that chooses to not make a substantial contribution to your healthcare cost...you are double screwed. Finally, your reward for maintaining health and staying out of hospitals as much as possible (besides a healthy long life)? wasted money that could have been spent enjoying your healthy long life.

The same guys who ran UGA and sold that Mega garbage crap are the same guys who now lead Insphere.

They used to lie to people to recruit them to sell Mega, and would like to unsuspecting insurance prospects.

Once a scum lier, always a scum lier. Still lier's but now with different stripes. Still a captive agency, and agents are not brokers. Only being able to sell a couple different does not make you a broker.

Unsuspecting prospective agents do not know better, and fall for that hierarchy crap.

If an agent knew better, they would go somewhere where they can own their own business and sell as many carrier products as possible.

Insphere is a joke, and agents are still getting taken advantage of.

Insphere Insurance solutions is a valid Health and Life Brokerage firm.

Yes, Mega Health and Life is ONE OF MANY companies we can sell. In Ohio that also Includes Humana, Aetna, Golden Rule, ING, John Hancock....the list goes on.

I don't think any of these companies would appreciate being told they are owned by Mega or that they are a scam.

Before slandering a company, people should educate themselves.

The person who wrote "You Should Run" is dead on. The next guy can't type, and the "Happy Agent" is someone at the Home Office in North Richland Hills, TX. That is right folks, Insphere/Healthmarkets/Mega/etc, etc. have marketing people at their home office typing in happy go lucky positive information all the time on this site.

The FACT is that Insphere is a joke. There are agents literally diving out of there. The top agents in life insurance sales are not even making money. There are people that have filed for bankruptcy because they are still waiting for the day where "In the end you will make more money than ever!" The idiots in TX including Jack Heller have decided to create a "task force" of 40 agents or so to learn how to copy other agencies sales techniques so they can sell over the phone. Are you s**+**ing me? Can these people simply not get it right? That is obviously a ploy to keep the top agents there so they don't quit.

Face it, the commissions suck. You have to feed the high salaries and bonusesof people like Phil Hildebrand (who is getting canned in June finally after making 40-60 million in 3 years) and Jack Heller who cheats on his wife with women in the office and around the country. Oh, and do not forget about Blackstone.

Oh, OK, so the GoldenRule commissions came out and look great don't they? Well, let's dig into it. If you are a Tier 4 agent, you get like 11%, right? What they don't tell you is that of course it is based on their FYCWs, which means when you made a 24% or thereabouts commission as a Tier 4 you had to sell X amount of AV to get that commission. Since the Tier level is based on the actual amount of commission you make, when your commissions drop in half, you now half to sell TWICE as much to stay at that tier. You will end up at 8.5 to 9.5 if you are lucky.

And the products are good? What products?

Folks, if you do not believe me then pick up the phone and call a carrier like GoldenRule with a fake name. You can get a higher commission going direct! Or look at other agencies. Oh, I forgot, you can't, can you? The reason being is because when you sign the agreement with Insphere you can NEVER NEVER NEVER sell for GoldenRule again. EVER. Unless they release you.

Here is another good one: "Insphere is the largest agency in the country!" What? are you serious? What about Stephens Matthews who has 4,000 plus agents? Compared to Insphere's 1,200 down from 2,000 previously. Did you know Phil Hildebrand contacted Stephens Matthews a couple years ago asking if HM could sell under them because they could not get a contract with Assurant? Obviously Stephens Matthews said no.

Cash out your stock while you can. They have said for years that it is going to $80 a share one day. No, it has not and will not. Ever. And if you believe that and the other garbage they throw at you, you are an idiot. Seriously.A complete idiot. Make a phone call to John Hancock. Call ING. Call GR. Ask them what their street commissions are.

But you jerks at the healthmarkets home office that come here and post this garbage should be ashamed of yourselves. After all, HM is laying off people just about every month and you know it, so start looking for your job now!

I'm sorry some of you feel like you've been burned in the past.  I'm totally thrilled with  my experience with HealthMarkets and now, Insphere.  I came from another insurance company that treated their agents horribly.  Insphere has given me nothing but support and encouragement.  My managers are fantastic; they've given me hundreds of fantastic free leads, provided advice and help when I needed it, and trained me way more than I could have expected.  I feel like I'm working with family.

I don't understand why some of you claimed you didn't sell anything for months.  I got appointed right away, and the only agents that didn't sell in our office in the first couple months, either didn't have the drive or intelligence to do so.  I honestly don't think that many people are cut out to do this business.  If you don't have good people skills or basic knowledge of finance, then you're in the wrong field.  You have to overcome rejection and disappointment.  You have to have alot of determination when you first start out.  But I think that would be true for any business where your total income is derived from commissions/advances.  I've made a fairly good living so far for just starting out, and I see major potential here.

All the companies that Insphere represents offer solid products.  I feel like I have no troubles offering people quality insurance products to fit their needs. Honestly, I think what happened regarding Mass., etc. is that a couple of bad apples misrepresented supplementals as major insurance.  That's why in California for example, you cannot sell supplemental health products without the client having major health insurance.

Anyway, those of you thinking about Insphere really should.  They are a breath of fresh air.

Look people, look around on this sire, everyone is a scam. insphere is not a scam, look up the derinition. what you aer says they are doign even if it was true it would not be considered a scam. ya know why, they oay their employees. There has never in the history of the world been a scam that the victim can profit from. Also call yourself a vistim??? what did they do to you did they actually harm u i  anyway, did they steal something from you did they get you to work and then not pay you. Your paranoid. Look at everyone on here, every single one of them is an ex-employee or someone who looked the company up and read the ripoffreport first. there is not one customer and there is not one employee. they pay veryy well actually. thee thing is that u have to work. sales is not for everyone. if u cant do the job and the company gets rid of you it is entirely your fault. If you had a legit argument i would understand but really there is not one customer that jas posted anything bad. just pissed of ex employees that couldnt figue out how to do their jobs. gtow up...........u guys do know that vlockbuster, wal-maer allstate insurance, every merchant service organization and a bunchof other places are listed on here.  so what u are saying is that every single business on the planet is a scam. some guy getting you to do work so he can make money when you do it.....um, where im from we call tat a job.and um....you were the what for 6 years???? i have never even heard of you. lets have a poll. everyone who has ever done any kind of business with insphere and see if more people are happy or mad and they will be happy. for every one complaint on here that are a thousand there are a thousand positive testimonials. this si whats wrong with country everyone crys about there being no job  and rgwew ias always an wzcysw. everyone want to blame someone for theior problkems. the company is greeat, the guy that wrote original post never even really worked there and none of the compensation stuff he mentions is accurate. and to the guy that said they were no a broker if they only had 5, um....yea actually they are. they have 9 companies they work with but even if they only had 4 they still represent more than 4 companies that do the same thing. That is what a broker does.learn what u are gonna talk about before u do it next time and grow up take some responsibility for yourself 

I started working for this company while they were still HealthMarkets and remained with them during the Insphere transition. I was also a consumer. Mega/HealthMarkets/UGA/Insphere = the same company 

I'm so glad I checked out InsphereIS on Ripoff Report. I was to interview with them for employment.

I've changed my mind.

Thank you for the heads up.

If you are hesitant to work for Insphere, trust your instincts and run to the nearest exit.  I bought their BS and went to work for them.  After 6 months, the only thing I sold came back as a charge back, so I resigned.  I then told them that I had a charge back and would submit applications until the balance was paid.  I submitted 4 applications.  I sold more after I left Insphere than before.  I expected them to take out my charge back, which was about $575.  and send me the rest.  which was almost $1000.  Nothing came for several months so I phoned commissions and was promptly told that I still owed over $700!  Since I had only received 1 check in the 6 months, imagine my surprise?  Joy promptly sent me a tally sheet of all that I owed.  There were charges of $156. for appointments to Mega, and I was told not to sell Mega.  There were E&O charges on the list, for two months after I quit.  On top of that, instead of giving me a listing of the applications I sold, they gave me a list of interest charges on top of these other charges.  There was a list of $277. of interest, E&O insurance and appointment charges.  Insphere steals from their agents.  they pad the debit accounts so that they can keep the backend commissions.  I plan to file a complaint with the Department of Insurance.  I am only waiting until I calm down and am not so d**n angry before doing it.  The San Jose office is one of the top offices in the country.  They are major control freaks, and demand that the agents attend meetings and call in Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, even if they don't have any sales.  They recently started an auto dialer program and charged the agents $200 each for participation.  There are about 6 agents on each team, and 4 teams.  This is when I decided to quit.  They called it a lead program, but what they were supplying was LISTS, not leads, you and the other agents on your team turned up the leads, not them.  There are 5-10 people in the office making money.  the latest I have heard is that they are promoting hiring YOUNG agents.  young agents are less trouble, too green to challenge the system.  Trust your instincts, save yourself 6 months, you won't be appointed for 3-4 anyway.  It took me 5 minutes to get appointed at my new company.  It took 5 months at Insphere, but Aetna tells me I was appointed in February.  They just would not post the appointment.  The presentation that they taught uses Newspaper articles stating lawsuits for claim rescinsion with health Net, imagine my surprise when health Net came to Insphere.  THIS IS HEALTH MARKETS, IT IS ALL OVER EVERYTHING THEY DISTRIBUTE INTERNALLY.  they told me they changed the name because of the bad reputation. 

I was an employee of "Cornerstone America" for a brief time several years ago. It was Cornerstone America at that time, then Health Markets, now it's InSphere. Apparently InSphere is actually a broker representing several different companies and is not just the sales and marketing arm of NASE, Mega, and Midwest National.

I understand that InSphere is a new company. But if you want to buy a Mega or Midwest health policy you must now go through InSphere, correct? So now InSphere is the company that offers those policies. The Mega and Midwest policies, even during the Health Markets era, had a bad reputation. So to counteract that there was this latest in a string of name changes. I assume that the agents get a bigger commission on the sale of those (IMO) very crappy Mega and Midwest policies.

Just today I received an InSphere e-mail from none other than the wife of my former Cornerstone boss inviting to contact them about career opportunities. So her and her husband made the move from Cornerstone to Health Markets to InSphere. So yeah, it's the same people offering some of the same crappy insurance from the same companies (now plus other companies) under a differend brand name.

As per the last comment I can understand how this company can have agents misrepresentations lawsuits against them. When I was suckered into this position I quickly realized that the agents and the training managers including the DM's had no clue what they were training and educating people on. Ive had training on HMO, PPO and HSA account plans, so I understand the concept of each plan. The DM's and the Office manager couldnt even train their agents on PPO plans and HSA plans correctly. I understand how an agent can get into trouble as they are trained incorrectly. I also seen agents ask for help from a DM about an issue and the DM would tell them ways to get around the system and jeopardize the agents license just to make a sell. So anyone can get on here and post comments trying to make the company look good when in fact they are not good at all. You can have all the carriers in the world but if your not selling them to standard then it doesn't matter. Also this company has MAJOR issues with regard to paying their agents on time. Major issues. I personally experienced this first hand. I have many friends that worked for this company and decided to leave because its just a lawsuit waiting to happen for any agent. Be warned! DONT NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY! Be an independent agent.

Here is the latest lawsuit! They try to say above that it is different now, but it is not, is it?

To: All Appointed AgentsFrom: Phil Hildebrand, President and CEO Date: October 21, 2010 Re: HealthMarkets Media Coverage Yesterday afternoon, HealthMarkets became aware that a lawsuit had been filed against the company and its private equity partners by the Los Angeles City Attorneys office alleging agent misrepresentation of our health insurance plans. News of the lawsuit was reported by the local media in Los Angeles and by media in Texas. Additional coverage of the lawsuit may occur over the next few days. At this time, the company has not received official notification of the lawsuit and, as a result, has not had the opportunity to review details related to the allegations. While it is disappointing to learn of this lawsuit and have HealthMarkets portrayed in a negative light, it is inappropriate to comment publically on pending litigation. In the event you are contacted by a reporter or a representative of the media, please direct them to Donna Ledbetter, HealthMarkets Director External Communications, at 817/255-5405 or via email at donna.ledbetter@healthmarkets.com.

Goalie,

First off, the average agent DOES NOT make over 100k per year.  If someone is telling you that, then they are flat out LYING.  Perhaps the top 25 do, but it is hard to say anymore because Insphere is struggling so hard, they are really inflating the numbers.

Also, if you sign their contract, they have some BIZARRE language and agreements with some carriers that if you leave you can never sell for those carriers again.  EVER. Unless they decide to let you, which they probably will not.

Insphere has one of the LOWEST compensation packages in the industry, and there are plenty of other choices out there that you should consider.

Lastly, look around on the internet.  It is chalk FULL of incredible claims against the company.  Yes, yes, yes, people at Insphere (which is Healthmarkets) will say it is all ex-agents that could not make it.  But most of the information out there is from customers.  Also, how could 30 different states that sued them in a class action be lying?

So, why would you?

Ive been contacted and had an interview with Insphere and every company puts them self on a pedestal and says you have all the opportunity in the world but is it something i should believe? I am not sure whether I should entrust my career with the company especially after reading all that I have. On the other hand I have heard good things about them from a few people, but who knows. Bottom line is that the least I can afford to make is 50k a year, and I am not sure if I am being built up by these guys for a very big disappointment. Any sales based company says that there average rep makes 100k a year blah blah blah. I dont have an insurance sales background and making a switch like this is tough and I don't want it to be for nothing. What should I be expecting if I took the job? Is it going to be just another company with bogus leads, terrible training and lots of promises? Thanks

One of these fine folks making comments defends his position by talking about how all of the insurance companies and backers researched Insphere/HM/Mega Life/on and on and it all came up clean.  How could they be wrong? Ever heard of a company called Enron?  Everyone thought they were on the up and up as well.

So you think you know how bad it is.  Let me shed some more light on the situation.  First off, the numbers you are throwing around for Phil's compensation are a little misleading.  Only ~$9M will he ever actually see because it is CASH.  The rest is stock that isn't worth too much anymore.  Still even with that ~$9M cash, ranks very high compared to other companies in the area. 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/includes/ice3/dn/bus/scorecard2010execpay.html

It is even more than most Fortune 100 CEOs like Exxon Mobil, AT&T etc.  He makes more cash than any healthcare CEO.  He is even in the top three for total compensation for all insurance companies.  Considering the revenue disparity, this is a travesty.

(((Redacted)))

I don't even know if this compensation includes his car allowance

(((Redacted)))

or his country club membership the company pays for.

(((Redacted)))

I have it on good authority he got a new Ferrari this year with his $7.8M bonus.

(((Redacted)))

I even heard the license plate say "ASSOC BNS" but I can't confirm this.

Want to see his house?

Just to verify

(((Redacted)))

And only more good news for everyone left working for him

"The Company has completed notifying the approximately 70 employees initially affected and anticipates reducing its workforce by up to an estimated additional 180 positions, subject to the need for lower reductions based on workforce attrition. This action is expected to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter 2011."

Ethos,

Throughout this post, it has been proven that Insphere is owned by Healthmarkets, which is the not so proud owner of Mega Life & Health, Midwest National of Tennessee, and Chesapeake life. The managers are trained to tell you exactly what you are told.

Contrary to whatever the manager at Insphere told you, the complaints throughout the internet are not former emploees.  Most of them are customers that were denied coverage that they paid for and were denied state mandated benefits.  If Scott Crawley wants you to believe that all of these complaints are ex-employees, then you should ask him why there were 31 (that is THIRTY ONE!!!) states that filed a class action lawsuit against the company because of them denying coverage.  Ask why they had to stop selling in Washington, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  Ask him why they settled fwith a lawsuit filed by the Attorney Generals Office in Massachusetts for $17 million dollars.  Ask him why they settled for $20 million dollars in the class action lawsuit.

Scott Crawley will tell you it is not the same company.  Ask him why Healthmarkets owns Insphere then if it is not the sam company.

He will say that they have "changed".  Ask him why virtually EVERY SINGLE manager at the company are the same exact people...including him!  Ask him what has changed?

He will say that they offer reputable products now. Well, they do, but they still sell Mega.  Also, the people are generally the same.  Ask him if he thinks a thief that is stealing from one job takes on a second job is unlikely to steal anything. Most of the time, the agents are just flipping their business from Mega to other carriers.

Also, the religious nuts in the insurance business are the ones you gnerally have to watch out for!!!!

Ask Scott about the stock and what it is now worth ($7 and dropping) when it was worth $29 plus last year and was in the 30s just a couple years ago.  Scott will say that the company lowered the stock on purpose to help out new agents just like yourself.  I seriously, seriously ask you how that possibly makes sense?  so the top managers in the company gave up a MILLION dollars plus in some cases, because they care about some new agent?  Actually, a number of them sold a ton of stock last year.

Lastly, ask Scott how much Phil Hildeband makes. Answer $20 million.  Ask him how much Anurag Chandra makes.  Answer - $10 million.  Have him add that together.  Then ask him what the average agent makes per year.  answer - the top agents make a couple hundred thousand...the top 5 to 10.  The rest make a lot less.  If the average agent makes $60,000, then Satan and his Indian son make more than the top FIVE HUNDRED agents. and just so you know, generally the top 100 agents do 60-80 percent of the business.

Do not work there. Trust me and all of the other people who learned the hard way. If there are that many customers that were screwed over to the point that that many states filed lawsuites, there is a problem. If there are that many ex-agents that have isues with this company, then there is a problemalso.

Good luck.

Let me share my experience with this company.  Over two years ago, I went for an interview in the Jenks office and met with the office manager, Scott Crawley.  He said he is a Christian man and I was impressed with the office building and the atmosphere at first.  

Here are some articles about this company
I found them after an agent called me and since I had never heard of their company I decided to go on the internet and see if there was any information about them

(((Redacted)))
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Thank you for your answer.

The statement that this company/entity keeps changing their name to dodge criticism is what I'm saying is entirely true.  As far as suggesting these company's, I use to work in wholesale financial services and know a thing or two.  I personally dont work in financial services in any capacity anymore.

Appreciate the information but am not quite sure what you mean by "It's all true". What I am more concerned with though is why you decide to recommend these products/companies. What is your relationship with/to the products/companies that you are stating to anyone that reads this they should use instead? 

HealthMarkets is the bogus child of NASE/MEGA, the place is operated like a cult.  Over time they have managed to clean up their products a bit, but dont bother they arent deserving of your patronage.  Who is?

I'd suggest Aetna or BCBS for health.  That should be the best in almost all cases.

Auto: Geico or Progressive

Life Insurance:  Definitely should go with either USAA or YourLifeSolution.com.  Both are incredibly competitive and run with integrity.  USAA is very tight on health conditions, but will underwrite faster than YourLifeSolution's providers.

Here is an update:

Healthmarkets and Insphere stock dropped to around $7 per share last week.  Oh My God!!!!!!!!  Some of those guys lost over a million dollars.  Wait until next time when the value of their current book of business drops.

Also, it turns out Phil Hildebrand and Anurag Chandra make around $20 million and $10 million, respectively.  That is $30 million. If you assumed the average agent makes $60,000/year, then they make more than the top 500 agents combined.

And you wonder why the stock went down?  Phil and his buddies at Blackstone are SUCKING the money right out of that place!  Also, did you hear about Phil's shoes?  Supposedly, he had his personal parking place re-paved 3 times to get all the divots out because he did not want to get his leather shoes wet after it rains. For the love of God!

They guys who used to sell MEGA who are still there knew better, yet they still sold that MEGA garbage because of the advances, or they were stuck there because of all the money they owed from REAP and Advances.         Regional and Division  Managers used to say how good MEGA insurance was, yet had Blue Cross plans for themselves and their families.     They knew the plans they represented were garbage, yet still recruited and lied to newbie agents.

Actually, I believe I posted also.  As did the author of the post and several others.  There is more than one person complaining.  I cannot see why you would want to even think about working for a company like Insphere aka Healthmarkets aka Mega aka Midwest.  They are all the same.  Current employees come to this site to try to challenge the accusations but a) they are told to do that by Healthmarkets; and b) they don't answer any real questions.

I have issues with the company also. No, I am not disgruntled.  I simply know from experience that it is not a good company.  I also know that while they try to say they are different, all the managers are the same as they have been.  Stocks are going into the toilet big time, and the value of the company is a farce. Healthmarkets itself cannot stay in business based on the book of business it wrote as Mega and Midwest because the policies are dropping off and not being replaced. In allot of cases, agents write policies under GoldenRule that were actually Mega or Midwest policies.  This does not increase business.  It replaces business.

I am glad to see that the name change to Insphere did not work.  Also, if you read up on it, you will see that Phil Hildebrand gets paid $11 MILLION per year.  If he gets canned for cause, he gets like $20 MILLION.  He actually gets paid for doing something wrong.  Agents that are still there are getting screwed, and they don't even realize it.

I would like to find out if Insphere is a quality company to work for right now. Their past doesn't matter if they've got things turned around. Hamnd seems to be the only one who is still speaking badly about the company so if there are others out there with supporting information they should speak up. If there are current employees successfully working for Insphere they should shed some light on how it is to work there and what kind of money they are actually making.

Why do we go around in circles about this?  Did you not read all of the posts above?

Yes, Insphere is an agency.  It is 100% OWNED BY HEALTHMARKETS!

It is the same company; it is filed with the State of Delaware as owned by Healthmarkets; and it SAYS SO on their website!

Healthmarkets owns Insphere, and Insphere sells Healthmarkets products.  The primary reason why Insphere was started was to increase sales because the Healthmarkets products are losing money.  The field force is not even close to 3500, it is down to around1700 with less than 200 that actually sell anything.

They do NOT sell "lots of products", just a few because other carriers won't touch them.  Sure, maybe one day they will clean up their act, but it is still the same people.

"You can put lipstick on a pig and put a dress on it, but it still a pig"

I have been in the health insurance business for 3 years. I have been appointed with different companies during that time and worked for some sorry ones. Insphere is a like a brokerage. The agents hold a "captive" contract with the company, but the upside is that they write through MANY companies (United Healthcare, Aetna, John Hancock, ING, Mega, Chessapeake, United American and HEALTH MARKETS) so they have the same choices as a broker covered under one umbrella.
Health Markets is a health insurance company like Blue Cross, United Healthcare, etc. They are NOT the same company as Insphere. THERE IS NO HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY UNDERWRITTEN BY INSPHERE INSURANCE SOLUTIONS!!! It is simply the name of a company that offers health insurance products provided by the companies named above. The good thing is that these companies offer their policies through our company at a much cheaper rate depending on your state.

THE TRUE STORY
I was with Health Markets before Insphere came into being. Before Insphere, Health Markets partnered with Mega and United American. Insphere started and took over those contracts as well as adding all the other companies I mentioned above, not to mention a few more that are coming in a few months such as Metlife for instance. The author of this report is ignorant and wrong. Some of his links even verify his ignorance if you read them. I have written MANY policies since my time with the company and have MANY happy clients, my son and myself included!

Yes, you are right, Insphere is the same company doing the same old tricks to unsuspecting victims.

If you are an Insphere agent just figuring this out, and want to get out, try the dot com site at(((Redacted))).  They rock!

Ex Mega Agent at Y!


CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Can anyone shed light on the stock conversion?  Pros and cons?  Really need help understanding and can't seem to get a straight answer...    

Can anyone shed light on the stock conversion?  Pros and cons?  Really need help understanding and can't seem to get a straight answer...    

I went to work for Insphere at the begining of this year.  I was to work as an Agent selling and making money, or so I was told.  Well, after almost 3 months I have yet to sell anything or make the money they said I would.  Why, well I don't have any appointments to the company.  I have taken all the test and passed everyone yet no appointment.  One insurance company I know gave me an appointment but that does not show on Insphere, this appointment was given to me by the company almost 2 months back.  My supervisior told me there was a "glunch" in the computers and I would have to wait until if it fixed.  That was weeks ago, in the mean time I am not earning any money, living on my savings and attended Insphere company training on all the money I should be making.  I found out that other agents had to wait months before Insphere finally gave their appointments posted so they could sell.  I decided I need to find a job that has a pay check, I left Inspere.

Hamnd - Definitely DO NOT CALL Insphere!  Those people would love nothing better than to hang you out to dry. And whoever the employee person is responding I can not figure out why you would stay there either.  That place is bleeding agents like you would not believe. My friends that are still there are just waiting for some remaining measly bonus and then getting out of dodge. It all goes back to the garbage they still sell today.  Yeah. They are selling some UHC. But they still sell some of the other crapt too.

Glad I left

Hamnd,

You can contact us directly at 800-955-6160 to discuss your questions.

Insphere is an authorized agency in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and focuses on meeting the life, health, retirement and long-term care insurance needs of small business and the middle income market.

For more information about Insphere Insurance Solutions, please visit: www.InsphereInsuranceSolutions.com

Seriously?  Your are commenting on the fact that I typed a number of detailed points and asked for some direct answers to questions, and you respond with that I need to do a "spell check"?  That is the best that you can do?  I am sorry that I don't run everything through Word first. I was not aware that the subject of the postings here are grammar.

Since we are on that subject, your statement, "A change in culture which is already making the company the number 1 agency in the country", is grammatically incorrect.  You should have a comma in between the words "culture" and "which".

I am still waiting for an intelligent and precise response to questions above, otherwise why respond?

Hamnd

We would like the opportunity to address your questions directly. You can contact us at 800-955-6160.

Insphere is an authorized agency in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and focuses on meeting the life, health, retirement and long-term care insurance needs of small business and the middle income market.

For more information about Insphere Insurance Solutions, please visit: www.InsphereInsuranceSolutions.com

Very strange that you are so bitter about the company that you only left for "medical reasons". Man up and maybe use spell check before you post in future.

Ex-Employee - I have no idea what you are talking about as I left the company for medical issues.  However - Please feel free to respond to the comments listed one by one above.

Response - As you state "there appears to be some inaccurate or misleading information posted on this thread" - What is interesting, is that you could simply be confirming that Insphere owns Healthmarkets in your response.

If you are going to respond here and make that statement, how about listing what is inaccurate and stating what is accurate? That would go a long way versus giving a canned response.  Here I will help make it easier for you and point out the relevant items:

1. Agents and former agents have the Freedom of Speech right to state grievences that are fact or their opinion on this page without having to get "screwed" by Healthmarkets.  True or False?

2. Healthmarkets has had to pay $20 million in fines as part of a multi-state settlement and another $17 million to MA in the last couple years due to not paying claims, not paying state mandates, and improperly training agents. True or False?  If false, feel free to share why.

3. Healthmarkets has an AM Best Long-Term credit rating as of today of "bb", with an outlook of "Negative".  Both Mega & Midwest have a B++ rating and a "Negative" outlook.  True or False?

4. Insphere is owned by Healthmarkets. True or False?

5. The majority of agents at Insphere are actually agents from Healthmarkets/Mega/Midwest. True or False?  If False, feel free to explain why.

6. As of the end of February, there were actually 1,737 agents (not 2200) that had written business. Of those, the number 200 (if multiplied out) is on target to only make $45,000 in first year earnings. True or False?

7. The only carriers listed on the Insphere site are United Healthcare, John Hancock, and ING. True or False?

8. Insphere has pursued and interest to sell Assurant, but has not been granted an appointment. True or False? If false, please feel free to correct the statement.

9. Insphere pays its agents between 60-65% commissions on ING Term policies but is paid 125% or higher plus bonuses from ING. True or False. If False, feel free to explain.

Answering these simple and straightforward questions would go a long way towards credibility.

As there appears to be some inaccurate and misleading information posted on this thread, we would like to take this opportunity to explain the integrity, professionalism, and other strengths that demonstrate why consumers can trust Insphere for their health insurance needs.

The formation of Insphere Insurance Solutions, as an independent, agent-producer group was announced in July 2009, and officially launched in January 2010. Insphere is an authorized agency in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and focuses on meeting the life, health, long-term care and retirement insurance needs of small business and the middle income market.

As a distribution company, Insphere has entered into marketing agreements with multiple highly-rated carriers, across lines of business, to offer consumers choice at the point of sale. Insphere will continue to add products and carriers to its portfolio. You can see all publicly released carrier announcements at http://www.insphereinsurancesolutions.com/news.html

Insphere currently has a contracted sales force of approximately 2,200 independent agents nationwide. Prior to marketing products within the Insphere portfolio, agents must first become licensed by the state they intend to work in, and be appointed with each carrier whose products they intend to sell. They must also receive training from each carrier specific to those products.

Insphere Insurance Solutions, through its parent company HealthMarkets, Inc., is owned by a group of private equity investors, including affiliates of The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Credit Suisse.

If you have questions about Insphere Insurance Solutions, we would like to address them directly. You can contact us through our website at http://www.insphereinsurancesolutions.com/contact.html or phone at 800-955-6160.

These posted comments sound like either the former Employee that got fired or the one that resigned before he got fired. Don't be bitter guys. They just don't want agents around that do the wrong thing. A change in culture which is already making the company the number 1 agency in the country. I will be happy to name you if you would like!!

Sorry, Peggles, but unfortunately no can do on that.  You see, while there are Freedom of Speech rights in the United States, what Healthmarkets/Insphere do is they monitor this site heavily looking for screw ups like that, and (please no offense unless you work for Insphere) they post things such as yours asking questions like that.  Then what they do, is they find something on the agent and then coerce them.

What amazes me about Healthmarkets/Insphere is that they spend sooooo much money on attorneys trying to protect their image due to agents that have been screwed, that they could actually be more profitable if they treated people better.  I personally have never been there, but I have heard that they actually have a secure entrance and posted armed security guards in the lobby of their home office because they are concerned about a possible armed ex-agent that they screwed over showing up one day.  I have been to other companies and have only had to sign in, so I find this bizarre.

In the words of a top exec at Healthmarkets/Insphere themselves (no name used here), "We will monitor the ex-agents activities on places like RipoffReport.  Then we will shut off their backends, or do whatever means necessary to stop them."

If you are looking for an agency, well, pick one that has a good reputation.

And always remember, "WHERE THERE IS SMOKE THERE IS FIRE."  Which definitely applies to this subject.

Meanwhile - I am still waiting for some savvy Healthmarkets/Insphere person to rebut the facts I have posted.

Sounds like an interesting discussion here. I have recently been approached by Insphere to work as an agent but I really like the carriers and opportunities that the companyyou are working for has. What is the name of the brokerage firm you are working for and how can I become an agent?

Sounds like an interesting discussion here. I have recently been approached by Insphere to work as an agent but I really like the carriers and opportunities that the companyyou are working for has. What is the name of the brokerage firm you are working for and how can I become an agent?

Mt dear Charlie, my how you are a brainwashed child. I truly am sorry if you take offense to that, but you will one day sit where I sit, and know what I know. These are the facts in response to your posting:

 1. Yes, I do have a personal vendetta, and I am exercising my freedom of speech rights to post here about Insphere/Healthmarkets. However, EVERYTHING I am posting is true.

 2. You are correct that pretty much every company gets sued, and I once tried to use your exact same argument about Healthmarkets to protect them, then I left. Now I know the truth. As far as "one time or another" getting fined, Healthmarkets was JUST fined as of AUGUST 2009 (that is 6 months ago) $20 million in MA specifically for failure to pay state mandated claims and bad business practices. Come on, seriously, are you going to tell me you have never had a claim issue and called down to the claims department only to get a moron that does not know what they are doing? This is why they had to pay. They did not pay claims. They denied claims. Even in my state, I had situations with my customers. Now I also had customers where things went great, but no where near enough to counter the bad issues.

 3. United actually has a great rating, whereas, last time I checked Healthmarkets was way low in the "B"s. and yes, if someone I run into has an issue with United, I will convince them to switch to a policy i think is good for them.

 4. Insphere is owned by an insurance carrier, which is Healthmarkets. That has already been established here. Guess what, the President of Insphere is Phil Hildebrand. He is also the President of Healthmarkets. Jack Heller is the SR VP of Insphere, and is also the Sr VP of healthmarkets, and so on down the list. Right down to the Regional and Division managers.

 5. Insphere is NOT abiding by the rules of the carriers. In fact, Jack Heller has sent out at least 2 memos that I am aware of insisting that the agents stop "churning" their Mega and Midwest policies. Specifically, agents have been taking their Mega policies and calling the customers and re-selling them GoldenRule policies. That process is actually illegal and is banned by the carriers, but yet the agents are doing it anyway.

 6. As far as Insphere becoming the "largest independent agent career brokerage with about 2500-3000 agents (and growing)", I am going to prove you wrong right now. As of today, there are only 1,737 agents listed on the Insphere website, which is far, far less than 2500-3000, so maybe they are shrinking? In FACT, the number 200 person listed has made $7,539 in first year earning since Jan 1st. GEEEZ??? That means that at his current pace the #200 person will make around $45,000 for the year. What about the other 1,537 agents? They aren't making jack. In FACT, it is, has been, and always will be that the top 200 agents at Healthmarkets/Insphere make money and the rest do not.

 7. FACT - In the year 2009, Healthmarkets supposedly hired in the neighborhood of 13,000 agents through their company. Can you believe it???? Of those 13,000 people, only 200 made "decent" money. Why is that?

 8. FACT - we discussed this already, the major carriers are not "lining up" for Insphere. In fact, most agencies can offer products with major carriers in a matter of a week or two, yet Insphere/Healthmarkets with ALL its millions can only get SIX carriers in an entire year. Why is that? Call Assurant and ask them.

 9. As far as you working for Insphere and know what I am talking about, you obviously don't know what you are talking about because you do not even know how many people are agents! Come on, man. I am not trying to argue with you, I am trying to SHOW YOU THE LIGHT! Don't you know why the majority of producers don't stay? Don't you know why the company is bleeding agents? Yes, they are. It use to be Mega had 2500 agents, and Midwest had 1500. They merged them 16 months ago, yet now it is down to 1,737! I can tell you why they are bleeding agents. They no longer respect the agent. It has turned into a corporate type company where cash is king, not the agent.

The smart agents are the ones who poke their heads up and realize that they can get significantly higher commissions at other agencies selling the EXACT same products. I know because I was there too. I once sat in front of the screen like you do now. I made money at HM. Allot. Now, I can also sell GoldenRule, JUST like Insphere, but I get paid more. I can also sell John Hancock or ING, but I get paid more. But on top of that, I can sell BlueCross, Assurant, Cigna, Aetna, etc. I was able to get appointed in a mere matter of DAYS, but Insphere simply can't do it. The reason is because it is the SAME field force as Healthmarkets under a different name and carriers are worried about it.

Stop being naive, you can say I have an "axe to grind", you can say I am a "hypocrite" all you want. But you simply CANNOT dispute the above facts. So why bother? Why not check it out for yourself and stop being a brainwashed idiot. We have not even gotten into how their stock system really works. Maybe next time. But please, don't even begin to think that you know more about how that organization works than I do. That would be a joke.

InShpere Insurance Solutions is in part owned by The Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs, ING.

These companies are too rich and overwhelmingly greedy for me to give them any cut of my penny.

You may or may not know that Blackstone is a set of investors, they have their hands heavy on real estate and also heavy in acquiring private companies especially in the hospitality industry.

I know many, many people in Texas who have been impacted by this group within the last 3 years and are struggling right now because of the Blackstone group and their "acquisitions". Their decisions are based on what's good for them and no one else.

As far as Goldman Sachs, they should be out of business just like Lehman brothers.They deserve to be in bankruptcy!

An InSpehere sales person has quoted me insurance and I have refused to buy health insurance through them based on the knowledge that the Blackstone group and Goldman Sachs own a portion of InSphere Insurance Solutions.

The American people are disgusted and tired of greedy large mega companies that take advantage of us, the average worker.

Blackstone now want's a piece of the health industry since the Real Estate went bust! How convenient!!!! and the same goes for Goldman Sachs.

They are a part of the corruption in Wall Street. Blackstone in "struck" with real estate but they can wait it out since they are mega rich and so can Golgman.

Many people have been laid off because of Blackstone "acquisitions". Now they want to reap money from taking money potentially from the same people who they laid off and can barely put bread on the table for their families!

I'm utterly disgusted! I hope other Americans looking to purchase health insurance do their homework and are not fooled by buying from InSphere Insurance Solutions!!!!

I can clearly sense a personal vendetta, anger and possibly an Axe to grind with  the Insphere company. I say this based on the aggressive vigor and poisonous undertone of your rhetoric about this company. You are basically juggling a few balls (Mega, Health Markets, etc) to score a few points. There are many insurance companies that at one point in time got reprimanded or fined for some kind of "whatever" reason, it happens all the time to the best of companies. United health care got fined hundreds of millions of dollars not too long ago; does it make them a bad company altogether? I dont think so. Did you go on-line lately and try to discredit United? NOOO, of course not, because your reasoning would not convince any one to drop United, particularly since 1 in 5 Americans has a United policy; so it would be a lost battle for you to attack United.

For whatever reason you're attacking Insphere, a company that is NOT even an insurance carrier, they are a Broker writing and abiding by the rules of the carriers they write for. YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE! One more thing to make your day; Insphere is about to become the largest independent agent career brokerage with about 2500-3000 agents (and growing) and the company writes in all 50 states. The  major carriers are lining up asking Insphere to write for them for many reasons; but the most important ones being motivated, highly trained, dedicated and honest agents working in the best interest of their clients. I work for Insphere and I know what I am talking about. I suggest that you choose a better full time gig as opposed to go after one specific company over and over again. I have NO doubt, that this is personal, maybe you're an unhappy ex-employee, or whatever. This is America, you can say anything you want, but have some decency when making your arguments.  

 also, in response to Shan's post where he (or she) tries to say that Insphere offers:

ING, ING Annuities, John Hancock Life, John Hancock Long Term Care (LTC), Jackson National Life Insurance, Minnesota Life, Aetna, United Health One, The Plus Group, Securian, Mega Life, Mid-West Life, The Alliance (Association), AFS (Association)

Shan tries to say that these are 14 companies, which they are not.  Come on for cryin' out loud. It equates to:

ING, John Hancock, Jackson National, Minnesota Life, Aetna, United Health, The Plus Group, Mega (oh yeah), Mid-West (extra oh-yeah), alliance and AFS.

 First off, that is only 11 companies, however, Alliance and AFS are basically associations that they try to make you get for extra commissions, so we are talking 9 companies.  BUT, The Plus Group is actually an agency also (what???) so that leaves 8.

 Now we have 8 "reputable companies" left.  Pretty much everyone agrees that Mega and Midwest are not reputable (and they are one company anyway under Healthmarkets). 

 So that leaves a measly 6 choices.   Yes, I can see the reputable companies are lining up for Insphere to peddle their products.  Impressive portfolio.

 Don't try to turn this post around to something else.  You know why I won't post my name, just like you won't post yours.  Healthmarkets would then have their attorneys try to clean up their messes even more and try to take my backends.  Actually, I would not be suprised if you are one of those bloodsuckers. i have a couple months left, and then maybe I would. 

 But of course in the mean time, I stand by the accuracy of my points above, which can't be disputed.

 Also, to further prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that Insphere and Healthmarkets ARE INDEED THE SAME COMPANY, I will give anyone reading this undeniable proof...

drumroll please...

It is on the Insphere site!

I doubt that links go through on this site, so if the following link does not show up, then simply go to Google and search for "Insphere Healthmarkets".  Look for "Safe Harbor" statement.  Very simply, part of the paragraph read "...Insphere's ability to enter into and maintain satisfactory relationships with insurance carriers and agents, the implementation of various information technology and administrative systems, platforms and processes necessary to successfully run the new business and other factors discussed from time to time in the reports filed by HealthMarkets, Inc. with the Securities Exchange Commission or in other publicly disseminated written documents."

TA DA!!!!!!  anyone else disagree?

Here is the link if it works:

http://www.insphereinsurancesolutions.com/safe-harbor.html

"Lastly, if you are going to call an ex-agent a hypocrite and crisitcize him, why not post your real name so that guy can look you up too?"

Interesting, you haven't posted YOUR name.

I beg to differ with you, Warren on several of your points.

1. You say that ALL of the DOIs had no issues with Healthmarkets/Insphere.  This is not true.  How about Massachusetts?  Last time I checked, Healthmarkets and its subsidiaries, which includes Insphere (further proving that they are the same) are banned from offering health products in that state for FIVE years after paying $20 million for a settlement.  Would you like to rebut that fact?

2.  As far as those reputable companies, there are companies that have shot Insphere down.  One of the biggest is Assurant.  Is Insphere offering Assurant?  Oh...No...they aren't?  Oh, well, why do you suppose that is????  I have asked assurant about it and was told by the regional manager that Insphere has been "blackballed" from selling their products.  Hmmmmmm, why is that?

3. This post is about the fact that Healthmarkets and Insphere are the same, which they are, and you have so admitted, so that should be moot.

4.  No one has differed that Insphere offers reputable products.  What has been stated is that Insphere and healthmarkets are the same company and has the SAME field force.  In fact, try naming ONE Manager (at this time) that was not at Healthmarkets?  They are all the same, and allot of those guys are the ones who had to deal with the Multi-state exam, etc.  Heck, I know a couple of them that have done or approved some pretty bad things that caused the trouble and are now calling themselves Insphere.

5. ING was the first one to decide to work with Healthmarkets/Insphere, and just so you guys know, ING pays Insphere over 125% commissions and Insphere gives the agents 50-55%.  Where is all the money going?????

6. Insphere is so afraid of losing its field force that it madea deal with GoldenRule that no one leaving Insphere is allowed to sell GoldenRule for SIX MONTHS after they leave Insphere, even if the agent has not sold anything.  Before you try to disagree, you better call GoldenRule.  They actually will let agents sell their products for other agencies if no policies have been sold, except that Insphere INSISTED that GoldenRule had to make an exception for Insphere.  Why is that?  I think that sounds pretty sketchy and is the exact type of thing that company does to people.

7. Lastly, if you are going to call an ex-agent a hypocrite and crisitcize him, why not post your real name so that guy can look you up too?  Ohhhh!!!!!  You would not want that would you????  Why?  Because it would NOT BE COMPLIANT!  In fact, you could get fired for posting noncompliant information.  Gee, last time I checked, you are saying that he is a hypocrite, yet apparently you are too.  The "issues" you are talking about that Healthmarkets was doing, included noncompliant advertising, which (hang on while I check my Insphere handbook) is what you are doing right now.  So the company is indeed up to its same old tricks.

Good luck disagreeing with each of those points.

Kent, just wondering why you are a "Fan of Insphere Insurance Solutions" on your Facebook page if they are such a terrible company. I'm just saying...................

Not Everyone was invited to the party.  If you had too many problems or complaints, you were not invited to the new company.  No cheese w/your whine? 

If Kent Borgman was really some champion of truth and justice in the health insurance industry then why would he limit all of his attacks on one particular company?  Could it be that he is merely a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind?

Not only is he very obviously disgruntled he is also a complete and total hypocrite.  As a fomer senior rep with NASE Borgman went on record to explain why NASE discontinued their affiliation with one insurance company (PFL) to another one (MEGA).  Quoting from a 1996 article in the Portland Business Journal:  "NASE recently switched its health insurance carrier for new policies from PFL Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Aegon USA of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to MEGA Life and Health Insurance Co. of Oklahoma City. Kent Borgman, a NASE senior representative in the organization's Northwest field office, said his group switched carriers for reasons unrelated to PFL's extremely high customer complaint rate".  Borgman goes on to say "MEGA Life, which Borgman says NASE switched to because of the company's strength and superior service"....

To read the complete article: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/1997/06/16/focus2.html

Kent, ever hear the expression about glass houses?

The fact is that HealthMarkets had well documented problems in the past with the scheduled benefit plans offered through MEGA over a decade ago.  In working with regulators the company accepted responsibilty for the damage done by a small percentage of agents who either didn't understand or mispresented that particular product and went on to fix the problem.  HealthMarkets has worked hard to adopt new and better practices in all areas, including how agents are trained and how products are marketed.  All the problems Ken likes to drone on about are problems of the past.  This is evidenced in the fact the HealthMarkets has no problems with DOI's throughout the country in getting approval to offer insurance products and has had no problem getting State approvals for Insphere.   Because Ken is disgruntled he can only cling to these past, irrelevant problems in order to try to continue to grind his axe.

Today, HealthMarkets is a company with a good reputation among people that matter no matter how hard Ken and his ilk continue to try to damage its brand.  Other posters here have made very instructive points regarding how it would make no sense for major, very highly rated and reputable companies to partner with HealthMarkets new insurance agency, Insphere, if there were even a hint of a problem with HealthMarkets or Insphere. 

Ken, seriously, please try your best to answer straight to the point why companies such as UnitedHealthcare, ING, Aetna, John Hancock, etc ---- compaines that have been around for many many decades with outstanding reputations and industry ratings-----would risk their reputations if there were any PRESENT DAY problems???  Please explain to us why your opinion as a dishonest hypocrite and disgruntled ex-employee should matter more than the collective opinion of well known, highly reputable companies and State governments throughout the nation.

I expect we'll just here more of the same from you...much like a temper tantrum from a toddler that had his toy taken away from his mommy.

Some would like to see you end your childish crusade and go get a life.  Given the damage you have successfully caused to the HealthMarkets brand because of past problems with MEGA I am glad you continue your crusade because it allows honest people the opportunity to totally discredit you and in the meantime hash out the real facts and in so doing allow people to see the truth: that while HealthMarkets had to resolve some past problems, as have many major insurance companies, it has created Insphere Insurance Solutions as a company to help people.  The great companies listed here have excitedly partnered with Insphere because of its innovative approach that has become the talk of the industry which will have little room for the likes of you.  The depths of your bitterness and hate will not change that Ken.  Good luck.

Thanks to thetruth man you really stirred up a lot of attention good job wonder why they were so defensive? lol  I received a solicitation to work for insphere. And as I always do first thing is check ror.com [awsome resource] every single solicitation for ins. sales ends up in a ton of neg reports. Maybe they should research there candidates better instead of preying on desperate Americans and finding more ways to rip us off.   Also we all know what a stand up and ethical business G Sachs is.   Again thanks for the good work and keep fighting the good fight.

The statement presented above "The company entitled InSphere Insurance Solutions is not a rip off, nor is it the same company, as you like to seem to accuse" is absolutely BS.

It does not matter now that Healthmarkets/Insphere offer BC, Aetna, Goldenrule, etc.  The FACT is AGAIN that Healthmarkets is Insphere.  Do I need to list EVERY single manager and agent that is working at both???? 

The point is that you can sell "good" products all day long and Healthmarkets did have some good products.  But the FACT is that it is all the same people with the same sales techniques.  They just created a new identity and are transferring their names to it to get around all the bad press.

It's amazing how long and wordy the last response is! But I agree with him: consumers you need to do your own research before doing business with a company, especially in the area of something so important as insurance. So please, do the research and find out the interlaced connections between all of these NON-INSURANCE companies that have so many names. Now ask yourself, when is the last time a major company that has been around for a bunch of years and that you have grown to trust changed it's name?

Think about it, shop carefully before you cancel your existing health or life insurance policy to go with the slick talking Insphere Insurance Solutions agent. Ask the agent how long he has been with the company and what he/she did before the insurance industry.


THINK THINK THINK

The company entitled InSphere Insurance Solutions is not a rip off, nor is it the same company, as you like to seem to accuse. Yes InSphere Insurance Solutions sells Mega Life and Mid-West insurance, whether you wish to believe that those insurance's are good or bad is up to the individual. But before delving into a game of pointing fingers, I would like to take a minute to explain who and what InSphere Insurance Solutions is. InSphere is not a company with favoritism towards any one health/life/long term care provider. Its committed to finding policies that fit the budgets of people whether its in life insurance, health insurance or long term care. Companies that are within this brokerage are as follows

ING

ING Annuities

John Hancock Life

John Hancock Long Term Care (LTC)

Jackson National Life Insurance

Minnesota Life

Aetna

United Health One

The Plus Group

Securian

Mega Life

Mid-West Life

The Alliance (Association)

AFS (Association)

These are not all the companies within InSphere either its a sample of a few that belong to it. A complete list would be inadequate for giving an example.

What you are claiming is rather slanderous considering out of all those companies your claiming that two of them are the entire company. Thats 2 out of 14 companies. I doubt that anyone on this forum will deny the fact that ING, John Hancock and Minnesota Life are some very well known companies which require Errors and Admissions Insurance by their brokers, an anti money laundering course, heavy background checks on employees, much continuing education, and many other regulations that the employer must follow in order to stay appointed by these companies. I might add that these companies are not only well known but have great ratings, many of which are As.

So who is InSphere? Are they good or bad guys? Are they the same company as HealthMarkets, Mega Life, Mid-West? Yes and no. They are not the same company there a part of the company. 2 companies out of many. Do you really think that if Mega and Mid-West were truly horrible companies that ING, John Hancock, Minnesota Life and such companies would really want to be a part of a brokerage firm that held them in their portfolio? I wouldnt want to be a part of any company that held either bad ratings or held companies that may hurt my own. ING, John Hancock, Minnesota Life and the lot must not think that there all that bad. Or perhaps we can be a little more pessimistic for the sake of this rebuttal and its readers and say maybe they wernt the best companies out there, maybe they made some mistakes, maybe there trying to correct mistakes made in the past? You can believe what you want to, thats the point of this rebuttal, thats the point of this article, its to inform. Is HealthMarkets InSphere? No, obviously HealthMarkets does not own ING or any of the above mentioned companies, so how is it the same company? Its a section of the company, yes.

Now breaking it down further.

Lets say that HealthMarkets was the worst possible company to ever exist as it seems this article makes it out to be. Okay its a bad company, not that I hold that opinion, but I wont list my opinion a rebuttal isnt about an opinion its about facts. So lets look at some facts, shall we?

In Google when you type any insurance company with the word or words complaint, lawsuit, layoff, scam, rip off, review, report youre going to find something bad on all of them. Lets face it no health insurance is perfect. Whether youre dealing with an HMO (Health Maintince Organization) such as Kaiser, BlueShield, BlueCross or you have a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) such as Mid-West, Mega Life or any group based plan or even have an Indemnity, which means you can see any doctor at any hospital and itll be covered with discounts if you stay inside a PPO plans districts that they offer. None of them are perfect.

But lets continue on

Ratings for any of these companies vary. Whether its true or slander is the customers choice. Obviously customers that have been with Kaiser or BlueShield/BlueCross and have had bad experiences with them wont want an HMO plan that they think will leave them high and dry when something bad happens, or same with a PPO on how it doesnt cover any medical coverage that is experimental/holistic.

Mega and Mid-West are just part of the entire health insurance industry. Much like Aetna, Kaiser, Anthem, Untied Health One, BlueShield, BlueCross and hundreds more. If any of these are able to meet everyones needs, budget, cover everything that they want covered please let me know Id love show it to customers. I wont say there good companies, nor will I say there bad, each have something unique to offer, each help to provide protection that the customer didnt have before. I will say that its rather easy to do independent and unbiased research, though not a lot of people know how.

Its called the Department of Insurance.

Every state has one, and inside it are all the claims disputes, all the unpaid lawsuit, lawsuits paid, how companies rank with each other, customer service satisfaction, claims made, claims paid, laws broken and much more. So independent solutions are possible with real ratings not an ex-employee who says he quit for ethical reasons when he could have been fired for breaking ethical standards set by the company. These ratings are fair, unbiased, un-bribed and completely dependent on the performance of the company. Look it up and see for yourself. Google Department of Insurance in your state and see who has the best health/life/long term care ratings. Thats a lot better than reading my post or any post trying to make a decision that has to do with, lets face it, your life, whether its health, life insurance to support the ones you love or leave behind, or long term care helping your family take care of you.

I say this because I am an employee of InSphere Insurance Solutions, but I believe that before anything the customer needs to do the research on a company. Dont give a biased opinion or un-biased opinion on what you read online, anyone can come on here and post, but no one can change the ratings that appear on the Department of Insurance, except the performance of that company. So before saying InSphere is a bad company, there a remake of something bad do your own research, be independently informed. Show your intelligence by letting yourself find out not from what an employee says, an ex-employee says, or someone with a single bad experience. Let the ratings talk for themselves.

I wish you all luck in your insurance endeavors!

Oh, Alan, Alan, Alan, my little grasshopper.  "By no stretch of the imagination?"  Are you serious?  I was at the meetings when "Insphere" was born.  I actually had input.  It was as a direct result to the negativity from this website and many others.  I was there when Phil Hildebrand stated that because of Healthmarkets' past, they needed to come up with a solution.  You are correct of course that technically Mega is not Insphere.  What is FACT and is what I said is that Healthmarkets OWNS insphere, and yes, it IS IN FACT a reinvention of Healthmarkets.  I was there when Jack Heller stated that Healthmarkets owns Insphere and that they are one in the same.  Oh, and that "new stock" you mention?  Guess what? The top guys, including Jack and Phil, etc have not converted to Insphere.  Why? You ask?  Because technically, Insphere has no value. Whereas, even with the catastophic policies that Healthmarkets has through Mega and Midwet and Chesapeake, there is actually a large value.  If you transferred your stock, you simply sold it back to the company for those guys and Blackstone to make money off of when they sell the book of business.

The point here, again, is that the sly old dogs at Healthmarkets actually run Insphere also.  It is simply their way to stay in business.  You can do your best to run, hide, and argue, but I know TOOOONNNNNNSSSSS about this subject.

Mega is an insurer. They issue insurance policies.

Insphere is a national broker working with multiple companies such as ING, John Hancock, United, Aetna, and yes, Mega. Insphere is a marketing and advisory company that DOES NOT issue insurance policies.

It is by no stretch of the imagination a "reinvention" or a name change. It is an entirely new company with a new management structure, new ownership, new stock, etc. The only link it has to Mega is that Insphere offers Mega as one of their options for health coverage.

FYI - Insphere is owned by Healthmarkets, therefore they are the same.  They are all owned by Blackstone.

 The FACT of the matter is that despite their trying to sell new products that are reputable, the issues that they have had are because of the sales force and the leadership mistakes in their past, not the products.  This is EXTREMELY well documented throughout the lawsuits (Multi-State lawsuit of 31 states in a class action as well as the recent Massachusetts Attorney General's lawsuit).

The issues have been and still are the field force.  They are the same people with the same leadership, and they are up to the same old stuff.  In Massachusetts, for example, agents are now stealing business from other agencies.  They are going by the "Novi Group", which is owned by Steve Hatem. Steve Hatem is the Regional Manager for Healthmarkets in the Northeast.  All agents that stay with Insphere are forced to join Novi or are pushed out of the company.  Then what allot of the agents are doing is finding small businesses that have coverage with BlueCross with another agent at another company, and having the business switch the Agent of Record so that they can get the commissions. In some cases, the way they do it is say to a business owner "I may or may not be able to help you, but what I need is a form signed that will allow me to help you out", which is the agent of record switch form.  I feel sorry for the poor guy who did all the work to begin with and got screwed.

Current agents can banter and gripe at this as much as they want, but it is what it is.  Jack Heller is still the Sr VP, Phil Hildebrand is still in charge.  The managers are ALL THE SAME.

Just because a crook moves to another city does not mean he is a different person!!!!

NASE, National Association for the Self-Employed wasn't an insurance company either and they were responsible for hurting many thousands of people. Insphere Insurance Solutions will do the same. Time will tell and mark my words, in 5 years the crooks in Texas will be MORPHING into something else!

On another note...

Goldman Sachs, Henry (Hank) Paulson, 700 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan, Obama! Yeah, I'm not trusting that relationship either. If you don't know that relationship between Goldman Sachs and Paulson...well, find out for yourself.

     If you check the facts you will find that Insphere Insurance Solutions is, in fact, a new company. In is NOT an insurance company. Agencies represent several insurance companies as brokers. Insphere was investigated by ING, Minnesota Life, John Hancock, Golden Rule, United Health Care, Cigna, Aetna, United American, The Principal, Jackson Life, Jackson National, Standard Insurance Co. The Plus Group of Texas, and others and they ALL found it to be an honorable, well run, honest and important player in the representation of these companies. They had their attorneys and upper management  of the insurance companies check them out in great detail over many months. Blackstone, Goldman-sachs and Credit Suissse also did their investigations and financed Insphere. The State Insurance Commissioners did not put up any road blocks. Could they ALL be wrong?

     The companies named have told the agents that they appreciate the extreme professionalism whith which they perform their work compared to independent brokers. But you, in all of your wisdom, seem to feel that you have a far superior intellect and insight that none of these companies have. No doubt you have spents thousands of hours going to the source and invested millions of dollors investigateing Insphere as well as all other insurance agencies.

     Could you , in your personal and professional life stand up to that kind of scrutiny? I think not. You sound like a self rightous person who thinks he has the answers that nobody else ever thought of. Nay-sayers like you will always crawl out of the woodwork to point fingers and say "It's their fault!' just to hear themselves talk and to try to hurt others who are smarter and more successful. You say that you are an ex-district manager of 6 years. If it was as bad as you say with that other company, why did you stay? You say that you are not angry. It's obvious that you are. Maybe you should remain silent and just be THOUGHT a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Get a life.

Sorry, same people, different name, different name, different name, different name, etc, etc, etc.

You are absolutely wrong in your post. And your second post is a lie. You said that all you want to do is connect the dots between Insphere and Mega Life, well why does your post say:

"same old scam with a new and different name"

and

"continual name changing trick should be a red flag to any savvy consumer"

Insphere insurance solutions is actualy a broker owned by HealthMarkets Inc. which is owned by the investment companies (Blackstone, Goldman and Credit Suiss)

HealthMarkets Inc. also owns HealthMarkets Family of Insurance Companies who own the actual insurance companies (Mega Life and Health, Midwest National Life and Cheaspeake Life Insurance Co.)

The idea is that Insphere insurance solutions will be representing the companies owned by HealthMarkets and also other insurance companies like (ING, United Healthcare, Assurance, Aetna, Minesotta Life, John Hankock etc.)

The idea is to be able to offer the best value proposition to the customer, and be able to cover all the other areas of risk like, Life, LTC, retirement and etc.

This is the best turn the company could have taken. Make sure you have the facts about a company, before trying to ruin their reputation without them even doing anything wrong or even being able to defend themselves.

No, they are not one and the same thing. Insphere IS is a BROKER. Mega, HM, etc were not ever brokers. Insphere simply is a distributor of products for MANY large insurance companys. If Insphere were a scam, do you really thing those company's would contract with them. Where exactly is there a scam in the products that those companies offer? Where is there a scam in Insphere agents marketing those products?

I suppose that I can't figure out what exactly you're trying to say.

I don't think you understand what I wrote. I suggest you go back and read a little slower. I am not indicting all or even most insurance companies. I am simply connecting the dots between MEGA Life & Health, HealthMarkets and Insphere Insurance Solutions. They are one in the same. In addition, I thank you for allowing me this opportunity to file a legitimate rebuttal to my original post because it will certainly help bring this whole situation higher up on a Google search.

I suggest that you do some research before you post negative comments about Insphere Insurance Solutions. If you choose to attack the company, you need to realize that you are also attacking ING Life Insurance, United Health Care and Golden Rule, John Hancock, Minnesota Life, Aetna and many more companies offering health, life, long term disability and long term care.

Are you going to say that all of these companies are "rip-offs"? If so, then you are an uneducated fool.

Get the facts or shut up.