Here’s the pitch

This is a telephone sales script used by insurance brokers of Simple Health Plans, with notes from two experts highlighting how carefully such scripts are devised to make a sale. It was submitted as part of testimony by Michael Fissel, a special investigator for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, as part of a Federal Trade Commission case against Simple Health. The company has since been shut down.

Annotation key
MF: Michael Fissel, special investigator supervisor, Pennsylvania Insurance Department
DD: Delphine Ahan, psycholinguist and associate professor of psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Select a highlighted section for their comments

Hello (FIRST NAME) my name is ___ and I am a licensed agent in your state of ___ . I'm going to be helping you with your application for an affordable health insurance quote. I am to inform you this call may be recorded for quality assurance. Are you looking for an individual or family plan?

Great! The name of my company is Simple Health, and we represent many of the MAJOR “A Rated” CARRIERS in the state of __ ... So I'm able to give all of your options, and find you the BEST PLAN out there for the BEST PRICE!

Are you currently insured?

(If YES) What insurance company are you currently with? What's making you shop around?

How much are you spending?

(If NO) Have you been without coverage for more than 63 days?

Pre-Qualification Questions

Please verify any pre-existing medical conditions.

2. How many medications are you taking? (Generic or Name Brand?)

3. How many times do you go visit the DR each year?

4. And I see that you put here your approx. height and weight is _____ correct?

5. Are you a smoker?

6. Have you ever been denied for health insurance?

7. (There Name) what aspects of your insurance are most important to you?

(BUILD RAPPORT WITH YOUR CLIENT!)

“OK, I know exactly what you're looking for; we want to find you a PPO, that way you can keep your own doctors and hospitals. I want to get you prescription and lab benefits for your preventative care and maintenance ... and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you want a plan that will have very low out of pocket expenses, right?”

joining ACUSA (Alliance for Consumers USA) you are able to access and join this plan. This will save you hundreds on your monthly premium, but obviously price is not the only important part of your insurance. Since you're healthy and don't need benefits like maternity and mental health, this plan makes sense because by excluding those benefits that you don't need you save a lot of money on the premium. What's the point of paying all that money every month if it's not going to cover the most important things, right??? Exactly!!! This plan covers you from day 1 on any new injuries or illnesses with NO waiting periods on accidents!

Now, this program utilizes the First Health Nationwide PPO network, which is one of the largest PPO networks in the country ... First Health is one of the largest networks in the nation! With more than 1,000,000 facility and healthcare providers under contract.

You will receive unlimited access to doctor consultations, diagnostic testing for blood & lab work,

prescription, medical, surgical, hospital assistance, dental, vision, and hearing which are all included into your monthly rate. You'll even have access to our CUSTOMER SERVICE CASE MANAGERS, who specialize in all your prescription needs.

The monthly premium is (amount per month) and for your first month, there is also a one-time fee of (enrollment$$). Also, your rate will never increase because you use the plan and your plan is month is month with no contracts. Lastly your plan is Nationwide! So if you move or travel you have benefits in every state.

This plan becomes effective as of midnight tonight. Again the first month will be: (newly revised rate), and every month after that it is only (monthly rate). Is that affordable for you TODAY before I go over all the benefits with you? (MAKE THEM ANSWER YES OR DON'T PITCH THEM!!!)

Let me start with your doctor visits. Now, you can go to any doctor in the country. Every time you go to the doctor within the First Health network you will receive the contracted rate off your bill.

On top of that, you will receive an additional $50 / $100 off of the remaining balance up to 3/5 times per person per year and $50 one time per year for wellness. For example, (First Name) let's say your doctor charges you $200 for that visit and you were to receive the contracted rate of $100 ... YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY THAT, again for that doctor visit you will receive an additional $50 / $100 off the remaining balance. So in this exact situation, you end up spending $50 / $0 on that $200 visit... do you understand?

Now as you know, MOST PLANS come with high deductibles that will have you paying THOUSANDS out of pocket BEFORE your insurance will pay for ANYTHING!! This plan does not work that way. This plan provides first dollar benefits for inpatient hospitalization. This is a FIRST DOLLAR COVERAGE PLAN, which means THIS PLAN covers you from the MOMENT you enter the hospital. So again, first the PPO network

Great news! I was able to get your prescriptions for you at($$$) and you can choose to fill them at a 3 month supply if you wish and receive these right to your home through pharmacychecker.

(with Dental Card)

Now, for your benefit I have included an additional separate dental plan along with your policy which is separate from your health insurance. This additional card gives you a dental and vision savings benefit which gives you more coverage than any other traditional insurance plan, and with this card, you also receive additional benefits which give you access to the most affordable mail order pharmacies in the nation such as www.pharmacychecker.com ... lt's very similar to Medco!

Now, I have your full name as (state there first and last name). Do you want your middle initial printed on your ID cards as well?

And your date of birth is (MM/DD/YYVV), is that correct?

And to the best of your knowledge, everything you have told me today is true?

OK GREAT! Now you can always change the method of payment later. For the first payment, will you be using a debit or credit card?

(REMAIN SILENT- 1st person to talk loses!!!)

COMPLETELY separate neither has ANYTHING to do with the other. The first month comes out to be $125/$155 more, simply because of the enrollment fees. $125 is for your health enrollment fee, and $30 is for your dental enrollment fee. I made these charges separate for you, so THIS WAY you can ALWAYS upgrade or downgrade either one without it EVER compromising the other, Okay??

REMEMBER TO VISIT THE MAIL-ORDER PHARMACY AT: WWW.PHARMACYCHECKER.COM TO CHECK THE PRICES ON ALL OF YOUR MEDICATIONS! (make sure they write it down!)

This plan does not meet the definition of minimal essential coverage therefore, you could be subject to a tax penalty depending on your personal situation, but like we discussed earlier a) those plans would have coverage you don't need like maternity and mental health coverage making the premiums much higher even with the penalty! Or b) you wouldn't be able to buy one of those plans now because it's not open enrollment or c) you aren't interested in those plans/those plans aren't affordable.

It's really just insurance terms, but let me go over them with you again just to MAKE SURE you understand everything correctly. For Insurance to be DEFINED as a Major Medical, it MUST HAVE a deductible and co-insurance.

The BEAUTY of your NEW PLAN is that it has NONE of those. It has, NO DEDUCTABLES, NO annual or lifetime caps, and No medical underwriting ... therefore it's called a Limited Medical INDEMNITY Insurance Plan, not a Major Med.

Remember, your plan has no deductible and is a 2-sided plan. FIRST, ALL of your medical bills will be repriced down to their lowest form, THEN, your ADDITIONAL INSURED CASH benefits will apply towards the remaining balance. Remember, the whole idea of this plan is to make your out of pocket expense AS LOW AS POSSIBLE, without you having to meet ANY deductibles first.

When you receive your NEW INSURANCE CARDS in your email, you will see all of your insured and noninsured benefits outlined in writing. You will also see all the additional noninsured benefits which come included with your plan! Now remember (First Name), ALL YOUR MEDICAL BILLS WILL BE REDUCED DOWN TO ITS LOWEST FORM before any of those cash benefits are applied!

On the verification they will also let you know the details of the INSURANCE PORTION of your plan, and then let you know the details of the discount part of your plan. Remember, when you get your packing in the email, you will see your ID cards. One card does it all and has your name and policy and member ID number on it and it works for all of your benefits included in the plan! No separate card to carry around for each product. That is the one that you need to put in your wallet right away.

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