Alternative HEALTH Benefits

Health Benefit Coverage for Alternative HealthCare
*Massage Therapists *Acupuncture *Chiropractors *Prescription Coverage *Regular Doctors Visits *Vitiamins *Wellness Programs/Fitness

NO Pre-Qualifing, No riders
4 National Group Health Care Plans to Choose From
Coverage Plan for Medicare

HEALTH BENEFITS INCLUDE:
*Major Medical
*Doctors
*Dentists
*Chiropractors
*Vision, Hearing, Prescriptions

WELLNESS BENEFITS INCLUDE:
*Nutritional Supplements
*Exercise Programs
*Massage/Acupuncture
*NuturoPathic Care
*Homeopathic Care

EVERYONE IS ACCEPTED
Please feel free to contact me below for more

information:

REFERRALS ONE
866-353-3755
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Could WIN be a Solution for HealthCare?

Insurance or scam? W.I.N. told to cease operations, but still trying to sell Utah on its plan

By Lisa Rosetta

The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 07/29/2008 06:38:17 AM MDT

Michael Bianchi thinks he has the solution to the nation's health care crisis: Keep people out of the doctor's office by paying out benefits that encourage healthy lifestyles.

Want nutritional supplements? No problem. Bianchi's company, the W.I.N. Association, will pick up the tab. Need a massage, acupuncture or a gym membership? That's covered, too. Even air and water purification products are considered a benefit.

But "they have to be good ones," Bianchi told the Utah Legislature's Administrative Rules Committee on Monday, "because we really want them to be effective."

Sound too good to be true? The Utah Insurance Department thinks it may be. In March, the state issued W.I.N. a cease-and-desist order, forcing it to halt business operations here. The Texas-based firm, it says, isn't licensed to market insurance in Utah or any other state for that matter.

W.I.N. doesn't have to be, Bianchi asserts.

The association acts like an insurance company. Its members - there are about two dozen in Utah - pay monthly premiums and in return are covered for major medical, dental and vision services, as well as prescription drugs and "wellness" benefits.

No one is denied coverage based on age or pre-existing medical conditions. W.I.N., a member of the Beech Street Corporation - a national preferred provider network - gives members access

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to more than 400,000 doctors. And it costs 20 to 50 percent less than traditional insurance.

But here's the key difference: Because every person who enrolls in W.I.N. must sign an employment agreement, the company can call itself a self-funded Association Health Plan (AHP) - making it exempt from state and federal laws that regulate health benefit plans, Bianchi said.

Members' job is to pitch the plan; every new client they sign up earns them a commission.

"This seems more like a Ponzi scheme than an insurance product," said Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City. "They don't have to be licensed by the state to sell the product."

Pushed by the Bush administration to help reduce the ranks of the uninsured, AHPs allow people to band together and negotiate lower premiums than are available in the individual market. Consumer advocates are wary of them, however, because AHPs are not group insurance plans bound by the same standards.

"If you try to put us in the same box as traditional insurance, it doesn't work," said Bianchi, who founded W.I.N. based on the biblical principles of "caring and sharing" after his wife was denied health insurance in the individual market. "But we have a plan that has been in place since 2005 that's helped a lot of people - and can help a lot more people."

About 89 percent of uninsured people can't buy a health plan in the individual market, either because they can't afford it or they are denied coverage, he said. W.I.N. offers plans that cost between $150 and $325 per month.

W.I.N. can keep its premiums low and cover a full array of benefits, he said, because the company offers its members benefits on a graduated scale. That means a person's benefits grow with each year they are enrolled.

This year the U.S. Department of Labor has twice visited Bianchi's Pasadena, Texas, offices and conducted audits, he said. While the company has received a verbal approval to operate as an AHP that is exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), it has not yet received a written confirmation.

"We're looking for that and are petitioning them to get that," Bianchi said.

If W.I.N. is successful in getting its ERISA exemption in writing, it will be allowed to resume its operations in the Beehive State, said Utah Department of Insurance Assistant Commissioner John Braun.

Until then, however, "we have to protect the citizens of the state of Utah," he said.

lrosetta@sltrib.com