When a client asks you about health insurance
Six kinds of professional send people to us, and the moment is nearly always the same: a client asks a question about health coverage that sits just outside what you do.
What follows is what actually happens when you hand it over, written out by profession. The short version does not change — one introduction, and the rest does not come back to you.
Property and casualty agents
You write their auto, their home, their commercial package. Then they ask about health, and it is the one question your appointments do not answer.
One introduction is the whole job. Nothing after it returns to you — no forms, no eligibility questions, no calls in the middle of open enrollment.
We write health, Medicare, small-group, life, dental, disability and hospital indemnity across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. We do not write auto, home or commercial. Not now and not later. Your book is not what we are here for.
Accountants, bookkeepers and payroll firms
You see the income before anyone else does.
A marketplace plan is priced on the income a household expects for the whole year. So the client who picks up a second contract in March is the one who owes money back at filing — and the same client could have adjusted the plan in March instead, if anyone had told them.
That is the hand-off, and it is one introduction.
For a business client the question is usually whether they have to offer coverage at all. Under 50 full-time employees, generally not. What makes it worth looking at anyway is keeping the people they already have.
Financial advisors and wealth managers
Two of your clients have the same problem at different ages.
The one retiring at 61 has four years to cover before Medicare starts, and no employer plan to do it with. The one turning 65 has a short enrollment period and a decision that is harder to change later than it looks.
Neither is a question your license answers, and both land at the worst moment in a retirement plan.
Here is the part that is specific to you: a marketplace plan is priced on the income a household expects — and in a drawdown year, that number is one you are already choosing. The withdrawal plan and the health premium are the same conversation. Most advisors find that out after the fact.
Navigators, certified counselors and health-system staff
You can send someone to us.
Nothing changes hands, in either direction. Federal rule is clear that a certified application counselor or a navigator may not accept anything of value connected to a broker’s commission, and we do not offer it.
What that leaves is the part you are not certified to do. Medicare. Coverage bought outside the marketplace. A small employer’s group plan. Life, dental, disability. The person sitting in front of you who does not qualify for the thing you are there to enroll them in.
Se habla español. Give them the number and we take it from there.
Divorce and elder law attorneys
A divorce ends a spouse’s coverage, and it opens a 60-day period to replace it. That period closes quietly, and the client who misses it waits until January.
Elder law meets the other end of the same subject: a client turning 65, a family working out what Medicare does and does not pay for, long-term care arriving sooner than anyone planned.
Nothing changes hands here either. Lawyers have their own rules about referral fees, and a client’s coverage is the last place to put a professional obligation.
Doctors’ offices and medical practices
In-network is not the same as getting paid.
Plans sold on the federal marketplace denied 19% of in-network claims in 2024, and the rate ran from 3% to 36% depending on the insurer (KFF). That is close to one claim in five where the practice was already in the network — and a twelvefold spread between carriers.
Which plan the patient picks is the single biggest lever on whether that visit gets paid, and it is the one decision nobody at your front desk has any say in.
It matters at the other end too. A plan that does not pay a practice is a plan the practice stops accepting, and then the patient loses the doctor. Getting the practice paid and protecting the patient’s access are the same objective, not competing ones.
We do not name carriers. Which ones pay a given practice cleanly is a question we ask, never one we publish.
Common questions from referral partners
Who should I refer my group health clients to?
A licensed broker who writes small-group health in that client’s state. We write small-group, marketplace, Medicare, life, dental, disability and hospital indemnity across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. One introduction is the whole job — no forms, no eligibility questions, and nothing comes back to you in the middle of open enrollment. Under 50 full-time employees there is generally no requirement to offer coverage at all, so the first conversation is usually about whether it is worth doing anyway to keep the people they already have.
Do you write property and casualty?
No. We do not write auto, home or commercial, now or later. We write health, Medicare, small-group, life, dental, disability and hospital indemnity only. For a property and casualty agent that is the point: there is no competitive overlap, so an introduction costs you nothing and your book stays yours.
Can a navigator refer someone to a broker?
Yes. A navigator or a certified application counselor may send someone to a licensed broker. What federal rule bars is accepting anything of value connected to a broker’s commission — so nothing changes hands, in either direction, and we do not offer it. That leaves the work a navigator is not certified to do: Medicare, coverage bought outside the marketplace, a small employer’s group plan, and life, dental or disability.
One introduction, and we take it from there.
Tell us what your client is dealing with. You keep the relationship and the account, and nothing comes back to you. Se habla español.