Founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY (Guardian) is the fourth largest mutual life insurance company in the United States. As of December 31, 2004, Guardian and its subsidiaries had $39.5 billion in assets. With more than 5,000 employees and 2,900 financial representatives, as well as over 80 agencies nationwide, Guardian and its subsidiaries protect individuals, businesses and their employees with life, disability, health and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), financial products and trust services.
Through an Alliance with Destiny Health Plan, Guardian offers affordable consumer-driven health plans to employer groups in selected markets. The unique model provides comprehensive coverage for uncontrollable costs, like hospitalizations and medications for chronic diseases, but also creates consumer-controlled savings accounts for discretionary and less costly services, with unspent money rolling over year to year. Click here for information on the Destiny Health Plan (not available in all states).
Financial Ratings
Financial Strength: Rating: A- (Excellent)
Affiliation Code: g (Group)
Financial Size Category: VIII ($100 million to $250 million)
Outlook: Stable
Action: Affirmed
Effective Date: June 21, 2005
Plan Features
John Alden Small Employer Group Health Insurance Plans include many of the most popular options in health care coverage today. The flexibility of these plans enables small employers to achieve a balance between the needs of employees and the bottom line.
Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Plans
PPO plans pay a higher benefit when a network provider or facility is used. Selecting a network provider or facility when medical care is needed will ensure benefits are paid at the maximum benefit level. Otherwise benefits are paid at the non-network level. PPO plans may also include an optional physician office copay, and for some plans, copays for other designated network services. Copays apply to services from network providers.
Advantage Plans
For economy-minded employers aiming to balance broad benefits and affordable premiums, John Alden offers Advantage Plans. These plans are designed to include the popular features that employees demand. Advantage Plans can help build a valuable benefit package without sacrificing the budget.
Tiered Network and Network Choice Point of Service (POS) Plans
Tiered Network and Network Choice POS Plans offer varied payment levels for network and non-network services. To receive the highest level of network benefits, employees must use a Select Network of providers. If care is received from non-network providers, benefits are paid at the non-network level.
EleMed PDF GD-2903 and PDF GD-2902
EleMed offers the protection employees need at a cost they can afford. Now employees can have all the elements of good insurance coverage like a visit to the doctor and help paying for prescriptions.
Value Plans
Value Plans are John Alden's most affordable plans. Value plans are inpatient hospital plans, with no benefits paid without hospital admission. Value Plans offer the flexibility to choose from various deductibles, coinsurance levels, out-of-pocket limits and other plan benefit options. Employees are free to use any hospital they wish.
Health Options (plans only available in Illinois , Michigan , Virginia , and Oklahoma)
Combining the convenience of prepackaged coverage with the flexibility of custom benefits, John Alden Health Options.Includes a number of different medical insurance plans and a versatile, yet uncomplicated tier design.
Employee Choice
Since a single health plan structure often will not satisfy the needs of all employees, John Alden Health plans provide small employers with the flexibility to offer multiple plan designs and networks. The Employee Choice Option, which is available to group clients with 3 or more employees includes:
Plan Choice - employers can offer up to 3 different plan designs and let each employee select the one that best suits his or her needs.
Network Choice - employers can offer a choice of networks in areas where more than one is available.
Multilocation Coverage - coverage can be offered to businesses with more than one location, even if there are offices across state lines.
Indemnity Plan - Classic Plan
John Alden Classic Plans offer traditional indemnity medical coverage. These plans give employees the freedom to receive care from any doctor and hospital. Classic plans also offer the choice of deductibles, coinsurance levels and out-of-pocket limits.
Medco Health
Medco Health administers prescription drug benefits for over 65 million Americans and has a network of more than 57,000 participating pharmacies.
Underwriting & Renewals
In our opinion you could write the same review for John Alden and I do for Humana with only a few differences. Alden was a superstar carrier of the early 90's for many small businesses. Any agent representing Alden had an Ace in their pocket with John Alden. Their plans were intelligently deigned with some limits, that are today standard, that helped keep the cost of the product lower than it's competition.
Like many other big named carriers, Alden had real problem with HIPAA in 1995. These rules and regulations limited what insurers could charge their riskiest clients. In the mid 90's, Alden plans had intolerable price increases and renewals.(Definition of intolerable = most people getting increases at twice the average trend with some getting increases of 3-5 times trend) When a carrier has senseless price increases, those that can move, do, leaving a less healthy group of insureds, which leads to even more price increases. In the Mid 1980's , Jane Bryant Quinn of Newsweek, wrote an industry defining article on the "insurance death spiral". Prior to 1996, neither group nor individuals had access to guarantee to issue plans. There were no laws regarding preexisting condition limitations or pricing. When you were in an insurance spiral, your rates skyrocketed and you had no other option but to be uninsured. Alden was one of the last major carriers to suffer this spiral. The late 80's and early 90's were a period of legislative action that acted to protect the public from the death spiral.
I am going to step away from John Alden commentary to point out that we believe that the new movements towards "association based group health plans", which President Bush supports is a wish for all the problems that companies like John Alden, and their insureds, lived through. You cannot offer lower rates by creating magical groups of healthy people without having an offset that severely punishes those with claims. Would you knowingly choose to have a 25% discount on your health plan until you have a medical condition. When that condition arises, you will pay 5,10,or 20 times as much in order to maintain insurance? Approval of association based health plans will result in few and fewer insurers offering coverage and most state legislatures will back away from protective rules.
With Alden in dire straights, the company was sold to Assurant / Fortis/ Time Insurance in 1998. Fortis has had it's own issues, not to mention a couple of ownership changes itself. With Assurant's backing, John Alden got it self back together a year or two later. It looked like that John Alden would step in in 2000 or 2001 as a great small group option, but Fortis management didn't allow that opportunity to bloom. New mega-carriers like Unicare, in key states like Indiana, Illinois, and Texas took a bite out of the market and Fortis instituted its unique approach to Alden. The Fortis mantra is to offer attractive rates at first then constantly tinker with the plan to lower costs and systematically raise rates so that very few existing groups get the same rates offered to new businesses.
If you want to buy an insurance product that you can keep for a few years, if you like it, and have some sense that you will have a good value 3-4 years from now, John Alden is not the carrier for you. If you don't mind changing carriers every year or two, Alden is worth a look.
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