• (888) 505-7724
  • updates@sbmamec.com
  • Employer Portal
  • Employee Portal
SBMA Benefits
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • Services
  • Benefit Plans
  • Employees
  • Employers
  • Resources
    • Compliance Updates
    • No Surprises Act Resource Page
    • COVID-19 Vaccine & Testing Updates
    • SmithRx Formulary
    • COBRA
    • At-Home COVID-19 Tests
  • News & Insights
  • Contact SBMA
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

How to Use Your Health Insurance To Meet Your Health Goals

New Year’s resolutions are known to fall by the wayside just as quickly as they begin. Old habits die hard. The exercise routines, juice cleanse, and promises of a healthier fresh start can easily be put on the backburner. In a recent study, researchers found that in 2022:

  • 26% of people planned to lose weight
  • 24% of people wanted to exercise more
  • 21% of people want to eat healthier 

No matter where you are on your health journey – you can still use your health insurance to meet your health goals. But how? It’s simpler than you’d think. Let’s dive in. 

MEC Coverage 

Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) plans meet the minimum requirements for an insurance plan to be considered compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All applicable large employers (ALEs) with 50 or more full-time employees must offer 95% of their full-time employees ACA-compliant benefits. If they don’t provide this coverage, ALEs are liable for fines and penalties by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Read more here on why offering MEC benefits is more affordable than not.  

The three tiers of MEC options available are: 

  1. Standard MEC plans are ACA compliant and include coverage for wellness, preventative services, prescription discounts, and telehealth services. 
  2. Enhanced MEC plans take coverage one step further than standard plans and are aimed at attracting and retaining top talent by also including primary and urgent care visits with low copays, and discounted specialist and laboratory services. 
  3. The highest-level MEC plans include the enhanced MEC plan benefits along with added coverage such as prescription coverage and low copays. 


How To Use Health Insurance to Meet Health Goals

Your health insurance can lead you toward the right steps to keep yourself healthy. Preventative care can help keep you and your healthcare team ahead of potential chronic illnesses. Catching diagnoses such as high blood pressure, or other similar conditions early can help avoid them becoming more serious down the road.

By using your health insurance resources, you are actively using the tools readily available to you to meet your health goals. Let’s unpack how a basic MEC plan can help you achieve your health goals. 

Annual Physical 

One of the best ways you can support your health goals is by visiting your primary care provider annually. This appointment helps you consistently monitor your physical health year over year. During a physical, your healthcare provider will examine you to check for any underlying conditions you may not be aware of before they become more serious or potentially deadly. 

In a poll taken by Kaiser Health, 92% of Americans do believe in the importance of an annual physical, but only about 62% of Americans actually take advantage of their annual physical. 

If your healthcare provider identifies an issue during your visit, they can then help you identify the best course of action for treatment or refer you to a specialist. 

Vaccinations 

Routine vaccines are another great way to help your body stay healthy and strong against viruses and bacteria that cause illness. 

Vaccines help develop the body’s immunity and create stronger defenses to fight against disease. According to the CDC, “Every year thousands of adults in the U.S. become seriously ill and are hospitalized because of diseases that vaccines can help prevent.” 

Receiving your routine preventative and wellness vaccinations can:

  1. Lower your chance of getting certain diseases, like how the Hepatitis B vaccine lowers your risk of liver cancer 
  2. Lowers your odds of spreading disease to others 

Click here to see the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule. 

Telehealth 

Virtual visits are a great way to speak with a healthcare professional to continue making the healthiest decisions for yourself. Seeking expert advice can help you know how to best care for yourself, and know when it is a good idea to see a physician in person. 

Having a telehealth visit before an in-person exam can help the healthcare provider prepare for your visit, and understand what you may need in case you do need to go into the office. It also reduces the time you take to physically go to the appointment, wait in the waiting room, and return home. 

Your health journey isn’t yours alone. Use resources like telehealth visits to maximize physician resources. 

For more information on how to make the most out of your telehealth visit, read our article here. 

Prescription Discounts  

Medication can be expensive. Let your health insurance support the cost of necessary medications that keep your body healthy and functioning properly. Using your insurance prescription discount can help save hundreds, if not more, dollars on medications that some may not be able to live without.

Certain providers may be able to offer generic options for brand-name drugs to save you money while still getting you the medications you need.

Screenings/ Bloodwork 

Take advantage of the screenings and bloodwork panels included in your preventative care and wellness insurance plans. These screenings and bloodwork exams were created for a reason– to flag any potential illness before it becomes an issue. 

Learn more about Affordable Benefits, talk with one of our team members!

use your health insurance, like annual physicals and vaccinations to meet your health goals

The Bottom Line

Catching a chronic illness or disease before it becomes more difficult to manage is one of the best outcomes of preventative care. 

Use to resources that your health insurance offers to keep yourself healthy. Taking advantage of these preventative care services are small manageable opportunities for you to implement your New Year’s health resolution throughout the year.  

Looking for more healthy habit tips? Read our article here to learn how taking 11 minutes to walk a day can lead you to live a longer life. 

Search

Categories

LATEST NEWS IN ACA COMPLIANCE

  • Full-Time vs Part-Time Benefits:Full-Time vs Part-Time Benefits: Why It MattersJanuary 1, 2023 - 7:00 am
  • Affordable care act ACA or Obamacare and stethoscope.Received an ACA Penalty from the IRS? Here’s What to DoDecember 25, 2022 - 12:25 pm
  • affordable care act requirementsACA is Here to StayNovember 20, 2022 - 8:00 am

Archive

CONNECT WITH US

USEFUL LINKS

EMPLOYER PORTAL
EMPLOYEE PORTAL
PRIVACY POLICY 
THE BLOG

CONTACT SBMA

888-505-7724
UPDATES@SBMAMEC.COM

HOURS

Mon – Fri: 7:00am—5:00pm (PST)
Sat: CLOSED
Sun: CLOSED

FOLLOW US

© SBMA 2022 – all rights reserved

site designed by digitalstoryteller.io

© SBMA 2021 – all rights reserved
site designed by digitalstoryteller.io

What Does PHI Stand For?business owners need to stay updated on aca updates in 2022What Business Owners Should Know About ACA Benefits in 2022 Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Accept settings