It’s with great joy that the AVMA Trust is celebrating the first anniversary of the Association Health Plan (AHP) for AVMA members.
The mission of the AVMA Trust is to protect veterinarians through it all with veterinarian-inspired coverage. That’s why a group health medical plan is a critical member benefit for practice owners.
We’d like to share and reflect on a few of the first year successes — and what’s on the horizon:
An Expanded Footprint
The AHP now offers six fully insured major medical plans to practices through BlueCross Blue Shield to 11 states with two states awaiting final approval.
The federal courts have yet to rule on a challenge to the Executive Order that made Association Health Plans easier to operate. The original challenge led the AVMA Trust to change its course in 2019. We expect states to solidify their opinion on association plans soon after the court rulings are complete.
A significant portion of the population still resides in states where the state regulatory environment doesn’t allow an association health plan like ours to operate without approval from the State Department of Insurance. 13 states and the District of Columbia are suing the federal government regarding association plans.
A Better-Covered Population
The current rules and regulations only allow coverage for group employers. Unfortunately, they do not allow us to cover individuals, as the AVMA Trust once did. But, for the first time, we are covering employees and dependents! Practices as small as two employees and as large as 50 employees are now covered by the AHP.
We are waiting on the federal courts to decide pending litigation which could present a way forward to cover more members.
A Collective Approach to Benefits
By banding together, we’ve leveraged our collective size to reduce pricing, making us competitive with carriers offering lesser plans with smaller networks than our national high performance BCBS PPO network!
We’ve also heard loud and clear from you: You need an affordable and lasting program for you and your employees. Our commitment to the program is evidenced by our securing of a rate freeze to all premiums until the end of 2021! In a world shocked by COVID-19 and insurance markets consistently seeing 8-10% increases or more each year, we are committing to holding rates stable until the end of 2021—at a minimum.
Only the AVMA Trust AHP can boast about no rate increases from the inception of the program on 9/1/2019 until 12/31/2021!
The AVMA Trust is committed to protecting you, your practice and your loved ones. It is our privilege to serve and care for you and all those who you care for.