Monday, June 29, 2009

Picking the Best Insurance Lead Services

Insurance underwriters used to spend a strong portion of their work day cold calling prospects who, a number of times, did not want to be got hold of. Currently, insurance marketing for insurance brokers includesgetting prequalified leads from leadgen companies. These insurance lead generation sites offer an easy alternative to cold calling lists and other marketing methods.

Insurance leadgen companies operate by bringing together prospects interested in an insurance policy with insurance underwriters who are interested in selling them a policy. The websites collect information from each user utilizing an online form, warehouse the information and then sell the sales lead to an agent.

There are many distinct insurance sales lead websites, each claiming to have the best insurance leads. How do you figure out which lead company to select? You should look for a sales lead company that can consistently supply leads with prices that can bring a great return on investment (ROI), a fair billing system and return rules, a way to filter your prospects and that the prospects are delivered in real time.

To find a great lead company, you should keep an eye out for certain traits. The actual cost of the sales lead is important, but more important is the profit you end up with from the leads. One of the greatest components to consider is filtering options. A lead company with great filtering options helps supply you with the users that fit your business. The next thing to examine at is fees. A $12 lead that leads to a sale is worth a lot more than a $5 lead that doesn’t get an insurance policy. At times you will accept a sales lead you can’t reach. If the lead company doesn’t allow you to return this kind of trash lead, then you should consider signin up with another company. Likewise, virtually all insurance lead websites have a low amount required to prefund your lead account. If they try to get you to spend a significant amount of money up front, you might be taking too big of a risk.

When buying sales leads, you shouldn’t select only one lead provider. You should test out 3-4 insurance lead sites. You might find out that some provide superior life insurance sales propsects but don’t get you great automobile insurance leads. Employing different leadgen websites will allow you to also keep your business protected in case one or more of the sales lead source’s quality declines.

Online Insurance Lead Buying Guide for Agents

In times past, a significant percentage of an agent’s work day was spent on the phone, calling up potential prospects. Currently, insurance marketing for agents includesbuying filtered leads from sales lead websites. These sites offer an quick and efficient way of obtaining new clients.

Insurance sales lead companies work by matching together consumers interested in insurance with insurance brokers who want to sell them a policy. The sites collect personal information from each consumer using a website form, warehouse the information and then sell the insurance lead to one or more insurance agents.

There are several unique insurance sales lead companies, all claiming to have the best leads. How are you supposed to figure out which lead company to go with? You should look for a site that can consistently offer quality prospects with prices that can bring a high ROI, a fair billing system and return policy, a system to filter your leads and that the insurance leads are delivered in real time.

The price of each sales lead is one way to review a lead company. Even so, you must realize that pricier leads may supply more new clients than less expensive leads. It seems that most of the time, you get what you pay for.

Most sales lead websites will either require you to either make a small initial payment or will charge you at the end of each month, but you should be wary of insurance lead generation websites that try to have you put a very large amount of money up front.

Fake sales leads are unavoidable. Use a lead service with a good return policy and you shouldn’t have problems.

Being able to only be sent the kind of user you want is critical. Most lead generation sites offer some form of filtering ability so that you only are sent and are charged for the person that is best for your business.

When purchasing insurance leads, you shouldn’t select only one lead provider. You should test several insurance sales lead sites. You might conclude that a few provide superior life insurance leads but don’t offer very good car insurance leads. Utilizing multiple leadgen websites will permit you to also keep your business protected in case one of the lead service’s quality sinks.

Finding the Best Insurance Lead Sites

Insurance brokers used to pass a healthy portion of their day cold calling people who, a number of times, did not wish to be got hold of. Now, insurance marketing plans for insurance agents includesgetting prefiltered leads from lead generation websites. These businesses supply an simple and quick way of getting new customers.

Insurance sales lead sites provide a very good product for agents searching for more customers. These companies first accumulate information from prospects interested in switching insurance providers through their own sites. Then, they use the information given to pair each insurance lead with localized insurance agents.

There are lots of distinct insurance leadgen sites, each claiming to have the best leads. How are you supposed to figure out which one to choose? There are specific characteristics that good leadgen sites have that can cause them stand out from the others including filters, pricing, refund policy and billing.

Pricing is big. A cheap insurance lead may not provide the best customers but a more expensive lead might be too costly to realize a net profit

Some insurance lead websites try to make you make a very large deposit before sending you insurance leads. With so many leadgen websites allowing you to try their service with a small upfront deposit or some that will invoice you after you receive leads, there is no reason to deposit too much up front.

Regardless of the lead service you use, you’ll eventually be sent a lead that is unreachable or is a duplicate. A worthwhile insurance lead company will also have a great refund return policy for these types of insurance leads.

Filters help repel poor quality sales leads. An insurance sales lead company should give you filtering options including geotargeting and lead filtering. Mostly, you will have to pay extra for filtered leads, as you will get better quality prospects, but the extra price is many times worth the additional fee.

In summary, when evaluating an insurance lead service, you should shop around and start with 2-3 insurance lead sites. You may end up finding that some offer quality life insurance sales leads but don’t provide good enough auto insurance leads. If you generate insurance leads from multiple lead companies, it will give you an edge against other companies and will keep the quality of your sales leads in check.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Life or Death Medical Errors: The Most Common Medical Malpractice Injuries

In the mid 70s, The California Hospital and Medical Associations commissioned a study on medical malpractice insurance. The study revealed shocking results - that one out of every twenty patients who sought treatment in hospitals were injured because of medical malpractice, and one out of every ten patients died as a result.

In the 80s, a similar study conducted in over fifty hospitals in New York by a team from Harvard revealed that of the 31,000 hospital records reviewed, nearly 8,000 - one in four patients - showed evidence of possible medical injury.

The crisis is not over. According to the Institute of Medicine, close to 100,000 people die each year from medical malpractice errors. The most common medical malpractice injuries are:

Birth Injuries

Complications in childbirth can cause injury or death to the baby, the mother, or both, especially when the attending doctor fails to deliver adequate care before or during the delivery. The inadequate care may be through failure to administer blood tests to detect abnormalities, failure to recognize the signs of fetal distress, failure to provide proper prenatal care, failure to recognize the signs of respiratory distress, failure to perform a Caesarian section where it was necessary, hastening the delivery process resulting in breech delivery and broken bones, or failure to properly care for a premature baby. The doctor's negligence could result in the following:

# Cerebral palsy - permanent brain damage to the baby's motor control centers in the brain, which is characterized by motor dysfunction, e.g. spasms and lack of muscular coordination
# Erb's palsy or brachial palsy - injury to the nerves surrounding the baby's shoulder when it is unable to come out of the birth canal (shoulder dytocia), causing arm paralysis
# Facial paralysis - injury to the baby's facial nerve, usually caused by forcep delivery
# Clavicle fracture - when the baby's clavicle or collarbone breaks; usually happens in breech births

Surgical Injuries

Many medical malpractice injuries happen in the operating room, usually because of poor pre-operative planning and care. This sometimes leads to irreparable or fatal consequences. Mistakes such as the improper or untimely administration of anesthesia, improper surgical technique, accidentally puncturing or cutting internal organs, operating on the wrong body part or the wrong patient, leaving surgical instruments or materials inside the body, and failing to diagnose and treat post-operative infections can result in the following:

# Asphyxia - suffocation or the loss of oxygen to body parts, caused by anesthesia errors
# Blindness
# Spinal cord injuries
# Paralysis
# Torn or punctured organs
# Hypoxic and anoxic brain injuries - partial (hypoxic) or total (anoxic) lack of oxygen in the brain
# Amputation
# Cardiovascular problems
# Coma

Infections, Septicemia and Bleeding

Sterile conditions are critical during surgeries in order to prevent infection. Failure to maintain a sterile environment in surgeries has proven to cause infections and/or bleeding, sometimes with fatal results. Infections are also known to be caused during blood transfusions, particularly when the wrong blood type is given in emergency situations. Hospitals are required by law to have infection protocols, and to monitor surgery patients to avoid infections and excessive bleeding.

Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose

There are cases when a person's life depends on what the doctor does or does not do. It is the doctor's responsibility to find out if there is something wrong with the patient, and what that is. To this end, the doctor must order medical tests and closely review the test results to help determine the patient's illness. Wrong diagnosis or the failure to diagnose an illness can sometimes lead to serious diseases, chronic pain, or even death. Some of the most common undiagnosed illnesses are:

# Cancer - breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer
# Brain tumors
# Ischemia - the deprivation of oxygen to parts of the body
# Pneumonia
# Mesothelioma - a type of cancer affecting the abdomen, liver or heart, caused by exposure to asbestos dust
# Asbestosis - lung disease caused by the inhalation of asbestos particles

The doctor's negligence in examining and ordering tests to make a correct judgment on illnesses can also lead to misdiagnosis of:

# Appendicitis
# Lyme disease
# Heart disease and other cardiac problems
# Cervical cancer
# Malignant melanomas and skin cancer

Medication Errors

Medication errors account for a substantial number of medical malpractice lawsuits. Errors in the form of incorrect dosages, prescription of the wrong medicine, incorrect combinations of medications, and prescription of medicine that the patient is allergic to can, instead of healing the patient, cause severe allergic reactions and sometimes death. Medication errors can also occur in pharmacies when the pharmacists give the patient the wrong medicine.

Affordable Family Medical Insurance Starts with Healthy Living

Face it; health care is expensive - no matter how you slice it. Affordable family medical insurance is a need for so many people. One of the best ways you can keep your medical insurance rates lower is to stay as healthy as you possibly can. BestHealthcareRates.com offers these tips for maintaining your family's health, which will help you find and keep affordable medical insurance.

1. Don't smoke. Smoking is undoubtedly the number one health hazard today. Smokers get sick much more often than non-smokers do and are more likely to suffer from ongoing chronic illness and disease than non-smokers are. Smoking affects your entire body, including your heart, your circulation, your healing ability and time and a host of other health hazards. If you choose to do only one thing to improve your health, stop smoking today. There are a number of different smoking cessation tools and aids to help you quit - and you can get many of them free through various programs, most of which are sponsored by medical insurance companies. Do a web search for smoking cessation and find a program to help you quit smoking today. You'll also find more affordable health coverage and life insurance if you're a non-smoker with lower premiums and discounts available from many insurance companies.

2. Eat Right. You've heard it repeatedly, but watching your diet is one of the easiest ways to get healthier, which leads to more affordable health coverage. Include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables - and plenty of variety. Not only will your plate look more attractive and appetizing with dark greens, deep oranges, reds, purples and yellows, you'll also be getting the widest variety of vitamins and antioxidants by switching things up. Cut the fat and you'll cut the cholesterol. Include lean meats, lots of fish and poultry and adding alternative proteins like legumes, soy and nuts. Drink your milk and add plenty of water to your diet. Limit your portions. Keep your blood sugar steady by eating five small meals throughout the day rather than three large ones. Allow yourself the occasional indulgence to avoid feeling deprived.

3. Move it or lose it - your health that is. As our lives get busier, we spend more time jumping in the car and rushing off to the next important thing we need to do. One of the best things you can do for your health and to maintain affordable health coverage costs is to incorporate more exercise into your daily routine. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park two blocks away and walk to your destination. Put on some music and dance. Ride bikes with your kids. Push a lawnmower instead of using the rider. Get out in the garden. Take a walk after supper. Bring a bag lunch of low-cal foods and use the rest of your lunch hour to take a stroll. There are many ways to add exercise into your daily routine, even if you don't have time to go to the gym. Start by adding one new habit each week until you've built in an additional 30 minutes of movement into your daily routine.