TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 31, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIIQ), a leading developer, distributor, and virtual administrator of affordable health plans, shared comments on today’s announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) related to the definition of short-term, limited-duration insurance. Beginning January 1, 2017, HHS has announced changes that limit short-term, limited-duration insurance to be effective no more than three months and require notification of non-compliance with the minimum essential coverage standards set forth in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). HHS has decided to move forward with changes despite receiving a significant amount of opposing stakeholder feedback during the comment period. Opponents expressed concern about the harmful effects these changes will have on vulnerable consumer populations.
Health Insurance Innovations (HII) is a healthcare technology company that develops and distributes insurance products in partnership with best-in-class insurance carriers. HII offers a suite of products that address three critical consumer needs: the need to attain coverage outside the open enrollment period, the need for affordable coverage with a broad network, and the need to offset high out-of-pocket expenses associated with ACA plans.
HII’s path forward will continue to focus on affordable health insurance products designed to meet consumer needs; beyond continuing distribution of STM policies in accordance with HHS rules, it is expected that the hospital indemnity product will be a key area of emphasis that the Company believes could ultimately represent an even larger opportunity than the short-term market. “As we look to 2017, we plan to offer new products, grow our already strong distribution channels, and continue our direct-to-consumer emphasis while simultaneously increasing operating leverage.” said Patrick McNamee, HII CEO. McNamee continued by saying “We are confident that HII will continue to develop new and innovative products that will meet ever-changing consumer needs. We look forward to working with state and federal insurance regulators to ensure consumers continue to have access health insurance products that meet their personal and financial needs.”
About Health Insurance Innovations, Inc.
HII is a market leader in developing innovative health insurance products that are affordable and meet the needs of health insurance plan shoppers. HII develops insurance products through partnerships with best-in-class insurance companies and markets them via its broad distribution network of licensed insurance agents across the nation, its call center network and its unique online capability. Additional information about HII can be found at HiiQuote.com. HII's Consumer Division includes AgileHealthInsurance.com, a website for researching, comparing and purchasing short-term health insurance products online and HealthPocket.com, a free website that compares and ranks all health insurance plans, and uses objective data to publish unbiased health insurance market analyses and other consumer advocacy research.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical fact, and may include statements relating to goals, plans and projections regarding new markets, products, services, growth strategies, anticipated trends in our business and anticipated changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws. Forward-looking statements are based on HII's current assumptions, expectations and beliefs are generally identifiable by use of words "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," or similar expressions and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our ability to maintain relationships and develop new relationships with health insurance carriers and distributors, our ability to retain our members, the demand for our products, the amount of commissions paid to us or changes in health insurance plan pricing practices, our ability to integrate our acquisitions (including our July 2014 acquisition of HealthPocket, Inc.), competition, changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws, and HII's ability to adapt to them, the ability to maintain and enhance our name recognition, difficulties arising from acquisitions or other strategic transactions, and our ability to build the necessary infrastructure and processes to maintain effective controls over financial reporting. These and other risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements are discussed in HII's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be filed by HII from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. You should not rely on any forward-looking statement as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.