To help provide relief for California policyholders residing in Ventura and San Diego Counties affected by the winter storms, Aflac will provide a premium grace period starting Jan. 22, 2024, and ending Mar. 25, 2024. This grace period also provides an extension of filing deadlines for claims and leniency for any other action required under the policy. Aflac will provide a replacement copy of the policy upon request by the policyholder
To help provide relief for California policyholders residing in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties affected by the winter storms, Aflac will provide a premium grace period starting Feb. 3, 2024, and ending Apr. 4, 2024. This grace period also provides an extension of filing deadlines for claims and leniency for any other action required under the policy. Aflac will provide a replacement copy of the policy upon request by the policyholder.
To help provide relief for California policyholders residing in Alameda, Butte, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Monterey, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and Sutter Counties affected by the winter storms, Aflac will provide a premium grace period starting Feb. 3, 2024, and ending May 21, 2024. This grace period also provides an extension of filing deadlines for claims and leniency for any other action required under the policy. Aflac will provide a replacement copy of the policy upon request by the policyholder.
On Feb. 21, 2024, the cyber event reported by Change Healthcare, a company that assists healthcare providers with claims submissions and payments, has created a significant impact to health care providers, including hospitals, individual practitioners, practice groups, diagnostic centers, laboratories, and pharmacies. We have determined Aflac’s primary operations are not impacted. Further, Aflac and its subsidiaries do not have any direct connection to Change Healthcare systems in any of Aflac’s systems or applications. At this time, we are not aware of any impact to customer data but we are monitoring for any communications from our critical third-party suppliers. While Change Healthcare’s cyber event was not directed at Aflac, we will provide flexibility with claims submissions related to this incident should it be needed. If you believe you have a claim impacted by Change Healthcare’s event, please contact Aflac at 800-992-3522.
Mental health tops list of concerns for everyday Americans
COLUMBUS, Ga., Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans, especially those with more income and education, are more concerned about mental health than challenges over the economy, the political environment or COVID-19. A surprising percentage of employees are ready to quit their jobs and start a business, and budget cutting due to the economy is reducing financial support for charity, friends and family only half as much as household spending. These are some of the findings of the recently released 2022 Aflac Risk Survey of 1,644 American adults. A leading provider of supplemental health insurance in the U.S., the $22 billion supplemental insurance company annually surveys Americans on matters of topical importance.
Other findings from this year's survey include:
"After a major pandemic, economic challenges, social justice anxieties and political unrest, Americans are reassessing their approach to mental health, seeing it as a greater risk to themselves and their families than it was just two years ago," said Aflac Senior Vice President of Group Voluntary Benefits Bob Ruff. "How people manage these risks has a lot to do with their income and education, showcasing the likelihood of a health care gap for mental illness that must be addressed."
In 2022, Aflac added mental health components to several products in response to a growing need for access to emotional and mental stress mitigation tools. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, 21%, or nearly 53 million U.S. adults, experienced mental illness in 2020, and 46% of adults with mental illness received treatment. Serious mental illness causes $193.2 billion in lost earnings each year.1
"The last two years have awakened an entrepreneurial spirit among Americans, particularly those who self-identify as 'risk takers," said Aflac Senior Vice President of Distribution Expansion and Consumer Markets Jeramy Tipton. "While it seems that people want to work, they don't all necessarily want to work for someone else, which will have a significant impact on how people will obtain health care benefits potentially through consumer-directed platforms as the gig economy continues to grow. It is important to note, however, that risk-taking does not equal recklessness. These individuals take great care to manage risk since they know they cannot avoid it."
Aflac currently provides many consumer-directed products, including those for Cancer, Critical Illness, Accident, Final Expense Whole Life and Medicare Supplement. The company plans to add additional consumer-directed products to the roster of available policies in 2022 and 2023.
The 2022 Aflac Risk Survey was conducted online July 8-9, 2022, among 1,644 American adults age 18 and older. Completed interviews were weighted by age, sex and geographic region to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. adult population. Complete survey results are available at https://surveyresults.aflac.com/.
Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) is a Fortune 500 company helping provide protection to more than 50 million people through its subsidiaries in Japan and the U.S., paying cash fast when policyholders get sick or injured. For more than six decades, insurance policies of Aflac Incorporated's subsidiaries have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the U.S., Aflac is the number one provider of supplemental health insurance products.2 Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance in Japan, where it insures 1 in 4 households. In 2021, Aflac Incorporated was proud to be included as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for the 16th consecutive year. Also in 2021, the company was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and became a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). In 2022, Aflac Incorporated was included on Fortune's list of World's Most Admired Companies for the 21st time and Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index for the third consecutive year. To find out how to get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, get to know us at aflac.com or aflac.com/español. Investors may learn more about Aflac Incorporated and its commitment to ESG and social responsibility at investors.aflac.com under "Sustainability."
1 National Alliance on Mental Health (2022). Mental Health Stats. Accessed July 20, 2022, from https://www.nami.org/mhstats.
2 LIMRA 2021 U.S. Supplemental Health Insurance Total Market Report.
Media contact: Jon Sullivan, 706-763-4813 or jsullivan@aflac.com
Analyst and investor contact: David A. Young, 706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or dyoung@aflac.com
SOURCE Aflac