Have you ever gone to the doctor only to discover they’re no longer in-network — and suddenly you’re facing a medical bill far larger than you expected?
Or looked at something in your employee benefits package and thought, “But what does this actually mean? Why can’t they just write it in plain language?”
You’re in the right place!
Welcome to version 2.0 of Making it Make Sense, also known as Benefit MiMS. This site tracks carrier network contract negotiations and offers additional content to help translate the legalese and corporate-speak into plain English anyone can understand.
About the Site · Terms & Conditions · About Me · Contact
About the Site
Health insurance runs on contracts — between insurers, hospitals, and physician groups. Most people never have to think about those contracts until something changes.
When they do change, the effects show up quickly. A provider goes out-of-network. Coverage shifts. Bills look different than expected. And suddenly you’re trying to sort out what happened, and what it means for you.
This site tracks those contract changes as they happen, focusing on:
- Active negotiations between insurers and medical providers
- Upcoming contract expirations that may affect network status
- Recently resolved disputes and what changed
If you’ve ever been told that a doctor or hospital is “no longer in network,” this is the kind of situation that usually sits behind that change.
It’s the same information I work with every day — just explained differently.
I’ve spent enough time in this field to know that the hardest part is often not finding the information — it’s understanding it. Contract language, carrier notices, and even basic benefit terms can be difficult to follow if you don’t work with them every day.
So in addition to tracking what’s happening, I try to explain it in plain language: what changed, who it may affect, and what to pay attention to next.
From time to time, I’ll also post updates on related developments and short explainers of common benefits concepts, when they help make sense of what’s happening.
Because these situations can change quickly, information here may be updated as new details come in. For anything specific to your own coverage, you’ll still want to confirm directly with your insurer or provider.
About Me
My name is Catherine, and I am an employee benefits specialist. I’ve been in this field, in one way or another, since 1996.
I’ve worked as a benefit specialist in government and in corporate human resources offices. I was also an account manager for small group retail agencies while living in Georgia. In other words, I’ve encountered and experienced administration of employee benefits from several different angles.
Right now, I’m working as a product specialist for an independent, nationwide general agency. I’m one of the people who curates and creates resources that benefits brokers use to sell and service plans — and I work in several more states besides my own.
Like nearly everyone I’ve met in this field, it’s not the career I set out for. Rather, I “fell in” to it thanks to another situation, and discovered that I loved it.
Over the years, I’ve learned a great deal of the vocabulary and underlying concepts that drive employee benefits: how coverage works, how it’s administered, and how to navigate the systems behind it. That knowledge becomes second nature when you work with it every day, but it isn’t especially common outside the field — which makes sense, since I likely wouldn’t have it either if I hadn’t learned it in the course of my work.
Now, though, I often have family and friends come to me with their benefits questions. If I’m not able to answer them, I usually have access to the resources I need to find the answer.
They, and my performance reviews, have consistently included the sentence:
When Catherine explains it, it makes sense.
All right then, I finally realized. Perhaps, then, I should share some of those making-it-make-sense conversations for others to read. That’s the purpose of this site.
On a more personal level, my social media bio probably says it best: In alphabetical order: Catholic, crazy cat lady, distributist/localist, employee benefits specialist, gardener, Generation X, media fan, needleworker, new feminist, photographer, reader, southerner, writer.