It’s been over a week since the election results came in and since then, you have likely been inundated with emails, seen many television interviews, and heard other news sources espousing predictions of what is on the horizon for employee benefit plans, and specifically, the future of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Indeed, the Trump […]
The Departments (Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury) released proposed changes to the regulations regarding SBCs (Summary of Benefits and Coverage) and the uniform glossary that goes with it. These proposed regulations amend the final regulations that were published on 02/14/2012 (the 2012 final regulations) and includes revisions to the templates, […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has come through for us again. This year’s pre-Thanksgiving regulation dump came a bit earlier than expected. They issued proposed regulations that address a variety of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) benefit provisions for 2016 affecting both the group and individual markets. There is a 30-day […]
The overall satisfaction rate among consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) enrollees increased in most years … while it decreased in most years among traditional enrollees…. In 2013, 44 percent of traditional-plan participants were extremely or very satisfied with out-of-pocket costs (for health care services other than for prescription drugs), while 20 percent of high-deductible health plan […]
In a recent SHRM article, it was reported that Health plan sponsors are taking a closer look at high performance networks—also known as “narrow networks”, an exclusive groups of high-value health care providers and health professional organizations recruited to serve a defined patient population. High performance networks among employer-sponsored plans is growing because they promote […]
If you want to see 10 pages of health reform in a 1 page timeline (well, 1 page for Employers and 1 page for Employees) then please visit our website (www.apbenefitadvisors.com/news). But, if you are looking for details specific to just a certain year or plan, then you can’t do better than this implementation timeline […]
Under regulations issued today (Monday, February 10, 2014) only employers with more than 100 full-time workers will be subject to fines in 2015 (unless they offer coverage). The “Employer Mandate”, originally due to take effect for January 1, 2014, but was delayed under prior guidance. The requirement that large employers provide their workers with health […]
Employers/Plan Sponsors can now correct inadvertent over-withholding or under-withholding due to the recognition of an employee’s marital status, but only if they act quickly to do so before the end of the year. Also, since this can and will affect the amount of reportable income on W-2s, you must make your payroll departments aware […]
From BenefitsPro.com Self-insured employers and self-administered health plans are about to catch a break, thanks to fine-tuning of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by the Departmentof Health and Human Services. In a soon-to-be-published compendium of rule modifications, HHS says it will exempt certain self-insured employers from the second two years of paying the […]