Employers wanting to get an early start on providing a required notice to employees of coverage options under health insurance exchanges just got some help from the federal government. On May 8, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a model…
Category Archives: Health Care Reform
DOL Issues Model Notice/Guidance on Exchange Options, also Updates COBRA Election Notice
May 9, 2013 – 4:06 pm
New Reform Rules Give More Guidance on Minimum Value Coverage
May 2, 2013 – 11:22 am
Determining whether group health coverage provides “minimum value” is key to avoiding penalties under health reform’s premium tax credit program, so employers will likely welcome new proposed rules that further explain MV criteria. The proposal, to be published May 3…
Updated SBC Template Requires Coverage & Value
April 25, 2013 – 4:46 pm
Employer-sponsored health plans and insurers are required to make two changes to the summary of benefits and coverage, which must be distributed to all health plan participants under health reform. They must add statements of whether their coverage: (1) provides…
Colorado House Passes Bill Scrutinizing and Limiting Stop-loss
April 24, 2013 – 12:17 pm
On April 22, the Colorado House of Representatives passed legislation regulating stop-loss through minimum attachment points, and requiring stop-loss insurers to give the commissioner information about their self-insuring clients with 100 and fewer full-time equivalents. The bill also would give…
Reductions in Transitional Reinsurance Fee Are Possible but Unlikely
April 22, 2013 – 4:24 pm
Employers might pay less than $63 per covered life per year under health reform’s transitional reinsurance fee rules, but that would require a surplus in the fund, a U.S. Department of Labor official told an employer plan industry group on…
Urban Institute Criticizes Use of Stop-Loss Insurance by Small Employers
April 9, 2013 – 6:08 pm
If small companies self-insure their health plans and in doing so can get stop-loss coverage with very low attachment points, they could siphon healthy lives away from the new insurance market designed by health reform to insure millions of new…
Stop-Loss Insurers Would Not Be Health Exchange ‘Navigators’ Under HHS Proposal
April 5, 2013 – 4:42 pm
The health reform law provides that entities called “Navigators” will assist consumers and small businesses in researching health insurance exchanges — but stop-loss insurers for self-funded health plans won’t be one of them. Those insurers, as well as individuals and…
States Try to Impose Tougher Stop-loss Limits on Self-insured Health Plans
April 3, 2013 – 11:05 am
Recently, four bills were introduced in state legislatures that would make self-funding less attractive by limiting stop-loss coverage for self-insured health plans. Many such proposals would raise minimum specific deductibles above the standard $20,000 seen in most enacted laws. This…
Questions and Answers on Reform’s Transitional Reinsurance Fee
March 27, 2013 – 12:20 pm
Employers are understandably nervous about the transitional reinsurance fee, which health insurers and employer health plans must pay from 2014 through 2016. The fee will be collected by HHS, even though the states will tailor their own risk adjustment programs….
Reform Rule on Maximum Waiting Period Details Some 90 Day-plus Scenarios
March 20, 2013 – 3:52 pm
Employer group health plans must eliminate waiting periods of more than 90 days before enrolling otherwise eligible employees (or dependents) into health coverage, under proposed rules issued on March 18 by the federal agencies implementing health reform. For Clear Full-time…