Practice management

The “bugs” that have plagued the rollout of U.S. health insurance exchanges will be fixed by Dec. 15, said Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, the lead author of the 2010 health care law.

In the most populous state in nation, agents are not happy with the way the state-run health care exchange is treating them and there are many more road bumps to cross in the near future, said a San Diego-area broker Friday at AHIP’s State Issues Conference.

On November 18, 2010, Julie Heimeshoff filed her lawsuit against Hartford and Wal-Mart, claiming that defendants had violated ERISA by failing to provide long-term disability benefits.

The shutdown is over and the debt ceiling has been vaulted, but those watching the deal come out of Congress say just because the ACA and employee benefits were largely left out of the fray, it doesn’t mean they won’t feature prominently in future budget debates.

After the partisan passions and heated rhetoric, the disruptions of a government shutdown and displays of dysfunction, Congress did what it could have done weeks ago: voted to fund the government and lift the debt limit.

Exactly how bad are things on the federal health care exchanges? Sunday’s New York Times brought a deeply reported piece from Robert Pear, Sharon LaFraniere and Ian Austen.

State-run exchange sees small drop as agent certification picks up, with ‘big win’ for agent community about to be revealed.

As Congress enters its final day to solve the debt ceiling and shutdown debacle before Thursday’s deadline, employee benefits insiders say there could be some last-minute changes that surprise the industry.

The U.S. health care law’s tax penalty for not carrying medical coverage next year may catch millions of Americans off-guard.

Senate leaders are poised to reach an agreement as early as today to bring a halt to the fiscal standoff, and now must race the clock to sell the plan to lawmakers before U.S. borrowing authority runs out this week.