Benefit plan design

CHICAGO — There is a need for an “extreme makeover” in the house of benefits with a delivery system built on partnership, collaboration, accountability and engagement — rather than competitiveness, says Larry Boress of the Midwest Business Group on Health. Read more from Associate Editor Brian Kalish as he reports from Employee Benefit Adviser’s Workplace Benefits Mania Conference at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park.

Government and industry experts say recent guidance from the federal government will hasten development of state purchasing exchanges, which will in turn affect employers’ long-range benefit sponsorship decisions.

While most companies go through their annual renewal process in the fall, at Ambrose we are wrapping it up and heading into open enrollment for an Aug. 1 effective date. For us, as well as other employers with renewals that fall in the middle of the year, health care reform regulations haven't kicked in until now

On July 11 when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announced rules for the new state health insurance exchanges, she did so with an air of caution, telling stakeholders to expect more modifications before they become final. That may prove to be an understatement.

Although the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on July 12 tabled their support of H.R. 1206, a bill that would exclude insurance agents’ compensation from the medical loss ratio equation, “there’s a lot of work still to be done on this issue and we look forward to our continuing work with the NAIC, HHS and Congress to find a suitable solution,” says Brianne Mallaghan, director of communications for The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

Are you a PPACA prodigy? Or, do you need health care reform remediation? Take EBN's PPACA Challenge to find out!

Test your knowledge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Are you a PPACA prodigy? Or, do you need health care reform remediation? Take EBN's PPACA Challenge to find out.

The ability to save a little money by avoiding taxes will get smaller, unless Congress can be swayed to repeal new restrictions on health care spending accounts.

The authors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would be quick to point out that our plan is not required to cover dependent children — but we do have to cover the 26-year-olds if we want to cover the newborns and preschoolers. Some choice.

Employer organizations and trade groups expressed mixed reactions Wednesday afternoon when the first federal appeals court to rule on the health care reform law upheld the constitutionally of its so-called individual mandate provision.

Rep. Mike Rogers told the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee last week that health insurance agents and brokers are in a "desperate situation," due to medical loss ratio determinations.

Will the new health plan law make health coverage more expensive for your firm or staff? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this week saying that for companies with fewer than 50 workers, costs should drop.

Consultant McKinsey & Co defends the methodology behind its survey gauging employers' views on providing health insurance to workers, a report that drew criticism from U.S. health reform supporters.

Providers of bare-bones health insurance plans have until September to seek exemption from certain coverage requirements set under the 2010 health care reform law, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The Department of Health and Human Services has sent to the Office of Management and Budget an interim final rule to adopt operating rules for the HIPAA electronic eligibility verification/benefit determination and claims status transactions.

The Department of Health and Human Services has sent to the Office of Management and Budget an interim final rule to adopt operating rules for the HIPAA electronic eligibility verification/benefit determination and claims status transactions.

One of the more contentious issues of last year’s health care reform debate, whether health insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies across state lines, was subject to a congressional hearing last week.

Employers nationwide - both big and small - are watching and waiting to see whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's state exchanges will succeed when they open for business in 2014. Small employers and those with low-paid or part-time employees are especially interested in finding out whether funneling their employees into an exchange or finding coverage for them through one would be beneficial.

Health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may pose a threat to COBRA.

Chief financial officers at some of the nation's largest banks and financial services firms are downright bullish on the U.S. economy's overall outlook but nagging concerns about health care reform and the uncertainty of those costs are tempering their optimism.