Benefit plan design

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.

Most states likely will run their own medical insurance marketplaces or partner with neighbors to help expand coverage under the federal health overhaul, U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday.

Some aspects of the health care reform law, including the wellness and prevention provisions, have gained traction and will continue as scheduled in part because employers are taking up the cause by recognizing the importance of implementing prevention and wellness programs to enhance the health of their employees as well as the bottom line.

As employers start to conduct cost-benefit analysis on providing health insurance under the health law, they should also study some proposals by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

HighRoads, a Boston-based compliance and benefits management firm, conducted a survey months after approval of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, finding that, in general, employers believed that outsourcing costs for health benefits administration will increase because of the law.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, all plans must cover certain preventive care services with no member cost-sharing - with an exception for grandfathered plans - as of plan years beginning on or after Sept. 23, 2010.

In this post-health care reform environment, benefit advisers - and their employer clients - face a new world order. For instance, with new restrictions on capping lifetime maximum benefits, the burden of managing the potential financial risk posed by even one employee's catastrophic illness looms large.

A large majority of Massachusetts residents are satisfied with the commonwealth's subsidized health plan, which has components similar to the Obama administration's federal plan, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Employers like to look over one another's shoulder when it comes to benefits programs, and benchmarking data provides this opportunity.

Despite efforts to defund PPACA in the Republican-controlled House, and prospects of a Supreme Court test for the federal health reform law, employers are forging ahead as best they can with short-term compliance issues and long-term strategic decisions.

Small and large employers say they have no plans to reduce spending on non-medical benefits in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a MetLife poll.