Benefit plan design

Commentary: Health insurance companies, health care professionals, politicians, academics and public health advocates all have opinions about what health care reform in America should look like.

As more and more companies are flooded with administrative duties due to the Affordable Care Act, cloud-based HR and benefits systems such as Zenefits are starting to gain a substantial hold in the employer market.

Premiums for health plans purchased on the Affordable Care Act’s Small Business Health Options Program exchanges were slightly cheaper than plans only offered elsewhere, a recent study found, but advisers say the study misses the big picture.

Employers are making changes to reshape their health benefit plans between now and 2017 in order to reduce costs, according to Towers Watson’s 2014 Health Care Changes Ahead Survey. In particular, employers pointed to three specific factors that will help frame employer-sponsored benefits.

Adviser help is needed to encourage employers to adopt the FSA rollover allowance, which has demonstrated growth results for employee contributions and enrollment numbers.

Predictions for 2014 open enrollment include more than 3 million employees being covered under private exchanges. Is this the new trend in employer-sponsored health care coverage?

A new analysis estimates even more employers will move active employees to private exchanges in part because brokers are taking on a bigger role in pushing them as a solution to rising health care costs.

Two major trends in employer-sponsored health care continue: a slower rate of premium increases and greater use of high-deductible health plans, especially among small employers, Kaiser study finds.

CMS says small employers and their benefit advisers in select states will have early access to the ACA’s Small Business Health Options Program to test-drive the system, but not all are interested.

The IRS has released long-awaited draft instructions for the forms employers will use to comply with the ACA’s employer mandate, giving benefit advisers and their clients a glimpse of the work ahead for 2015 and how to begin preparing now.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington will rehear a recent court decision that found the ACA's premium subsidies invalid in more than two dozen states due to the law’s specific language. A rehearing may reduce the chances of a new Supreme Court showdown over a central element of the health reform law.

Fed up over unpaid enrollment commissions, benefit advisers are suing the Nevada state exchange and its website contractor Xerox.

The White House Friday proposed two rules in response to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision earlier this summer that will allow women to receive contraception coverage if an employer refuses to offer it for religious reasons.

Large employers say they don’t have plans to eliminate health care coverage for active employees in 2015, although 35% say they are considering moving their active employees to a private exchange in 2016 or beyond, a recent survey finds.

The Obama administration has announced a government workaround to allow employees of religious nonprofits access to birth-control coverage even if their employer has opted not to pay for such medicines.

In anticipation of the Affordable Care Act’s excise tax, U.S. employers are planning to take more aggressive approaches to projected single-digit increases in health care costs by revisiting the viability of consumer-driven health plans and spousal and dependent coverage.

Although open enrollment for ACA plans is not set to begin until November 15, a new report estimates that nearly 7 million adults may be able to enroll through special enrollment periods.

Employers are seeking help from benefit brokers and advisers as health care costs have them searching for alternatives to the current system of health care delivery.

New estimates find the ACA will decrease the number of Americans obtaining health insurance coverage in the future. Can the employer-sponsored health care model survive under these conditions?

Employers and employees more than ever need the help of their trusted adviser to communicate in plain language the complexities of today’s health care landscape.