Benefit plan design

At issue is the need for updated guidance on the employer mandate. While the mandate has been delayed until 2015, employers need to start preparing for it now.

Even if you aren't planning on involving your workforce in the Obamacare marketplace, this week's rocky debut of the exchanges indicated heavy interest in the system - and need for better communication.

Industry insiders comment on the launch of the public health care exchanges.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act and turning 50 are both inevitable so employers best prepare.

The strategies of insurers like UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint are under the microscope as data from four of the five largest U.S. states is collected by SNL Financial Group.

Broker specializing in the market predicts widespread adverse impact.

The U.S. government has shut down, but beyond continuing resolution budget debates, the next looming crisis is the federal debt ceiling. Are Affordable Care Act provisions more likely to be taken hostage there?

The ‘Obamacare’ insurance exchanges got off to a rocky start, with many websites meant to provide new access to the uninsured seeing delays or breakdowns.

Some brokers are eager to start enrollment on Oct. 1 and others want to wait and see what happens, but either way, no one expects people to be knocking down their doors on the first day.

While the shutdown won’t stop the roll-out, which is largely funded through mandatory appropriations that can’t be curtailed by congressional inaction, it’s an open question whether it will lessen public enthusiasm to enroll.

Small businesses won’t be able to enroll in new online health insurance marketplaces until Nov. 1 in most U.S. states, the latest delay for the Obama administration’s signature health care law.

Benefit Advisors Network partners with Liazon; traction may take time.

Largely lost in the furor have been the ways in which employers could potentially benefit from the ACA and the launch of the new public health insurance exchanges, starting six days from now on October 1.

In effect, the ACA’s biggest promise becomes its most formidable challenge: unprecedented access to care for a needy population when the nation is already grappling with overtaxed emergency rooms and a shortage of physicians.

Health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will cost individuals at least $2,988 a year on average, a price that Republican opponents may target as out-of-reach for many Americans who don’t qualify for U.S. subsidies.

The calculator that determines subsidies for the 36 states relying on the federal government for exchanges come Oct. 1 isn’t working in tests, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The four-year slowdown in U.S. health care spending will end next year, and there is no sign the Affordable Care Act will significantly curb the acceleration in costs, government actuaries said in a report.

In one of the biggest steps for private health care exchanges so far, Aon Hewitt has announced that it will be offering health benefits for more than 330,000 American employees of some well-known companies, including Walgreens, Sears Holdings and Darden Restaurants – parent company of Red Lobster and the Olive Garden.

At 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 2, EBN and EBA will offer a web seminar on issues relating to ACA implementation and what they mean for employers – whether or not they plan having their workers participate in ACA marketplaces.

For those who have taken the time to read through the model exchange notices recently released by the Department of Labor you may have noticed some glaring issues with the questions, writes UBA CEO Thom Mangan, who helps provide some clarity.