Benefit plan design

Mercer has announced an initial group of insurance carriers that will offer benefits through Mercer Marketplace, the company’s private benefits exchange for employers’ active employees and their families.

The delay of the feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act intended to help small businesses was because of concerns raised by insurers, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury released proposed regulations on how religious organizations should apply the contraceptive coverage requirements under PPACA, alleviating some concerns religious organizations had previously expressed.

Two employers, Darden Restaurants and Cummins, share how they reached the decision about whether or not to move employees to health care exchanges.

Wellness programs may suffer or change direction with the arrival of the health care exchange marketplace.

The $1.3 trillion U.S. health-care system overhaul is getting more expensive and will initially accomplish less than intended.

Because there can be various ways of assessing what constitutes a full-time employee eligible for coverage under the PPACA, the IRS has issued guidance in the form of several notices, as well as temporary regulations.

The state health exchanges that are central to the U.S. Affordable Care Act are costing the federal government more than twice its initial budget to complete.

Starting in 2014, workers at companies with fewer than 100 employees were supposed to have been able to choose from a variety of health plans through new small-business insurance marketplaces. They’ll instead wait until at least 2015.

NBC Universal’s medical director voices concern about the lack of education for high-deductible health plans, particularly as exchanges come online.

Representatives from private health insurance exchanges assert that exchanges are hitting the ground running and that they are well-equipped to help employers meet the diverse health needs of employees.

New legislation was issued last night in the Senate that would remove broker compensation from the MLR calculation.

Despite the progress made through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on health care access, there are challenges to come from health reform, said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisc.) Thursday at the AHIP National Policy Forum in Washington.

Governors who refuse to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor may cost employers in their states as much as $1.3 billion in federal fines, according to a new study.

Two employers shared how they’ve gotten creative with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at Thursday’s National Business Group on Health conference in Washington. One chose to move to a new consumer-driven health plan and the other chose a private exchange through Aon Hewitt.

Health care consultants from Mercer, Aon Hewitt and Towers Watson offered advice at a recent National Business Group on Health event in Washington, D.C.

Nearly half of all health plan members in the group and individual markets nationwide say they are interested in using a state exchange to purchase health insurance, according to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

We’re starting your week with three important facts, developments or conversations from recent and upcoming events. This week, we’ll look at why uninsured Americans’ hospital bills are so high, more official steps forward by HHS on public exchanges and HHS goals for tech improvements in 2013.

The $64,000 question on state and federally managed health exchanges will be "what is the broker compensation?" Reliance on state and/or federal government to control your compensation is an uncontrollable factor that could lead to the demise of many brokers whose sole business is groups under 50 lives.

Ignorance will not be bliss come October when state and federal exchanges begin enrolling individuals and small-employer groups.