Health insurance exchanges

Most employers have still not determined how they will comply with complex ACA reporting requirements that began Jan. 1. Benefit brokers and consultants should be discussing the requirements and the solutions with their employer clients, experts say.

About 25% of health plans in two state-run public exchanges were found to violate the federal mental health parity law, according to research by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that was published in the journal Psychiatric Services.

Best-performing state exchanges have thrived on strong, coordinated and targeted outreach, as well as enrollment-assistance programs that are embedded in the community.

A slew of hot-button topics, from health care to retirement, are being discussed in Washington –both on Capitol Hill and in the halls of the Supreme Court. As a result, it is imperative employers remain focused and aware of the looming decisions that could change the benefits community.

Some New Yorkers can choose from more than a hundred health insurance products offered by more than a dozen insurers participating in the state-run health insurance exchange, depending on where they live, but they’re hard-pressed to find anything other than the HMO-style plans that dominate the landscape.

Health insurance plans purchased through public health care exchanges often generate levels of member satisfaction higher than plans obtained through employers, according to a J.D. Power study.

Two-thirds of tax filers among H&R Block’s client base who received health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act via the state or federal insurance marketplaces had to pay back an average of $729 of the Advance Premium Tax Credit, cutting their potential refund by nearly one-third.

In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, concern has been mounting that Minnesota’s state-run HIX is slowly sinking into insolvency exacerbated by downward revisions in projected enrollment and speculation that it could be supplanted by Healthcare.gov at some point.

With the Affordable Care Act hitting its five year birthday and the second open enrollment period nearly finished, Americans are turning their attention and wishes for Congress and the Obama administration to a focus on prescription drugs.

There may be a convergence of public and private exchanges and if that happens carriers need to adopt a more holistic approach and consider multiple retail channels to distribute their products as part of a multi-carrier approach or alliances such as those seen within the CO-OP market.

Technical difficulties may have marred public exchanges' first year of operation, but at least providers were able to breathe a collective sigh of relief about not being inundated with a sharp increase in new or sick patients scheduling appointments.

While several reasons have been suggested for a plateau effect in public exchange enrollment, it may all come down to dollars and cents, as well as carrots and sticks.

Of the people who purchased health insurance through a public exchange in 2014, 9% more federal exchange participants re-enrolled compared to the state-run marketplaces.

Some universities that provide health insurance to their students are stopping the practice, as they say the Affordable Care Act’s minimal essential health benefits requirements have led to unsustainable cost increases. Those that remain are turning to their brokers to determine the best way to continue offering coverage to their students.

In as bold a move as its strongest blend, coffee powerhouse Starbucks late Monday upped the ante to its college degree program the company first unveiled last summer.

States should not step in and establish their own exchanges if subsides are ruled illegal on the federal health care marketplace, a recent national study found, but industry experts say that is not the national consensus and point to the wording of poll questions to support the discrepancy.

Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t just stay on the Strip – it blows across the Sagebrush State like a wayward tumbleweed. Case in point: Nevada Health Link enrollees have been reporting mistakes on the 1095-A IRS forms to calculate their premium tax credit on the federally supported state-based HIX.

For many taxpayers, their first introduction to the ACA may be the Form 1095-A that they receive in the mail, and bring with them — or forget to bring with them — to their tax preparer. Many have questions about the form, and state exchange call centers have been inundated with inquiries. Here are top five questions being asked about Form 1095-A.

After two enrollment seasons under the Affordable Care Act's exchanges, the easily accessible and amenable are signed up for health care. With year three starting this fall, the task will be tougher to target the remaining uninsured, who are harder to reach. Who better to drive the message home, Washington state thinks, than brokers?

If there was a most-improved public HIX award, Maryland Health Connection certainly would be in the running for such an honor. Nearly twice as many state residents enrolled for 2015 in half as much time compared to the previous year.