Healthcare plans

The 2014 midterm elections did more than just make paid sick leave benefits mandatory and increase minimum wage; ballot measures also approved recreational use of marijuana in various states and regions.

The HIX marketplace may offer Americans more choice when it comes to health insurance, particularly as public exchange options expand, but it continues to complicate life for HR professionals.

A majority of brokers have seen some of their employer clients drop group coverage altogether in reaction to the ACA and double-digit rate increases. That trend, they say, will rise and advisers need to adjust the way they do business if they hope to survive.

Commentary: Are private exchanges just a flex benefits reboot? Lockton’s Mike Smith shares what he thinks will affect their success and adoption.

With an expected 5.5% rise in health care costs in 2015 – the same year the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate takes effect – employers have high hopes that spending can be reined through increased employee consumerism.

On Saturday, the first day of enrollment for 2015 Obamacare plans, the federal insurance website was working well enough that 100,000 people submitted applications, U.S. health secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell reported.

One-third of business owners have no plan to control health care costs, however, most plan to handle their benefits strategies on their own, study finds.

The Affordable Care Act’s inclusion of pediatric dental coverage as an essential health benefit has small employers facing a dilemma: Whether to embed dental coverage within a medical plan or offer dental benefits as a stand-alone plan. Market confusion about what these plan options include and exactly what the health reform law requires highlights the need for expert benefit adviser help.

As an effort to comply with the ACA, some employers have been considering offering employees a lump sum of cash to purchase health care coverage on the exchanges, but the DOL now says such an arrangement isn't going to cut it.

Commentary: Individuals and small businesses in NY can't get quality health coverage, and New Yorkers should exercise caution when considering moving to a single-payer system.

Delays, limited awareness, competition and insufficient subsidies among problems outlined in a Government Accountability Office report on state and federal small group exchanges. CMS says brokers will play a key role in any future growth.

The pro-Affordable Care Act national non-profit group Enroll America is expanding its outreach staff and launching new technology-driven tools in order to reach the still uninsured and enroll them in health insurance during open enrollment, which starts Saturday.

Potential Healthcare.gov customers can peek at 2015 prices for the program’s health plans today after the government said it would release a “window-shopping” feature overnight.

Acquired by Towers Watson in November 2013, private exchange provider Liazon is navigating a unique space. It is both owned by a consultancy and used by that firm’s competitors. Alan Cohen, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Liazon, discusses how all brokers fit into the exchange equation and what, in his view, makes an exchange, an exchange.

Adding innovative benefits to a health plan takes money, research and can help attract quality employees, but may also lead to problems if not properly thought out.

The Supreme Court is set to decide the question of whether plan sponsors bound by a collective bargaining agreement have to provide medical benefits for the duration of a retiree’s lifetime, even after the collective bargaining agreement expires.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a challenge to the tax subsidies allowed under the Affordable Care Act, but legal experts predict any high court ruling will have little effect on the law or employers.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a challenge to the subsidies that are a linchpin of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, accepting a case that suddenly puts the law under a new legal cloud.

Private exchanges are giving brokers and benefit advisers a new venue to increase voluntary benefit sales.

In a surprise move, CMS has delayed its enforcement of the use of health plan identifiers in HIPAA transactions. What does this mean for your employer clients and HIPAA compliance?