Healthcare reform

Speaking at the Benefits Forum & Expo, sponsored by EBN’s parent company, SourceMedia, Tina Provancal, health care exchange product development leader at Aon Hewitt, said that there is a specific reason why we got to where we are today in health care.

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.

While some are expecting technical glitches come Oct. 1, others point out the enormity of what’s at stake and quell widespread fears.

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.

Randy Osban’s job selling ribs and brisket from a yellow trailer on Texas’s state road 71 offers a sweeping view of the hill country beyond Austin. One benefit his business doesn’t provide is health insurance.

House Republicans return to Washington today still at loggerheads over how to thwart the ACA without shutting down the federal government on Oct. 1.

A recent ruling by the DOL prevents HRAs from being used by employers as the only vehicle for supplying medical benefits.

Effort to coincide with open enrollment.

Republicans are strategizing a delay of the ACA to avoid a government shutdown later this month and also voted last week to delay new subsidies for the soon-to-be-open exchanges.

While most employers are focused on the larger 'Obamacare' fines than be levied against a plan, they shouldn't lose sight of a slew of smaller penalties that can really add up.

The computer hub, a frequent target of Republicans, is designed to route data on customers using new insurance exchanges from seven federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.

“We want to offer some constructive suggestions” to President Barack Obama, says Fred Redmond, a vice president with the United Steelworkers Union and a member of the AFL-CIO executive council.

A computer system underpinning the U.S. health care overhaul has completed security testing and is ready to go, the federal government says.

As long as retirees enroll with the private insurance exchange, IBM will subsidize their health care premiums at a similar level, the company says.

The cost of ‘Obamacare,’ “is much more sensitive than people previously appreciated” to employers’ decisions to drop coverage, says Jay Bhattacharya, an economist and Stanford associate professor of medicine.

House Republican leaders put together a plan to enact a stopgap government funding measure by forcing the Democratic-led Senate to take a largely symbolic vote on defunding President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The navigators are considered crucial to the Obama administration’s effort to enroll at least 7 million of those people in health plans through online marketplaces scheduled to open Oct. 1.

What are Department of the Treasury and IRS proposing to limit for employers now?

Regulations outline the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.