Healthcare reform

Nelson Griswold on how brokers need to move from transactional to consultative selling due to changes brought upon by the Affordable Care Act.

Health care reform applies nondiscrimination testing to all group health plans, including fully insured ones. The problem is that planning with the rules currently in place is like trying to build a skyscraper on a piece of swampland in the Florida Everglades.

With health care appeals, a plan administrator can simply grant the appeal .

Two businesses, a construction firm from southwestern Illinois and an auto-parts maker in southeastern Indiana, are scheduled today to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago for an order barring enforcement.

Jeffrey Endick, principal at Slevin & Hart, P.C., warned employers at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans on Tuesday in Washington about how they should prepare for exchanges as an alternative to the current system.

The U.S. health care law’s projected tax bite on businesses with more generous health benefits is dropping as medical spending slows and employers look to rein in the cost of coverage.

Yesterday Groom Law Group’s Mark Nielsen addressed the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ Washington legislative update, saying health reform watchers are still hoping for “more and better guidance” on ACA rules and standards.

As the U.S. Senate works to rewrite immigration policy, the House of Representatives is spending floor time on legislation that won’t become law, voting today to repeal President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act.

In a second round of funding under the ACA, CMS opens a big opportunity for researchers.

The health agency said last week that Sebelius had been calling advocacy groups, doctors, churches and “companies not regulated by HHS” since March, asking for contributions to an independent nonprofit group promoting the health law.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said they have held off on hiring new employees as a result of the ACA. “One of the most concerning unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act is that we see employers looking to stay under the 50-employee threshold, if at all possible,” says one expert.

Being present and competent is the order of the day once the ACA becomes a reality, says blogger and UBA CEO Thom Mangan. Brokers need to act as a conduit, or contract with a conduit, to help employees navigate through. A lot of these issues fall on the shoulders of the human resources department, but a broker or adviser needs to offer comprehensive care.

President Barack Obama’s health secretary has called companies and other organizations, seeking financial contributions to help promote the 2010 health care law that takes full effect next year.

People with health insurance saw increases in their medical costs slow from 2009 to 2011, signaling potential structural changes in the industry that could cut health care inflation and save the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two studies.

The suit, filed last week in federal court in Washington, revolves around an Internal Revenue Service rule that provides tax credits for people shopping for health insurance on new government-run marketplaces, called exchanges, regardless of where they live.

Countless pieces of legislation are introduced in Washington each year and nothing is done with them. As NAHU pushes for a hearing on the MLR bill in the Senate, what are its chances?

At the 10th World Health Care Congress held just outside Washington, D.C., in April, Mark Fogel, head of HR for New York-based accounting firm Marcum Group, said his organization is still "grappling" with what to do about the Affordable Care Act and the new world for employers.

Jack Kwicien on how advisers must commit to a plan to adapt to coming change with insurance reform

In the new world of "Obamacare," a.k.a. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the birth of the insurance exchange is propelling us all the way back to the future.

2013 marks a true test of leadership for benefits professionals, particularly for employee communications.