Healthcare reform

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.

The proposal in Arkansas and Ohio is a departure from the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but the Obama administration might be open to it.

PPACA CO-OPs have a trade organization, but funding cuts mean there isn't funding for future groups.

Mel Schlesinger on why advisers shouldn’t let health care reform control their future

Jack Kwicien on what forward-thinking advisers are doing to adjust to ACA changes.

Dependent eligibility audits could mean big cost savings for your clients, also have the potential for big disruptions.

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.

This week marks the third anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As benefits professionals look toward the law’s full implementation next year, here is a quick look at important dates for PPACA past and future.

Targeting specific demographics will be critical to 2013 open enrollment communications, says Univers’ Dani McCauley. McCauley tells EBN that employers will face a challenging landscape this year communicating health care reform and other benefits changes.

Communicating ahead of open enrollment is both a broader and a more specific challenge in a post-health care reform world. One expert at Univers talks about how she is prepping her clients and tips for how employers should plan.

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

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction on PPACA’s contraception requirement, saying an employer’s First Amendment rights could be irreparably harmed if the mandate was enforced while a lawsuit was pending.

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.

Most brokers who plan to stay in the industry in 2014 are learning to embrace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But as two health policy minds from opposite sides of the political spectrum discussed Wednesday at America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington, unknown effects of PPACA and rising costs of health care should still be on the minds of carriers and brokers alike.

The MLR regulations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are misguided, according to AHIP attendees. An engaged crowd at Wednesday’s America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington listened to a panel dissect this issue from what the speakers said were unfounded claims of carrier profitability by the government, to the restrictions placed on innovation as a result of high ratio requirements.

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.