Healthcare reform

Buck Consultants announced this week that it would be starting a private health care exchange while Liazon unveiled a new web partnership to support its own.

Lawmakers, nonprofit groups address gathering of benefit advisers to discuss brokers’ role in health care reform.

Early bird gets the worm. That’s an applicable motto for the National Association of Health Underwriters Capitol Conference attendees, who packed into a hotel on Capitol Hill early Tuesday morning for an overflowing session of speakers, from a senator to a president of a health insurance enrollment non-profit to Mercer and Wellpoint representatives.

The answer to that question is still fuzzy. That’s because while the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed to Employee Benefit News that health reimbursement arrangements and health savings accounts will be offered on the public exchanges, the organization still hasn’t released the details and regulations surrounding these accounts.

The answer to that question is still fuzzy. That’s because while the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed to Employee Benefit Adviser that HRAs and HSAs will be offered on the public exchanges, the organization still hasn’t released the details and regulations surrounding these accounts.

The National Association of Health Underwriters hosts its annual Capitol Conference on Capitol Hill this week, bringing business leaders and bipartisan legislators together to discuss the changing marketplace and pending health reform regulations. Employee Benefit Adviser will be on site at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill to bring you coverage from this summit.

At a recent session presented by the Midwest Business Group on Health, one large and one small employer offered insights into how they made the decision to maintain health benefits or offer workers coverage via an exchange.

Even companies who have no interest in getting involved with a public health care exchange for active employees might help steer their pre-65 retirees toward the marketplace, experts with Fidelity Investments said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services yesterday issued a final rule on the essential health benefits required of insurers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“We are making progress, we are on track and we will be ready,” Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services consumer information division, told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing in Washington.

The federal government has given approval to launch nonprofit, member-run co-ops in 24 states. The CEO of one of these co-ops offered insight into what such organizations will need to survive.

Most employers still haven’t calculated their costs under the health care reform act, though a majority plan on playing rather than paying, according to a new survey by the Willis Human Capital Practice.

In a Midwest Business Group on Health webinar, representatives from three private health insurance exchanges offered insight into what employers, employees and the overall market can gain from the emerging model.

More than half of employers have not calculated the costs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but of those that have, 61% say PPACA has increased their expenses.

ERISA lawyer warns DOL spotlight on 408(b)(2) fees will soon shine on voluntary benefit industry in keynote address at Workplace Benefits Renaissance. Prepare now.

For the first time, the Obama administration is rejecting a state’s request to set up its own exchange under PPACA. At root is a disagreement between Mississippi’s Republican governor, who wants nothing to do with the law, and its insurance commissioner, who is also a Republican, but would rather the state run its own marketplace.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., the third largest U.S. hospital chain, keeps an eye on Medicare patients after they’re released. This isn’t just about professional integrity. Tenet has a financial stake in their well-being.

CMS, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, plans to collect information from brokers and agents for inclusion in health insurance exchanges. Find out updated timing information here.

The number of Americans projected to gain insurance from the U.S. health care law is eroding, by at least 5 million people, as the Obama administration struggles to implement the $1.3 trillion overhaul amid Republican opposition.

Reaching out to younger Americans, the illiterate and those who don’t speak English (all of whom represent significant portions of the uninsured ) could be the biggest PPACA education task ahead for the Department of Health and Human Services — and employers.