Healthcare reform

Will the new health plan law make health coverage more expensive for your firm or staff? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this week saying that for companies with fewer than 50 workers, costs should drop.

As controversy continues to brew over the validity of a McKinsey survey finding 30% of respondents would likely drop employee health care coverage in the years following the implementation of health reform’s state exchanges, a survey on the same topic from Lockton reveals a more conservative estimate: nearly one in five employers (18%) say they will consider terminating group coverage.

Fewer Americans are getting medical coverage through their jobs than a decade ago but the 2010 U.S. health care law should help stabilize employer-sponsored insurance, two studies released on Tuesday showed.

The Health and Human Services Department stopped accepting ERRP applications on May 6, and announced nearly half of the $5 billion earmarked for the program had been approved for payout to employers. However, Senators John Kerry, Debbie Stabenow, Richard Blumenthal and Ben Cardin recently introduced a new measure that would infuse another the $5 billion into ERRP.

President Obama signed legislation in April repealing the expanded 1099 reporting requirements in the health care reform law and Small Business Jobs Act.

The Employers Council on Flexible Compensation is fighting to repeal parts of the health care reform law that establish annual caps for flexible spending accounts and require a prescription for over-the-counter medications to be reimbursed under FSAs. It also is pushing for a change to allow for a cash out at the end of the year in place of the use-it-or-lose-it system that dates back to the 1980s.

Last week's survey results from McKinsey, which found 30% of employers plan to drop health benefits after PPACA-mandated exchanges open in 2014, may be the product of flawed methodology, according to news reports.

One of the more contentious issues of last year’s health care reform debate, whether health insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies across state lines, was subject to a congressional hearing last week.

New steps to reduce premiums and make it easier for Americans to enroll in the federally administrated Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan risk pool were announced May 31 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

One of the more contentious issues of last year’s health care reform debate, whether health insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies across state lines, was subject to a congressional hearing last week.

Patients could obtain a list of everyone who has accessed their electronic medical record under a rule proposed Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Premiums for new federal health insurance plans that cover high-risk people with pre-existing conditions will drop by as much as 40%, federal health regulators said Tuesday.

Employers nationwide - both big and small - are watching and waiting to see whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's state exchanges will succeed when they open for business in 2014. Small employers and those with low-paid or part-time employees are especially interested in finding out whether funneling their employees into an exchange or finding coverage for them through one would be beneficial.

Health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may pose a threat to COBRA.

The recently released white paper from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on the role of producers in state exchanges, while helpful, leaves many crucial questions unanswered.

Chief financial officers at some of the nation's largest banks and financial services firms are downright bullish on the U.S. economy's overall outlook but nagging concerns about health care reform and the uncertainty of those costs are tempering their optimism.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a Republican plan to scale back health benefits for future retirees and forced their opponents to take a stand on the unpopular proposal.

In order for states to self-fund their exchanges, beginning in 2015, they may tack a surcharge fee onto the income stream of agents and brokers, says Charles “Chip” Kerby III, owner and attorney of Washington-based Liberte Group, LLC.

A white paper from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners affirms the need for a key role for producers in the coming state health insurance exchanges and the appropriateness of compensating them in several ways for their services.

Regulations on PPACA’s state exchanges are expected in June, according to Mark C. Nielsen, an attorney with Washington-based Groom Law Group.