Healthcare reform

The U.S. Congress adopted a budget that will allow Republicans to bypass Democrats and send a repeal or revision of President Barack Obama’s landmark 2010 health-care law to his desk.

Smaller companies and non-profits are among the organizations that are contemplating a switch in how they manage employee benefits.

Discussion about the ACA has moved from understanding it to implementing it, but employers and their advisers continue to meet challenges in doing so.

Democrats and Republicans support repealing the tax, which will affect a disproportionate number of Americans, and is likely to miss its revenue projections, experts say.

Assurant Health announced this week it will be sold or shut down by the end of 2016, a move the parent company attributes to million-dollar losses as a result of the ACA.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do better at ensuring that health insurance policy issuers and self-insured plan sponsors pay a fee required under the Affordable Care Act known as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research fee, according to a new government report.

The Affordable Care Act brings new administrative complexity to employers offering health plans, making real-time reporting even more critical.

Health insurance plans purchased through public health care exchanges often generate levels of member satisfaction higher than plans obtained through employers, according to a J.D. Power study.

Two-thirds of tax filers among H&R Block’s client base who received health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act via the state or federal insurance marketplaces had to pay back an average of $729 of the Advance Premium Tax Credit, cutting their potential refund by nearly one-third.

CMS says it will pay close attention to compliance with agent/broker standards during audits of qualified health plans offered in the FFM in 2015.

Congress members weigh in on the ACA and the current system that regulates the insurance industry at the Big I legislative conference.

The excise tax remains a primary focus for employers as they plan their health care coverage strategy for 2016 and 2017, and many will be looking for assistance from their benefit adviser to address their concerns.

With the Affordable Care Act hitting its five year birthday and the second open enrollment period nearly finished, Americans are turning their attention and wishes for Congress and the Obama administration to a focus on prescription drugs.

Thomson Reuters has introduced a Checkpoint Learning Health Care Reform Certificate Program for tax and accounting professionals.

If I had a dollar for every time an industry professional reacted to my choice of college major with, “Risk Management and Insurance?  I didn’t know you could major in that,” I would be a rich man. From what I see, many people who make up the industry did not set out with the intention of working in insurance or employee benefits. So why would a young professional just entering the job market choose employee…

Commentary: Despite all the media coverage of the Affordable Care Act, there is still a fair amount of confusion and misunderstanding about the law, even among employees whose job it is to administer benefits.

While debate continues about the long-term effects of the Affordable Care Act, many employers report minimal changes in their health care premiums as a result.

Technical difficulties may have marred public exchanges' first year of operation, but at least providers were able to breathe a collective sigh of relief about not being inundated with a sharp increase in new or sick patients scheduling appointments.

The Affordable Care Act has increased the burden for benefit professionals and forced employers to alter their business practices to comply with the health care reform law, industry experts told Congress.

A third of employers say they’ve experienced fines and penalties in the past year because of non-compliance with government regulations, many of which they are simply unaware of. For many, expert advice from benefit advisers could be a real solution.