Healthcare reform

Topping the recent California rate of 39%, brokers on this state-run exchange completed more than 36,000 of the private health plan enrollments. Their record with SHOP enrollments, however, was a different story.

IRS issues annual health spending account contribution limits and out-of-pocket maximums.

Only a little over half of small businesses understand and are prepared for the changes required by the Affordable Care Act, according to a new survey.

Commentary: Blogger Andy Torelli says after the first ACA enrollment, we’re still years away from knowing the true efficacy of the law. What can advisers learn from this limbo period?

Industry musings about how fast this employee benefit selection tool will grow and in what format are plentiful.

While no public exchange was without troubles during the first ACA open-enrollment period, one state in particular put unique efforts into its SHOP component and saw results.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is in the early stages of looking at new vendors to potentially take over operation of Healthcare.gov, when Accenture’s contract expires in January 2015.

Employees are craving voluntary benefits to offset high deductible plans, yet many say they haven’t been offered any new options since the ACA became law.

As Covered California announces the rate at which agents enrolled consumers on the state-run public exchange, two different realities are emerging from agents throughout the most populous U.S. state.

Nearly half of newly insured Americans signed up for coverage off the ACA’s public marketplaces and benefit advisers have several theories as to why.

Brokers may be the best intermediary to communicate a matter of pediatric dental compliance to employers and medical carriers operating in numerous states as regulations shift.

Consumer spending climbed by $20.4 billion at an annualized rate adjusted for inflation in February, and $13 billion of the increase came from outlays on health services spurred by the ACA, according to Commerce Department data.

People who waited until the last minute to sign up for Obamacare were significantly younger than those first in line, as the percentage of enrollees younger than 35 jumped in the last month. President Obama said Thursday that 8 million people have enrolled in private insurance plans through the public exchanges.

With open enrollment officially over, suggestions are emerging from industry experts on how to tweak the next round of ACA sign-ups.

Tuesday was the last day of a two-week health law extension for hundreds of thousands of people who couldn’t finish their enrollment by March 31, the official deadline to sign up for a federally subsidized insurance plan in 2014.

The Congressional Budget Office, the main arbiter of Obamacare’s effects on the economy, left unchanged its estimate of the number of people expected to gain insurance coverage under the law.

Advisers say employers are increasingly purchasing voluntary dental plans as an effort to cut costs, meet new ACA requirements and retain employees.

Benefit advisers are hopeful Sylvia Mathews Burwell will repair strained communications between industry and HHS, while others view her nomination as largely a political move designed to push Obama’s divisive health care reform agenda.

With the departure of the HHS secretary comes an opportunity for brokers and agents to have their voices heard by a new leader as they continue to assist consumers with the ACA’s exchanges.

Commentary: Columnist Craig Davidson questions whether this was a true resignation or was she a "sacrificial lamb?"