Healthcare reform

How will the ACA and associated changes in the employee benefit market impact the role of the broker? A recent LIMRA survey of small businesses reveals areas where brokers need to step up to the plate.

AOL Inc. blamed President Barack Obama’s health care law for its plan to reduce spending on contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement plans.

As the dust settles over the Affordable Care Act and employees get used to operating in the post-ACA world, plan sponsors find themselves in somewhat of a holding pattern with regards to their pharmacy benefits. But strategic decisions are still in play about whether or not employers are going to provide traditional benefit plans once the employer mandate goes into effect in 2015 or send workers to public or private exchanges.

Health plans allowed to continue in 2014 though they don’t comply with new Obamacare rules may be extended for as long as three years, Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini told investors.

Health insurers under pressure to keep premiums low are eliminating some hospitals from coverage in a cost-cutting strategy that threatens to freeze out centers that provide specialized care, limiting patient options.

Humana Inc. said it has received 202,000 applications for health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges and reaffirmed its 2014 forecast citing better-than-expected Medicare membership growth.

Commentary: The other shoe dropped on Tuesday and columnist Craig Davidson isn't shocked.

Obamacare will reduce the total number of hours Americans work by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs in 2017, mostly among low-wage earners, the Congressional Budget Office said.

Insurers participating in Obamacare may have to expand their plans to include more federally funded health clinics, safety-net hospitals and other medical providers used by low-income people, under a U.S. proposal.

Changes in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act could pose a challenge for the Internal Revenue Service's customer service, according to a new government report.

President Barack Obama said neither he nor members of his administration anticipated the magnitude of the flaws that hobbled the startup of the federal website for people to choose health-care plans under his new law.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday shows Americans’ bad perception of the ACA is near an all-time high. Meanwhile, brokers’ negativity about their ability to do their jobs on the exchanges has subsided.

Premiums for health plans on new state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act are comparable to – and in some cases lower than – those being offered by employers with similar levels of coverage, according to a study released Thursday by PricewaterhouseCooper’s Health Research Institute.

Despite fixes made to the health insurance marketplaces, two-thirds of Americans (66%) surveyed in mid-January still say the opening has “not gone well” or worse, according to a new Associated Press-GfK survey.

WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. medical insurer, added 500,000 new members since Obamacare enrollment began and while they are older and sicker than current members, CEO isn’t worried about the risk pool.

EBA recently introduced a concept several brokers across the country are embracing — the retail storefront. But one broker doesn’t just want to attract individual clients to walk-in, he plans to use the space to enhance offerings for his group client employees, too.

More than half of Americans do not know the date by which they must purchase health insurance to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision, according to a Bankrate.com survey.

Republican U.S. senators opposed to Obamacare said the best alternative would be a narrower system of tax credits for Americans to buy health insurance without any of the mandates for people or companies to participate.

A recent assessment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 2013 actions points to a trending change among discriminatory enforcement in disability policies that will most likely lead to additional headaches among companies trying to stay above water.

The vast majority of U.S. companies said the implementation of the Obama administration’s health care law will have no effect on their businesses or hiring plans, according to results of a poll issued Monday.