Healthcare reform

Through strategic partnerships, small brokerages can compete on a national level.

Three million people have enrolled in private health plans offered through the Obamacare insurance exchanges, U.S. officials said.

A Missouri law requiring licenses for counselors who help consumers find health insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges was temporarily blocked by a U.S. judge, setting back a measure by a state hostile to the federal health care overhaul statute.

As a result of the continued uncertainty of Affordable Care Act’s impact, Moody’s changed the outlook for U.S. health insurers to negative from stable.

Excepted benefits are specified limited scope health benefits that are exempt or excepted from the insurance market reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act and the health insurance requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1986, known as HIPAA.

The percentage of adults without health insurance in the U.S. fell this month to the lowest level since the end of 2012 as the core provisions of Obamacare took effect, a Gallup poll found.

Some small businesses are facing a potential “double whammy” in 2016 from the Affordable Care Act, one expert warns.

Humana Inc. was sued by a Missouri man who claimed the insurer raised premiums for him and other customers and then failed to respond to requests to cancel policies, allegedly to increase revenue under the Affordable Care Act in what may be the first such lawsuit.

CMS accelerated $90 million deal, rather than go through normal one-year bidding process, as it did not believe current contractor could complete work on ‘urgently needed’ functionalities.

Health care exchanges and other issues related to the Affordable Care Act have garnered a great deal of attention. However, additional and less well-known ACA regulations went into effect on January 1. One of these impacts wellness programs, including the myriad initiatives employers have put in place to encourage employees to exercise, lose weight and otherwise improve their health to prevent illness, disability and its costs.

Small-group employers are still particularly perplexed about their ACA options. Here are four options to leverage with these clients.

From actual call center data glitches to hard-to-define input, brokers across the country on both the state and federal exchanges expect to be shorted for their work enrolling participants during the Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment period.

The plaintiffs who lost a recent lawsuit trying to prevent the federal government from providing tax credits to purchase health insurance on federal exchanges have filed for an expedited appeal in the case.

With Obamacare bearing down on them, a doctors’ group said emergency rooms are less able to provide quality care, and more resources will be needed to handle an expected surge of patients from the new law.

The recent news that 70 percent of Obamacare’s customers are 35 years of age or older poses challenges, specifically related to those in the 18-34-year-old age group, Moody’s says.

Enrollment in Obamacare health plans for small businesses is off to a slow start, leaving in doubt whether the U.S. program can attract enough customers to satisfy insurers.

Despite assurances from the Department of Health and Human Services that Healthcare.gov is secure, Committee on Oversight & Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calf.) said Thursday that we “must assume that website is still vulnerable and Americans may have [personally identifiable information] hacked and taken.”

Magic Johnson, who is living proof of the value of early medical detection with health insurance, is broadcasting that message on behalf of Obamacare.

From the Midwest to Texas to the West Coast, these brokers are opening their doors to walk-ins who need help complying with the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act. Will this store front trend catch on with others in the industry and, perhaps more importantly, is it sustainable?

A federal district court judge has ruled in favor of the federal government in a lawsuit that claimed the Internal Revenue Service did not have the authority under the Affordable Care Act to write rules providing tax credits to individuals purchasing health insurance on the health insurance exchange set up by the federal government.