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Insurance

Workplace lexicon: Value-based insurance design

01/14/2014
This is the insurance industry’s lingo for a system of carrots and sticks that rewards patients for undergoing medical procedures with a good track record of success (think flu vaccines and hypertension treatment) and penalizes them for treatment of questionable value (hip-replacement surgery and many kinds of high-tech imaging, for example).

More small businesses might drop health benefits

01/13/2014
The Affordable Care Act probably won’t prompt many large employers to drop health insurance benefits, but small businesses are more likely to do so than they were last year, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.

Boomers ‘terrified’ of out-of-control health care costs

01/08/2014
More than three in five (61%) pre-retirees now say they are “terrified” of what health care costs may do to their retirement plans, according to a new Harris poll.

ACA out-of-pocket limits delayed for multiple-provider scenarios

01/06/2014
The Department of Labor has announced an exception to the general yearly out-of-pocket expense limits under the ACA.

ACA: Employers, nondiscrimination rules and the Cadillac tax

01/03/2014
For most employers, the substantive provisions of the ACA have been implemented. But employers subject to the ACA’s employer mandate, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, have some complicated issues to sort out: How yet-to-be-settled nondiscrimination rules and the looming “Cadillac tax” will affect their benefits plans.

High-deductible plans curb health care cost growth

12/27/2013
In the past four years, the cost of health care in the United States grew at about half the annual rate it did from 1990 to 2007. What accounts for the cost slowdown? Economists attributed much of the bending cost curve to the rise of high-deductible health insurance plans.

Sad but true: Sick employee may not get unemployment

12/24/2013
When an employee who would other­­wise qualify for unemployment benefits can’t work because she’s too ill, she loses her eligibility.

Where do we get health insurance?

12/13/2013
More than half of Americans are insured through an employer-provided health plan, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

ACA SHOPs postponed one year, HHS urges using brokers instead

12/02/2013
Small business owners won’t be able go online to buy health insurance for their employees until November 2014. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services suggests doing it the old-fashioned way—through a broker.

Penalties rival incentives as work health tactic

11/27/2013
Employers will use both carrots and sticks to keep workers healthier and stem the tide of higher health care costs, according to the 2013/2014 Towers Watson Staying@Work Survey.