Insurance

Health benefit affordability safe harbor leans on payroll

10/30/2011

Under the Affordable Care Act health care reform law, employers will pay a penalty if just one employee enrolls in coverage through the individual exchange and receives a premium tax credit and his or her contribution isn’t affordable because it exceeds 9.5% of his or her household income. Problem: You usually don’t know employees’ household income. To remedy this, the IRS is proposing an employer affordability safe harbor.

Higher rates approved for state employee health plans

10/26/2011

New Jersey and its public employees will pay more for health insurance coverage next year. Rates for 2012 health insurance plans will rise by an average of 9% for active state employees, 3% for retirees and a whopping 10.3% for municipal employees.

Kansas City employers save $11 million with wellness

10/24/2011

A group of employers that participated in the Kansas City Collaborative avoided almost $11 million in direct health care costs by giving employees and their dependents access to better health information and making it easier to get preventive care.

DOJ asks Supreme Court to fast-track ACA decision

10/12/2011

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act health care reform law, paving the way for a fast-tracked decision that—regardless of which way it goes—will affect comp and benefits professionals for years to come.

10 ways to perk up open enrollment season

10/10/2011

The double-whammy of incessant media focus on health care reform, plus employees’ acute awareness of rising health care premiums, means they’re paying attention to their benefits in a way that most never did before. You can capitalize on this trend by using this open enrollment season to make an extra effort to educate workers about their health benefits and help them decide which plan options work best for them.

Coming in 2012: Revamped health plan summaries

10/07/2011

A common gripe among employees is that they don’t understand their health care plans. As a result, they end up making mistakes and choosing plans that don’t meet their health care needs or budgets. The federal government aims to diminish confusion by changing the way employers explain health care plans to employees.

Supreme Court asked to fast-track decision on health reform law

10/04/2011

The Obama administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act health care reform law—the administration’s hallmark domestic legislative achievement—paving the way for a fast-tracked decision that, regardless of which way it goes, will affect HR professionals for years to come.

HRAs Off the Hook for Annual Waiver Limits

10/01/2011

For plan years beginning Sept. 23, 2011, unless the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grants a waiver, group health plans that impose annual or lifetime limits on the dollar value of essential benefits are restricted to imposing an annual limit of $1.25 million.

HHS bans co-pays for birth control, other services

09/12/2011

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidelines in August that require health insurance plans to cover eight different kinds of women’s preventive services without charging a co-payment or deductible.

Small business? Use tax credit to help pay for insurance

08/23/2011

One goal of last year’s federal health-care reform legislation was to make it more affordable for small business owners to offer health insurance benefits to employees. So, tucked into the Affordable Care Act is a little-noticed but potentially invaluable provision that could save small businesses thousands of dollars per year.