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Preventative Care For Everyone!

Critics  state that health care cost are driven higher and higher as a direct result of the third-party payer system. These critics certainly will not be happy that the federal government has now mandated that preventative services be included in future insurance plans. This continues the debate regarding prospectively funded health plans vs. insurance plans that are merely a financial vehicle to protect. According to the federal laws, we all need to now insure for preventative care.

Birth control will soon be a covered service in your health insurance plan with no cost sharing, whether you want it or not. So will a number of other services:

  • Well-woman visits
  • Screening for gestational diabetes
  • Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing for women 30
    years and older
  • Sexually-transmitted infection counseling
  • Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and counseling
  • FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive
    counseling
  • Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling
  • Domestic violence screening and counseling

Read more at HealthCare.gov and go here for a list of preventative services.

2012 HSA Contribution Limits

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the 2012 contribution limits for health savings accounts (HSA) and cost-sharing amounts for HSA-eligible, high-deductible health plans (HDHP).

  • Annual HSA contribution limits will be $3,100 for individual and $6,250 for family coverage. That is increased slightly from $3,050 for individual and $6,150 for family coverage in 2011.
  • Maximum out-of-pocket expenses (deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance) for HSA-eligible health plans will be $6,050 for individual and $12,100 for family coverage. Those are also slight increases from the 2011 out-of-pocket maximums of $5,950 and $11,900 in 2011.
  • A health plan must have deductibles of at least $1,200 for individual and $2,400 for family coverage in order to make participants eligible to open HSAs. Those are unchanged from 2011.

Nondiscrimination Based on a Health Factor and Wellness Programs (HCR)

Leaks are a great tool for Washington to use to test the waters. To get reactions that other methods may not necessarily produce.  While a FAQ published by the office of Health and Human Services may not necessarily qualify as a Washington leak, it does give our federal regulatory agency an opportunity to test the waters with proposed regulations. Referred by some as sub-regulatory guidance, FAQs are a useful way for the government to test proposed regulation.

http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/factsheets/aca_implementation_faqs5.html#nondiscrimination

Nondiscrimination Based on a Health Factor and Wellness Programs (HCR) within HHS 5th release of FAQ on (HCR) offer users some guidance on the use of wellness programs and incentives.  These are not final regulations but sub-regulatory guidance.  Read with care.

 

 

“Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople”

Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_seven_personality_traits_o.html

Off the track of health care: A recent post from the Harvard Business Review highlight results of a study on the personality traits of salespeople. Conventional wisdom seems to boast salespeople as arrogant or an outward need to express their accomplishments, evidence from the study shows otherwise.

A good read for those organizations that employ salespeople.