Explore how America’s health-care overhaul will affect you on this first-person adventure.
In the aftermath of last week’s surprise 2014 waiver of the employer-mandate to provide health insurance or face a fine, HealthPocket surveyed consumers to assess their feelings regarding the decision not to extend a similar penalty waiver to uninsured consumers.
For employers with 50 or more workers in 2014,1 there was a $2,000 penalty per full time employee for those employees not provided health insurance meeting the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. This insure-or-face-a-penalty provision does not become active for employers until 2015 now that the waiver for 2014 has been announced. However, most consumers still face a penalty for being uninsured starting in 2014. The 2014 penalty amount for individuals is 1% of their annual income or $95, whichever is the larger amount. Families face higher penalties than individuals and the penalty amount itself increases each year until 2016 when it reaches $695 or 2.5% of annual income for individuals, whichever is larger. After 2016 the penalty is adjusted based on cost-of-living.
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The delay of the ACA’s employer mandate threw employers a curve ball, and employees nationwide have also expressed confusion about upcoming changes to their health plans. Plan sponsors can help clear up the confusion this summer with these 10 tips for communicating the Affordable Care Act.
1. Leverage best practices
Apply solid change management principles and use those communication approaches that work in your organization.
2. Apply a filter
Focus your messages on actionable information about available coverage, choices and the impact of those choices on personal finances.
3. Avoid ‘wonkiness’
Keep politics out of your messages as much as possible — stick to the facts.
4. Keep it simple
Write to an eighth-grade reading level to make it as easy as possible for everyone to understand health care reform.
5. Tailor as needed
The ACA may impact different employee groups in different ways. Think through the messages that affect all employees and those messages that affect only specific audiences.
6. Integrate with annual enrollment
Integrate messages, media channels and overall approach with your annual enrollment communication.
7. Use a range of media
Convey your messages through an array of media channels to increase your chances of getting the messages across.
8. Focus on compliance
Materials impacted by the 2014 ACA provisions include summary plan descriptions and summary material modifications documents, as well as the required exchange notices.
9. Develop a plan
Create an action plan that ensures you are focused on what is most important — covering all of the relevant provisions and audiences.
10. Capitalize on the opportunity
Use the widespread health focus to put tangible health and wellness opportunities in front of employees and their families.
Source: Employee Benefit News
Obama Administration announced through two blog posts that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be delayed one year. The first blog post was on the Department of Treasury website, that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), would be delayed until January of 2015. Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, in a statement Tuesday that “We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so. We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action.”
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Many have asked for a break out of the Health Savings Accounts Video. Here is a 3 part Series that covers the video in it’s entirety complete with segment titles as follows:
– Health Savings Accounts: Introduction and Insurance Overview (Part 1)
– Health Savings Accounts: A Brief History (Part 2)
– Health Savings Accounts: Current Application (Part 3)
