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Tag: Employer Group

Many Employees Hit with Higher Health Care Premiums

More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and many don’t have the money to cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds. More than half of companies (56%) increased employees’ share of health care premiums or co-payments for doctors’ visits in 2013, and 59% of employers say they intend to do the same in 2014, according to the annual Aflac WorkForces Report. It’s based on a survey of 1,856 employers and 5,209 employees at small, medium and large-size companies.

Read full article here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

 

BREAKING: White House Considering Cleveland Clinic’s Cosgrove to Lead VA

Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove is under consideration to replace Eric Shinseki as secretary of Veteran Affairs.

Modern Healthcare confirmed the potential pick after an initial report late Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal. The Cleveland Clinic declined to comment.

Cosgrove’s name was not on the initial list of possible nominees that surfaced last week after Shinseki resigned amid an ongoing scandal involving egregiously long waits and secret wait lists for veterans to get care at VA facilities around the country.

Shinseki’s replacement was widely expected to be someone with either military or VA experience. Previously mentioned possibilities include Sloan Gibson, Shinseki’s interim replacement; former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.); Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli; Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); and Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full report here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

​Senators Pledge Support for Agents and Brokers to CMS

Nearly two months after filing broker-friendly legislation in the U.S. Senate, five senators including Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Administrator Marilyn Tavenner “in support of health insurance agents and brokers that have been some of the most actively engaged stakeholders in getting millions of Americans covered.”
Landrieu is the primary sponsor of the bills that dropped March 27 pursuing changes to the 2015 open enrollment process for brokers enrolling consumers on the Affordable Care Act’s public health insurance exchanges. The recent letter echoed the requests in the bill including a dedicated hotline for agents and brokers to expedite their enrollment questions, allowing for a broker’s name to be added to a consumer’s application at any time to assist with compensation issues, posting a registry of certified agents and brokers on the Healthcare.gov website and enhanced communication with the group about regulation changes.

Read full article here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

 

The Affordable Care Act and Wellness Programs

On June 3, 2013, the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human
Services jointly issued final rules regarding proposed amendments to regulations, to
be consistent with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), relating to wellness programs in
group health coverage. The final rules were first proposed on Nov. 26, 2012.
The final rules replace the current HIPAA wellness program rules and also
implement the nondiscrimination provisions made applicable to the individual
market by Section 1201 of the ACA.
The wellness program exception to the prohibition on discrimination under the
existing rules and the ACA applies to group health plans (and any health insurance
coverage offered in connection with such plans), but does not apply to health
insurance coverage offered in the individual market. The final rules apply to all
grandfathered and non-grandfathered fully insured and self-funded group health
plans for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014.
As under the current rules, there are two types of wellness programs: participatory
and health-contingent.
Participatory wellness programs either do not provide a reward or do not include
any conditions for obtaining a reward that are based on an individual satisfying a
standard related to a health factor. Participatory wellness programs are not subject
to five key requirements to which health-contingent programs are.
Examples include:
 ​

Programs that reimburse employees for all or part of the cost of fitness center

testing programs.

Diagnostic testing programs that provide a reward for participation and do

not base any part of the reward on outcomes.

​See http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/fswellnessprogram.pdf for more information

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.