The IRS has loosened restrictions on employees who want to make changes to their group health plans and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) in the middle of the policy year. IRS rules are typically stringent and rigid, barring changes from being made to health plans except during open enrollment. Under the new rules, the employer would [...]
A number of plan sponsors have made changes to their group health plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as covering testing and sometimes treatment without any cost-sharing by the plan enrollee. But any changes that are made must be followed up by amending the plan and communicating the changes to the enrollees. Under [...]
One less-touted aspect of the Affordable Care Act is that it provides employers more tools for assisting employees with substance-abuse problems to seek help. According to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 10% of America’s workers are dependent on one substance or another. The study also found that 3.1% have [...]
Employers, health insurers, regulators and hospitals are all raising concerns about the Trump administration’s rules issued last year that allow employers to fund health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) that their workers can use to purchase health plans on the open market. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, IRS and the Department of Labor issued the [...]
Starting Jan. 1, 2020, employers can establish accounts for their employees to help them pay for individual health insurance policies they purchase, as well as for other health care expenses. A new regulation expands on how health reimbursement accounts can be used. Currently, employers and their workers can contribute to these accounts, which can be [...]
There are typically two approaches to securing health coverage for your staff – group health insurance or self-funding. Self-funding, however, can be costly and risky and is usually only done by larger organizations with thousands of employees. But there is a hybrid model that can help small and mid-sized employers provide their staff with affordable [...]
A new report by the trade publication Modern Healthcare shows just how little short-term care plans spend on enrollees’ medical claims. The report found that some plans spent as little as 9 cents of every premium dollar they collected on medical care. The average paid out among the short-term plans analyzed in a report by the National [...]
As the workforce ages and many employers want to keep on baby-boomer staff who have the experience and institutional knowledge that is irreplaceable, one issue that always comes up is how to handle health insurance. Once your older workers reach the age of eligibility for Medicare, under current law you can help them pay for [...]
The Trump administration has issued new rules that would allow employers to provide workers with funds in health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) that can be used to purchase health insurance on the individual market. The rule reverses a long-standing part of the Affordable Care Act that carried hefty fines of up to $36,500 a year per [...]
It’s no secret that the cost of pharmaceuticals is going through the roof. You’ve heard the stories of price-gouging by some companies that have jacked up prices thousands of percent. Drug costs are starting to weigh heavily on the cost of care, in turn driving up health insurance premiums, which individuals, employees and employers are [...]
