Skip to main content

Home/ ACA for MandM/ Group items tagged employee

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mal Allison

HEALTH REFORM: Expect Pluses, Minuses for Those With Job-Based Coverage - iVillage - 0 views

www.ivillage.com/...4-a-547763

ACA employer-based insurance

shared by Mal Allison on 01 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Beginning in 2014, for instance, the reform package prohibits employer-sponsored health plans from excluding people from coverage based on pre-existing health conditions
  • It also makes larger employers responsible for offering medical coverage. Beginning Jan. 1, 2015, businesses with more than 50 workers must offer health insurance to full-time workers and dependents or pay penalties.
  • annual limits will be banned completely in 2014.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Also, if you have an adult child under age 26 and your employer health plan offers coverage for dependents, the plan must allow your son or daughter to enroll. Spiro called th
  • The law also requires most employer health plans to offer certain preventive services at no cost to the employee.
  • Effective Jan. 1, 2014, the law allows employers to boost rewards and penalties (such as premium discounts or surcharges) to 30 percent of the total plan premium, up from 20 percent.
  • ne in five employers has boosted employees' share of health plan premiums,
  • HealthCare Advocates, which helps consumers resolve health insurance problems. "I think at the end of the day, everybody's going to be paying more," he said.
  • e IFEBP survey also estimates that about 16 percent of employers are trimming worker hours to part-time status so fewer employees will qualify for health-plan benefits.
  • Beginning in 2015, large employers -- those with at least 50 full-time workers -- must provide health insurance to employees who log an average of 30 or more hours a week or pay penalties.
  • A study published earlier this year by the University of California, Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found that 2.3 million workers nationwide -- particularly retail and restaurant workers -- are at risk of losing hours as a result of the new law.
  • A growing number of midsize and large employers -- 25 percent in 2014 and 44 percent in 2015 -- are also saying they're likely to discontinue health coverage for Medicare-eligible retirees, a new Towers Watson & Co. survey found.
  • Starting in 2018, the law imposes a steep tax on employer plans with premiums exceeding $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family -- plans that are typically offered to high-wage earner
  • About 17 percent of employers are redesigning their high-cost plans to avoid this so-called "Cadillac tax," while 40 percent are considering i
  • The percentage of Americans receiving health insurance on the job or through a family member's job slipped from 69.7 percent in 2000 to 59.5 percent in 2011,
  • Staggering increases in health insurance premiums also contributed to the decline, resulting in fewer employers offering coverage and fewer employees accepting it.
  • Congressional Budget Office estimates suggest that as many as 7 million people will lose job-based coverage by 2017 a
  • But just 26 percent are confident that they will be offering health-care benefits a decade from no
  • r Center, has summarized provisions of the Affordable Care Act affecting employer-sponsored insurance.
  • To read part one of the series, how to navigate the new health insurance exchanges, click here.
  • Mal Allison on 01 Oct 13
     
    Experts say smaller companies that employ 50 or more workers and currently provide health insurance may drop coverage because it would be cheaper to pay fines than maintain coverage for all of their workers. Most large employers (with more than 1,000 employees) remain committed to providing health benefits for the next five years, according to an employer survey by Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health. But just 26 percent are confident that they will be offering health-care benefits a decade from now. Meanwhile, a number of large employers are eyeing private health insurance exchanges as a way to continue providing job-based coverage while controlling spending on health benefits. Much like the public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, private exchanges represent a new way for employees and families to shop for group health coverage and other benefits. Instead of offering a limited number of health plans, the employer would give workers a set amount of money to buy their own coverage. Kaiser, who works in Gallagher Benefit Services' Mount Laurel, N.J., office, anticipates a slow migration toward private exchanges. "I don't think it's going to be a mass disruption of employer-sponsored plans where they all go, 'I'm out of the game,'" he said. More information The University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, has summarized provisions of the Affordable Care Act affecting employer-sponsored insurance.
Mal Allison

Employers: Don t answer employee exchange questions - Articles - Employee Benefit News - 0 views

ebn.benefitnews.com/...hange-questions-2736717-1.html

employers exchanges rules

shared by Mal Allison on 04 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • An employee who worked 1,800 hours over the course of the measurement period would average 34.6 hours per week, and would thus be eligible for coverage.  The “administrative period,” which can be up to 90 days, is the period where you enroll these eligible employees. The “stability period,” which has to be at least as long as the measurement period, defines how long they will have coverage.
  • Just remember that, starting in 2015, employees always have to be in a stability period for full compliance. So employers should not wait until October of next year to start planning.  Even though the mandate is delayed, employers still have to prepare.
Mal Allison

Business Boondoggle: Shedding the Cost of Health Care | The Fiscal Times - 0 views

www.thefiscaltimes.com/...ggle-Shedding-Cost-Health-Care

business portability true cost of insurance

shared by Mal Allison on 19 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • he actions of these other employers don’t detract from the unique nature of Walgreens’ decision. Two months earlier, the retailer announced its partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to extol the benefits of Obamacare to its employees and its customers. Their website still features the effort, and brochures continue to be distributed even while the corporation itself realizes that compliance must force it to abandon employer-provided health insurance for the people in the stores distributing the brochures to customers.
  • With the CBO predicting that rising health-care costs would increase at twice the rate of other federal spending, the same increase in costs will now be borne almost entirely by employees.  Finally, it appears that the private-exchange option will satisfy the employer mandate, which means that the employees cannot bail out of these private exchanges in order to qualify for federal subsidies, which prevents the employers from having to pay increasing fines for non-compliance.
  • limit the liability of the third-party payer.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • s opposed to the Independent Payment Advisory Board and its “death panel”-like power. 
  • nce, and now employees will get more than just one or two options at open enrollment, with twenty-five plans available in the Aon exchange.
  • This arrangement makes the consumer the customer of the exchanges from the very beginning.  A termination would only impact the subsidy, which the consumer/employee could negotiate as part of his compensation package with his next employer. 
  • is to restore price signals on health care back to the consumer through the elimination of third-party payers and middlemen. 
Mal Allison

Employers Turn to Private Health Exchanges to Cut Costs - Bloomberg - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...lth-exchange-to-cut-costs.html

employers exchanges private

shared by Mal Allison on 19 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • One-third of U.S. employers plan to move their workers’ health-care coverage to a private exchange in the next few years, a survey found, following the le
  • Health spending in the U.S. is expected to increase more than 6 percent this year and 6.2 percent annually from 2015-2022 as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes full effect and millions of Americans gain insurance, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  • Under Obamacare, companies that don’t offer coverage for their employees will be fined $2,000 per employee. Employers spend $6,000 per employee on average, so d
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • They found that 5 percent of the companies surveyed may drop employee health-care coverage in the next three to five years, an increase from 1 percent now
  • About 38 percent of the companies surveyed by Aon said they would offer no benefits to part-time workers within the next three to five years.
  • Only 25 percent of large employers offer subsidized retiree health benefits, Aon said, down from about 50 percent in 2004.
Mal Allison

Data mining helps manage employer health care risks - Articles - Employee Benefit News - 0 views

ebn.benefitnews.com/...alth-care-risks-2734952-1.html

data mining population management

shared by Mal Allison on 21 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • And all of this translates to a healthier bottom line. According to the consulting firm Aon Hewitt, population health management can help employers save as much as $700 per employee per year when they focus on any three of these eight major health care behaviors, which contribute to 80% of the cases of chronic illness: poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, lack of health screening, poor standard of care, insufficient sleep, excess alcohol intake and poor stress management.
  • Mal Allison on 21 Aug 13
     
    And all of this translates to a healthier bottom line. According to the consulting firm Aon Hewitt, population health management can help employers save as much as $700 per employee per year when they focus on any three of these eight major health care behaviors, which contribute to 80% of the cases of chronic illness: poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, lack of health screening, poor standard of care, insufficient sleep, excess alcohol intake and poor stress management.
Mal Allison

Massachusetts companies weigh trimming employee benefits in response to federal health ... - 0 views

www.bostonglobe.com/...story.html

massachusetts companies employee benefits health law ACA

shared by Mal Allison on 02 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Delta Airlines has reduced the generous health benefits offered to its pilots in order to avoid a new federal tax on costly health plans, known as the “Cadillac tax.” Starting in 2018, most employers must pay a 40 percent excise tax on the amount that premiums for a health plan exceed $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family. “Given enough years, all plans will eventually risk being subject to the Cadillac tax and as they do, the natural reaction will be to continually reduce benefits provided,” wrote a Delta executive in a memo.
Mal Allison

Study: Employees often pick lower-cost health plans - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...2499957

employees HDHP ACO

shared by Mal Allison on 09 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • The number of people enrolled in health savings accounts (HSA) has more than tripled in the last six years from 4.5 million people in January 2007 to 15.5 million in January 2013, according to America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade association that represents health insurers.
  • In the future, Cohen said he expects to see several options used more widely to lower costs, such as rewards for low cholesterol or keeping diabetes under control, incentives to join gyms and benefits for participating in healthy lifestyle programs.
  • The data also shows that businesses could save money while providing their employees with more choices, he said. Some of those choices, such as closed-network programs or single primary-care physician-based programs, have been avoided in the past because the common wisdom is that people don't like being limited by what doctors they may see.
Mal Allison

Do workplace wellness programs work? - latimes.com - 0 views

www.latimes.com/...grams-20130912,0,2604075.story

workplace wellness

shared by Mal Allison on 16 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • For employees, perhaps the most telling red flag from the study is that their employers may be saving money not by making them healthy but rather by shifting healthcare costs onto them. "Our evidence suggests that savings to employers may come from cost shifting, with the most vulnerable employees — those from lower socioeconomic strata with the most health risks — bearing higher costs that in effect subsidize their healthier colleagues," wrote the authors.
Mal Allison

Online Health Exchanges for Small Businesses Hit Snag - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...3796404579099310270573146.html

online health exchanges small biz

shared by Mal Allison on 27 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • The Obama administration said in April it was scaling back the complexity of the small-business marketplace by delaying by one year a feature to allow employees of such businesses to pick from a range of plans, instead of the company selecting one on workers' behalf.
  • Business owners will be allowed to submit a paper application using a PDF form starting Tuesday, but they won't be able to complete an electronic application until a few weeks later, the official said. A call center for businesses will open Tuesday for employers who want help completing the paper application.
  • Mal Allison on 27 Sep 13
     
    The Obama administration said in April it was scaling back the complexity of the small-business marketplace by delaying by one year a feature to allow employees of such businesses to pick from a range of plans, instead of the company selecting one on workers' behalf.
1 - 20 of 60 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page