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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

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.
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  • 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

With Change Coming, Aetna Targets Employers - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...g-aetna-targets-employers.html

Aetna ACO ACA patient data

shared by Mal Allison on 03 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Mr. Mead cited a report by the Institute of Medicine that tallied more than $760 billion in health care “waste” created annually as a result of consumer fraud, unnecessary procedures and excessive administrative costs.
  • r. Mead said the campaign also stressed the need for health care providers to shift to a model known as “accountable care,” which shifts their reimbursement models for health care professionals from being paid for the volume of services they perform to being paid based on the outcomes of patient care. Accountable care systems are usually linked to technologies that help health care providers measure performance and manage patient data. Aetna has 27 accountable health care agreements with hospitals and other health care providers around the country.
  • Bertolini said in the video. “If we fix just 20 percent of it, we could pay for the Affordable Care Act. We could insure everyone without increasing taxes.”
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  • The fee-for-service model is broken,” Mr. Mead said. “The Affordable Care Act encourages the system to move to accountable care,” he added. “The challenge with that is that doctors and hospitals need technology and support to make that work.”
  • He noted how costs could vary widely depending on where a person lived and who their insurer was. “It shouldn’t vary that much,” Mr. Huckman said.
  • Mal Allison on 03 Sep 13
     
    Aetna, one of the largest of the companies, will introduce a new campaign on Tuesday aimed at those groups. It will highlight the company's goal of cutting billions of dollars of expenditures through so-called Big Data, electronic health records and other technologies as well as encouraging better coordination among health care providers. The campaign, called "Our Healthy," will run online, in print and on mobile devices through the end of 2013.
Mal Allison

States experimenting to lower health care costs - 0 views

bigstory.ap.org/...enting-lower-health-care-costs

states lower health care

shared by Mal Allison on 04 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • "Look at any of the long-term projections for the federal budget or for state budgets," said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. "If we don't bring down health care costs, we're either going to be paying a whole lot more in taxes or we're going to stop spending money on other things we care about."
  • "It has to end eventually," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, "because we can't have an economy driven entirely by health care."
Mal Allison

Why employers are shifting retiree health into insurance exchanges | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...tirement-idUSBREA2A1D620140311

employers health insurance exchanges retirees

shared by Mal Allison on 12 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Thirty percent of companies that provide coverage to Medicare-eligible retirees (age 65 and over) already have moved to exchanges, according to an Aon Hewitt survey of more than 1,230 employers released last month.
  • For Medicare-eligible retirees, employer benefits are supplemental. Retirees who use traditional fee-for-service Medicare might be offered a Part D (prescription drug) benefit, and a subsidized Medigap plan, which plugs coverage gaps in fee-for-service Medicare. Retirees using Medicare Advantage (all-in-one managed care plans) receive a subsidy toward buying those plans.
  • oving to exchanges also can help employers avoid the looming risk of the so-called Cadillac tax on rich-benefit insurance plans.
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  • hey'll need it. A 2012 study of Part D enrollment data by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that seniors waste hundreds of dollars annually by purchasing levels of coverage that they do not actually need. Just 5 percent picked the most cost-effective plan, and more than 30 percent overspent by $3
Mal Allison

Rush is on to get health care under old insurance plans - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...3500107

HDHP employers health insurance shopping for healthcare

shared by Mal Allison on 12 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • A national survey by Aon Hewitt consultants suggests that the Affordable Care Act's taxes and fees add 1% to 2% in direct costs to employers.
  • The Aon Hewitt survey found that 44% of companies are considering offering workers just one health-insurance plan — a high-deductible plan — rather than offer a high-deductible plan plus a more traditional plan that covers 70% to 80% of medical costs.
  • But those people will not get government subsidies if their company offers affordable health insurance, defined as costing less than 9.5% of income.And such employees would lose their employer's contribution to their plan unless the company agreed to provide such a payment in lieu of coverage.
Mal Allison

Obamacare's original sin: Implementation delays driven by dumb talking points were a hu... - 0 views

www.slate.com/...en_by_dumb_talking_points.html

obamacare cost CBO original sin

shared by Mal Allison on 01 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • “You lie!” in the middle of the president’s reassurances that unauthorized immigrants to the U.S. wouldn’t receive health benefits. It also included these fateful words: “The plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years—less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.”
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