Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Insights on Affordable Care Act’s Health Ins. Exchanges or Marketplaces

There has been much speculation concerning the Affordable Care Acts so called “Health Insurance Marketplaces” (formerly referred to as Health Insurance Exchanges). Many questions have been hanging in the air such as:
1. will insurance cos. choose to participate in these exchanges?;
2. how many insurers will opt to participate?;
3. what will premiums look like inside the exchange?;
4. will the exchanges be operational in time to place coverage effective 1/1/14?
Today it was announced that the state of California’s exchange (which choose to operate its own exchange, rather than defaulting …

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Consumer Driven Healthcare (CDH) Arrives…17 Years Later!

A recent Omaha World Herald article featured an article titled: Let the Comparison Shopping Begin. It’s about time! Back in 1996, the large scale health care reform law of its day – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – included an extremely important provision referred to as the “Medical Savings Account (MSA) pilot project”. What we didn’t realize at the time, was this provision represented the birth of so called “consumer driven healthcare” or CDH. The idea was quite simple. Instead of relying on comprehensive health insurance coverage as the single source of funding of ALL health care; offer instead a two (2) pronged approach.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Insights on Affordable Care Act’s Health Ins. Exchanges or Marketplaces

There has been much speculation concerning the Affordable Care Act’s so called “Health Insurance Marketplaces” (formerly referred to as Health Insurance Exchanges).  Many questions have been hanging in the air such as: 1. will insurance cos. choose to participate in these exchanges?; 2. how many insurers will opt to participate?; 3. what will premiums lookLEARN MORE

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

IRS Announces 2014 HSA Limitations

The IRS has made their annual determinations relative to HSA contribution limits and allowable plan related out of pocket maximums for next year.
For 2014, the contribution maximums are increasing to:
2014: Individual – $3,330; Family – $6,550.
There is NO CHANGE to the MINIMUM DEDUCTIBLE on HSA qualified plans; but the maximum out of pocket limit increases to:
2014: Individual – $6,350; Family – $12,700.