Last weeks blog post recognized (and celebrated!) the upcoming 10th birthday of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in 2014. Recognizing that some readers don't necessarily understand all the “ins and out;s” of HSAs, this weeks post offers an in depth overview, and addresses many of the key requirements, limitations, benefits, etc. Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HSAs!
A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a tax-favored savings account used to pay qualified medical expenses (See IRS Publication 502; click – http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf ), in conjunction with a QUALIFIED HIGH DEDUCTIBLE HEALTH PLAN. Some have described them as a “medical IRA”.
The attractiveness and establishment of HSAs continues to grow, as HSAs approach their 10th birthday. For many, it has long since been forgotten how they came to be, save for those “consumer driven health care geeks like yours truly. While many realize that HSAs or Health Savings Accounts, replaced MSAs (Medical Savings Accounts) starting in January of 2004, how they came to be is rather interesting, if not disjointed. Actually, HSAs were created by the very law that gave us the largest expansion of Medicare since its origin in 1965 – the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (later referred to as the MMA), signed by then President George W. Bush on December 8, 2003.
Back in May of this year (2013) the Department of Labor set a new deadline of OCTOBER 1, 2013 (originally March 1, 2013) for most employers to provide notices to their employees pertaining to the soon to be formed health insurance marketplaces. Since this deadline is rapidly approaching, this week’s blog post is dedicated to assisting readers and stakeholders with compliance with this requirement.
Technically, the DOL only required employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to provide the “marketplace notices”. But since the vast majority of employers are subject to FLSA,
Since the launch of this blog site earlier this year, the majority of posts have been focused on compliance issues. This week, I’m changing things up, and shifting the focus to strategies that can help employers and employees REDUCE the cost of their health insurance. These strategies are not merely theoretical, conceptual ideas, but rather, time tested and proven ways to reduce the cost of health insurance. And depending on the type of coverage you offer today, there may be no better time than NOW to consider making some changes!
It seems as though the entire employee benefits/human resource universe has been transfixed on the upcoming, October 1 deadline for the ACA Marketplace Notice requirement (now deemed optional). In fact, this very blog site thoroughly addressed the Marketplace Notice requirement a mere two weeks ago, and provided guidance and compliance assistance! Meanwhile, another notice requirement, the 8th anniversary no less, looms…
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) created a voluntary prescription drug program, called Medicare Part D, for Medicare eligible individuals.
A recent news article (Waters, Jennifer. “Don’t Confuse Medicare with Obamacare.” Wall Street Journal 7 Sept. 2013) cautioned readers not to confuse the annual Medicare open enrollment period (aka open season) with the upcoming Affordable Care Act Marketplace enrollment period. Since the two programs will have overlapping enrollment periods during the last quarter of the year, there is bound to be confusion, if not opportunistic hustlers looking to exploit unsuspecting enrollees. As Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicated in the article, We want to reassure Medicare beneficiaries that they are already covered, that their benefits aren’t changing and that the Marketplace doesn’t require them to do anything different. Specifically, they do not…
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the concept of “bare-bones”; or “skinny plans in May of this year (2013).
Then just this week (August 25, 2013), Kaiser Health News (KHN) published a story on the idea.
And since I have suggested the strategy to two of our clients to date (and mentioned it to untold numbers of colleagues and prospective clients), I thought I would make it the focus of this week’s blog post. Depending on the employer, the particular situation, or the industry, this strategy has the potential of saving affected employers thousands of dollars per year in associated ACA penalties.
As the 2014 open enrollment season comes to a close (bringing an overwhelming sense of relief and joy to HR professionals and Benefits Brokers/Consultants throughout the land!), I thought I’d review the major Affordable Care Act (ACA) related compliance issues addressed in preparation for the new (benefits) year.
Early plan renewal 12/1/13: Since many of the ACA related changes affect plans on their first plan anniversary date on or after January 1, 2014;, several health insurers offered (and many employers accepted) to change plan anniversary dates to 12/1/13.
This week’s post is dedicated to explaining one of the many new provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which is scheduled to be implemented in 2014 – MODIFIED COMMUNITY RATING (MCR for the rest of this blog post). Let me begin by stipulating which stakeholders this provision affects and which it does not:
MCR applies to health insurers in the Individual and non-grandfathered, fully insured, Small Group (less than 50 employees) markets, for plan/policy years effective on or after January 1, 2014.
MCR does NOT apply to large (50+ employees) fully insured groups, and partially self funded health plans of any size. (Note: once large group plans are permitted to be marketed in the exchanges/marketplaces…
OBESITY:
– has roughly the same association with chronic illness as 20 years of aging
– is associated with a 36% increase in inpatient and outpatient healthcare spending
– is associated with a 77% increase in medications
– is the number two (2) cause of preventable death in the U.S!!!
But until just recently, obesity was NOT considered a DISEASE. In June of this year (2013), the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates voted to officially declare obesity a disease. To quote AMA board member Dr. Patrice Harris,
