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Early renewals under the Affordable Care Act: Are they right for you?
On January 1, 2014 certain rating changes under the Affordable Care Act will impact how individual and small group plans (under 50 lives) will be priced. In accordance with the ACA rules only four...
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Marketplaces open amid government’s closed doors
In the midst of the first government shutdown in 17 years, the Health Insurance Marketplace opened for business on time, unlike many other Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)...
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Health insurance buying power: Public marketplaces vs. private exchanges
The Marketplace concept is the backbone of PPACA, to the point of requiring each state to operate one, in some manner, as of January 1, 2014. In fact, on October 1, 2013, every employer was required to...
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PPACA Review: Timeline for effective provisions
Even though the Employer Shared Responsibility mandate, commonly known as “Play or Pay,” has been delayed until January 1, 2015, other provisions of the Affordable Care Act are still in effect. The...
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Extensions for individual policies under the ACA: Will it really help?
Last week, under political pressure to save his historic legacy health care legislation, President Obama announced a one-year extension for insurance policies that were due to be canceled in 2014....
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Health of Massachusetts residents improves after Romneycare
Massachusetts passed its own version of health care reform in 2006, known as Romneycare, which required every individual to obtain health insurance and to expand subsidized insurance options for...
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Is PPACA putting millions out of work? Not exactly
The folks at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are at it again. Their latest number crunching, released Tuesday, February 4th, produced a projection that PPACA will will result in a decline of the...
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Aol’s healthcare firestorm
Smart people say dumb things. That’s the moral of this story. Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL came under fire recently for remarks he made at a company “Town Hall Meeting” regarding the company’s employee...
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Going back to the future with high deductible plans
Although high deductible health plans (CDHP) have been around for a number of years, these plans are still in the minority of offerings provided by employers. With the roll out of National Health...
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Attention buyers: rate changes likely as health plan profits dip
Health plans have been reporting their first quarter results and it is not a pretty picture. From large national plans like United Healthcare to small plans like Neighborhood Health in Boston, insurers...
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More losses for Mass medical carriers may shift risk tolerance for employers
Last week, the Boston Globe released an article highlighting significant first-quarter losses for each of the three local nonprofit health carriers. The article highlights all of the new ACA taxes...
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Control groups for benefit plans – Are you included?
Historically, employers have been able to provide different levels of medical benefits to their employees without much regard for what other companies in the same control group offered. The onset of...
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2015 Compliance To-Do’s: Is your checklist ready?
As 2014 winds down, employers are longing for a reprieve in benefits compliance after having to endure a year of new, often times complex, guidance related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), HIPAA and...
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Are your benefits plans ready for Ebola?
As the nation braces for a potential outbreak of one of the worst infectious diseases in modern history, employers and employees should carefully review their benefits contracts to ensure financial...
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Tracking variable hour employees – when should employers look to outsource?
As part of the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision going into effect on January 1, 2015, employers are required to extend coverage to employees working 30 or more hours per week. Sounds simple,...
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IRS announces 2015 COLA limits
The Internal Revenue Service has just announced the annual cost-of-living adjustments for 2015. Every year around this time, the financial industry, especially those in the retirement space, anxiously...
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EEOC sues Honeywell for ACA approved wellness plan
Companies across the country are struggling to afford the rising cost of healthcare for their employees. Charges for medical services are still increasing, utilization is up, Obamacare layered in a...
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Employers beware: Eurozone labor shortage continues to grow
During a conversation at the Fall WBN (Worldwide Brokers Network) meeting in Santiago, Chile last month, one of my German colleagues spoke about the challenges some of his clients experienced as they...
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5 facts to know about the MA Paid Sick Leave Law
Last month, Massachusetts became the third state to require statewide paid sick leave, along with California and Connecticut. Beginning July 1, 2015, all private and public sector employers must...
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Sitting less – the low cost wellness tactic
We’ve all heard that ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and our lack of physical activity during the work week is one of the contributing factors to many Americans being overweight or obese. For most of us,...
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Study reveals Obamacare users no sicker than those on Commercial Group Products
Newly published data reviewed by Reuters reveals that contrary to popular belief, Obamacare enrollees do not cost U.S. health insurers more than those with employer-sponsored insurance. Prior to the...
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Pact Health – lowering deductibles through workouts
As the cost of insurance continues to rise, employer health plans have evolved to incorporate high deductibles, which keeps rates low while increasing employee out-of-pocket costs. Many employers have...
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Anthem data breach latest scare for health insurers
The nation’s second largest health insurer, Anthem (which includes several major Blue Cross and Blue Shields brands), has reported a major data breach. Last Wednesday, security personnel discovered a...
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Can Staples manage employee hours to avoid offering ACA required health...
The spotlight has been on Staples in recent weeks due to accusations that the company is purposefully reducing employee hours to avoid offering health coverage per the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The...
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House votes to repeal Affordable Care Act
Since the law originally passed in 2010, many Americans have been closely watching the changing political environment to see what changes happen with the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare)....
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Blue Cross of MA expands pay-per-performance system to PPO markets
The spotlight in local health care news this week shines on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and its continued efforts toward performance-based payment reform for doctors. This system that pays...
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Wellness programs in the workplace and the elements of their success
Nearly 95 percent of large US companies offer workplace wellness programs with a focus on improving health among a population. Today, most wellness programs focus on improving health engagement among a...
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Got it covered? Navigating the complexities of international emergency...
Most U.S. employers assume that when sending employes overseas for work, they will be covered for international emergency medical under a domestic (U.S.) plan. For example, if the U.S. employee were to...
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Mental health care in the workplace & how employers can help
In the wake of the devastating tragedy in the French Alps this month where one man’s struggle with depression brought down a 144-passenger Germanwings plane, concerns and questions arise across all...
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DOL looking to redefine term “fiduciary”– what that means for employer...
Am I a fiduciary? I never like to answer a question with a question but do you make decisions for the 401(k) plan on behalf of the company? If you answered yes then you are in fact a plan fiduciary....
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Lifting the veil of employer-sponsored retirement plan costs
There are two primary expense categories related to Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans: Investment Services Fees (mutual fund management) and Service Provider Fees (recordkeeping, administration,...
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Significant data breach hits Partners HealthCare
Partners HealthCare, a non-profit health care organization which includes Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, North Shore Medical Center, and Newton-Wellesley Hospital,...
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Is Telehealth becoming the new norm in patient care?
The traditional trip to the doctor’s office may quickly become a thing of the past, as front-line employees struggle to find time to fit it into their schedules. Some think that they have to scramble...
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The Cadillac Tax and its implications for employers
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes an excise tax, called the Cadillac tax, scheduled to take effect in 2018. It was created in response to Congress’s notion that the unlimited, tax-free nature of...
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Employee benefits for same-sex couples changing as states legalize marriage
As the number of states with legal same-sex marriage climbs to 37 plus the District of Columbia, some employers are informing their staff that they must wed in order to continue providing health-care...
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July 1st signaled the beginning of paid sick leave for MA and CA employees
Employees in California and Massachusetts who previously did not receive paid sick leave are now eligible for this benefit. In Massachusetts, employers must now provide all employees with five days of...
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The Affordable Care Act’s provisions on expatriate health insurance
On June 30, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department issued Notice 2015-43. The notice provides transition relief and interim guidance based on the application of particular...
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Insurer steps into drug pricing controversy
Insurance will play a huge role in the developing drug pricing controversy. Healthcare commentator, Ezekial Emanual, opined in yesterday’s New York Times that new drugs, particularly PCSK9 inhibitors...
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Insurance unicorn cut in half
Unicorns, private, VC-backed firms with valuations over $1 billion had been growing by leaps and bounds this year. But, now those valuations are under pressure. The most dramatic of these in...
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Growth in renewable jobs in Massachusetts
According to a recent report from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), the state has seen an increase in jobs and performance in the energy sector over the past two years. The double-digit...
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