Want to become an expert on Health Insurance Reform (ACA)? Check out these top articles on ACA.
The Federal Legislative and Regulatory Process - Healthcare Reform
Understanding the Healthcare Reform legislative and regulatory process will help you understand healthcare reform. This post walks through the federal legislative process from start to finish.
Is Your Business Ready for Health Reform in 2014?
It is time for employers to examine the specifics of healthcare reform and start thinking strategically vs. emotionally. Change is hard. However, employers that educate themselves and plan ahead can avoid severe financial impacts.
3 Charts to Help You Navigate Health Care Reform
Health care reform is complex, and change is hard. Here are three (3) charts that will help you better understand some of Healthcare Reform's Key Provisions.
Quick Guide to Calculating the Business Health Insurance Tax Penalty
The Health Care Reform bill requires certain businesses to offer employees health insurance. Starting in 2014, businesses with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees will be required to either offer health care coverage or pay a tax penalty. So, how exactly do you calculate the business health insurance tax penalty?
The Health Reform Employer Penalty: Should I Pay or Play?
Employers, human resource departments, and business consultants of all sizes are trying to wrap their heads around the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what it means for their bottom line. One of the key questions employers with more than 50 employees should begin asking themselves is, “should I pay or play?”
Penalties for Employers Not Offering Coverage Beginning in 2014
The Affordable Care Act does not require businesses to provide health benefits to their workers, but larger employers face penalties starting in 2014 if they don't make affordable coverage available. This simple flowchart illustrates how those employer responsibilities work.
Penalties for Individuals Not Purchasing Coverage Beginning in 2014
The Affordable Care Act does not require individual to purchase health insurance, but most individuals face penalties starting in 2014 if they don't purchase qualified coverage for their household. This simple flowchart illustrates how those individual responsibilities work.
Individual Health Insurance Premium Subsidies in State Exchanges
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) includes provisions to lower individual health insurance premiums for Americans with household incomes below 400% of the federal poverty line, or FPL (that’s the majority of Americans). The purpose of this article is to describe the massive health insurance subsidies provided under PPACA for people purchasing individual health insurance coverage through new public health insurance exchanges.
Individual Health Insurance Tax Subsidy Examples - Health Reform
Due to these massive tax subsidies on the individual market, virtually every employer with less than 50 employees will switch from group coverage to simply giving employees tax-free allowances via HRAs to purchase their own individual health insurance policy. And, most large employers will follow suit once they realize how large of a subsidy their employees receive if the employer doesn’t offer group coverage. These examples should explain why.
Essential Health Benefits - An Overview
The Affordable Care Act defines certain categories of benefits as "Essential Health Benefits." The categories of essential health benefits are...
The ObamaCare Solution - A Business Expense Account for Healthcare
For most businesses, the solution to ObamaCare is simple: Offer a “Business Expense Account” for Healthcare. A new vehicle, called an “HRA”, or health reimbursement arrangement, allows employers to get out of the health insurance business, and simply give select employees monthly allowances to spend on their own health insurance policy in a state health insurance exchange. If you understand how business expense accounts work, you will understand how HRAs work.
What is Actuarial Value?
Beginning in 2014, health care reform requires health insurance plans in the individual and small group markets to meet certain actuarial value (or "metal") levels. These “Metal levels” are intended to allow consumers to compare plans with different levels of coverage for essential health benefits (EHB).
Health Care Reform Implementation FAQs
Here are 18 frequently asked questions about healthcare reform implementation.
Summary of Benefits & Coverage (SBC) Now Required for HRAs
Starting September 23, 2012, health insurance issuers and group health plans will be required to provide eligible participants with an easy-to-understand summary about a health plan’s benefits and coverage. The new regulation is intended to help individuals better understand their health insurance options.
Stand-Alone HRAs & Health Care Reform
Section 2711 of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, generally prohibits group health plans from placing lifetime and annual limits on the dollar value of "essential health benefits". On June 28th, 2010, the federal government issued interim final regulations related to the lifetime and annual limit rules application to Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). While most HRAs have been exempted, the federal government requested comments regarding application of these rules to non-exempted stand-alone HRAs.
5 Minute Guide to Health Insurance Exchanges
The biggest buzzword of this decade in the employee health benefits market is "Health Insurance Exchange". Starting January 1st, 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires every state to create health insurance exchanges for businesses, employees and individual. And, if a state fails to set up the exchanges in time, the federal government will step in. So, what exactly is a health insurance exchange?
Outline of Key ACA Provisions Taking Effect in 2012, 2013, and 2014
In March 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA is a piece of legislation with many provisions phasing from 2012 to 2014. Below, we have provided a brief outline of the key provisions taking effect over the next 3 years.
