healthcare reform
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as a way to help improve clinical effectiveness. The research institute is partially funded by fees charged to health plans, including some Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and some Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The fees are payable over a seven year time period and started for the first time last year.
The next round of PCORI fees are due to the IRS by July 31, 2014 and are payable via Form 720 by applicable employers for plan years ending in 2013
On June 26, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued proposed regulations on the renewal process for individuals that have purchased health coverage through the Exchange. The regulations aim to streamline the renewal process by auto-enrolling the vast majority of existing members into a health plan for the 2015 plan year.
Minimum Essential Coverage and Minimum Value are two terms that are mistakenly considered the same by many people, but in fact, these terms have different definitions.
Minimum Essential Coverage is the type of coverage needed to satisfy the Individual Mandate requirements. The most common forms include the following health plans:
A recent analysis predicts that 50 million Americans will be covered by Health Savings Account (HSA)-qualified health plans by Jan. 1, 2019 – up from approximately 11 million today. With the creation of private exchanges spurred on by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), these consumer-driven health plans have been revealed as a crowd favorite.
As a trusted benefits administrator, Flexible Benefit Service LLC (Flex) wants to keep you informed on the following:
Federal regulators have recently indicated that they don’t feel the current COBRA notices provide enough information about the Exchanges and the options that COBRA beneficiaries have in the Individual Marketplace.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued some new guidance on May 2, 2014 as it relates to Special Enrollment Periods and Hardship Exemptions in the individual marketplace. The new guidance has been summarized below:
On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law the “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014.” Although much of the law is designed to fix problems with the Medicare program, the law also included a repeal of the deductible limits that apply to small group health plans. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) established deductible limits for health plans offered to small employers (defined as up to 50 employees in most states).
Applies to those who have started the enrollment process and experienced an error
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