Interaction of COBRA and Medicare: Just how do these rules work again?
The number of questions regarding Medicare and the interaction with various employer plans is spiking. This post explores its interaction with COBRA.
Trade group sues to block Seattle’s employer mandate on hotel owners
An employee benefits advocacy group representing many of the nation’s largest employers has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Seattle, seeking to bar the city from enforcing a new employer health insurance mandate for certain hotel workers. The implications of the suit could ripple far outside the Pacific northwest and the hotel industry.
Janitorial Company Ordered to Pay Over $1.3 Million to Employees for Violating San Francisco Health Care Spending Law
The City of San Francisco has fined a commercial janitorial services company more than $1.3 million for violations of the City’s Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO). The city ordered the company to pay 100% of its required payments to the health reimbursement...
Christmas in August
Under the federal health reform law, insurers offering health coverage must meet minimum “medical loss ratios,” that is, they must spend a minimum percentage of premiums they collect in a given state, for a given year, on medical claims or quality improvements for...
California Bill Seeks to Curtail Use of Stop-Loss Insurance by Small, Self-Funded Health Plans
The California Department of Insurance (DOI) is backing a bill in the California State Senate which imposes new limits on certain stop-loss policies sold to small employers whose health plans are self-funded. Such policies guarantee that the small employers'...
Health Reform Arguments: Round Three
Well, we didn’t see this coming. Wednesday morning, during the third of three days of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the federal health reform law’s “individual mandate,” the Court’s conservative justices made clear their doubts about the...
Atlas Shrugged or Hugged? Second Day of Health Reform Arguments Reflects Supreme Court’s Ideological Divide
Day two of the oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, regarding the constitutionality of the federal health reform law’s “individual mandate,” did not disappoint. If Monday’s oral arguments (largely dealing with jurisdictional issues) were tantamount...
Let the Games Begin
Although we don’t have the final score, it appears the high-profile challenge to the federal health reform law’s “individual mandate” has survived its first-round matchup in the Supreme Court’s version of the NCAA’s March Madness. For those of you addicted to the...
Just in time for spring! Feds issue final rules for health insurance exchanges
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued final and interim final regulations on the establishment of the state health insurance exchanges that will begin operation in 2014. The final regulations will be effective May 26, 2012, with HHS...
Religiously-Affiliated, Self-Funded Health Plans and Contraceptive Coverage
In early February, the Obama administration announced a compromise on the requirement that non-grandfathered health insurance plans offered by religiously-affiliated employers offer free birth control to female participants. Insurance companies that underwrite the...
Senate Defeats Birth Control Amendment
On Thursday, March 1st, 2012, the United States Senate narrowly defeated a proposal by Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri, that would have permitted not only church-affiliated organizations such as Catholic hospitals, universities, schools and charities to opt out of...
IRS Supplements W-2 Reporting Guidance
The IRS has provided additional guidance regarding the obligation on the part of many employers to report health plan coverage values on 2012 Forms W-2 (the Forms that will be issued to employees early in 2013). What does this mean to you, as an employer? Read the...
CMS Issues FAQs on Essential Health Benefits; Uncertainty Reigns for Self-Funded Plans
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has issued a set of twenty-two frequently asked questions on essential health benefits (EHBs) under the Patient Protection and...
Compromise Still Guarantees Contraceptive Coverage
Seeking to curtail the political uproar over birth control and religious liberty, President Obama announced today a compromise on the requirement that non-grandfathered health insurance plans offered by religiously-affiliated institutions offer free birth control to...