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October 29th, 2019
Starting on January 1, 2020, employers will be able to help their employees pay for qualified medical costs–such as premiums for an Individual Marketplace plan–through a new individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA). An ICHRA is an alternative to a traditional group plan that allows employees to select their own plan on the individual market.
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Tags: Broker, Costs, Employers, exchange, individual, Marketplace, Medicaid, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare, Vergil, Villa Park, Village of Lakewood, Walt Disney Co., Warrenville, Wasco
Posted in Affordable Care Act | Comments Off on New Tool To Determine HRA Affordability
August 21st, 2019
Small Business Trends reports:
“Many health insurance acronyms float around these days. In the past, people counted on essentially two health care options. They included traditional group health insurance and, for seniors, Medicare. Today, you’ll find a number of health care options. Some of which specifically limit themselves to small businesses. The array of options may confuse you because of the many names used to describe them.
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Tags: 2019, enrollment, health insurance premiums, insurance, Marketplace, open enrollment, River Grove, Riverwoods, Schaumburg, Schiller Park, small businesses
Posted in Health Insurance News | Comments Off on 9 Health Insurance Acronyms Small Business Owners Should Know
July 24th, 2019
The Libertarian Replublic reports:
“It can be a real challenge for a small business to keep employees interested in sticking around for the long haul. Larger companies always seem to have the upper hand, especially when it comes to offering enticing employee benefits. For a small business to remain competitive, you have to be sure that the employee package is enticing enough to keep them interested.
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Tags: child, employees, employer benefits, Geneva, Genoa, Gilberts, Glen Ellyn, health, insurance, long-term, retirement, retirement plan
Posted in Employer benefits | Comments Off on 13 Employee Benefits You Should Consider Offering
July 24th, 2019
The S HR M reports:
“The U.S. House of Representatives voted on July 17 to abolish the so-called “Cadillac tax” on employer-sponsored high-value health plans, set to take effect in 2022. If the Senate passes the measure and the president signs it into law, the threat employers have faced from the tax would disappear.
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Tags: affordable care, Affordable Care Act, Broker, employees, Employers, flexible spending account, health plan, health savings account, Schaumburg, short term insurance, Solon Mills, South Barrington, South Elgin, the affordable care act
Posted in Affordable Care Act, Obamacare | Comments Off on House Passes Health Care ‘Cadillac Tax’ Repeal Bill
July 24th, 2019
JD Supra reports:
“Background
Healthcare coverage became an employer-offered benefit during World War II as the result of the federal government’s wage and price controls[1]. Since that time, Medicare has become an important part of how healthcare is provided to individuals who reached the age of 65, who became disabled, or who were diagnosed with end stage renal disease. When Medicare entered the mix, a number of additional rules to protect those eligible for Medicare were also added to protect the Medicare system. Now, an employer seeking to contain health benefit costs must consider not only tax considerations, but Medicare and ERISA and other requirements. Thus, when the federal government agencies started designing a new way to facilitate the purchase of individual health insurance, they had to design around decades of rules, regulations, and policy considerations in the move back to a pre-World War II individual obligation to purchase health insurance to avoid violating the interim changes in legal requirements.
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Tags: Bensenville, Defined Contribution, Government, health savings account, High deductible health plan, Mental Health, PPO, premiums, private exchange, South Barrington, United Healthcare, Village of Lakewood, Wicker Park, Woodridge
Posted in Health Insurance Cost | Comments Off on New Tool to Contain Employer Healthcare Costs
July 24th, 2019
JD Supra reports:
“On June 13, 2019, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Treasury (the “Departments”), published final regulations which significantly broaden the types of health plans that may be integrated with a health reimbursement arrangement (“HRA”). More specifically, beginning January 2020, the finalized rules allow HRAs to be integrated with certain qualifying individual health plan coverage and/or Medicare. The final rules reverse current guidance which requires HRAs to be integrated with only qualifying group health plan coverage. Practically speaking, this means that employers, beginning in 2020, will be allowed to subsidize employee premiums in the individual health insurance market and/or Medicare using pre-tax dollars, provided certain conditions are met. The final rules also allow certain HRAs to reimburse participants for certain premiums paid for excepted benefits. To achieve these results, the final rules create two new types of HRAs.
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Tags: Glenview, GOP, Health and Human Services, health insurance coverage, health insurance premiums, Lake in the Hills, Marketplace, medical expenses, private exchange, requirements
Posted in Employer benefits | Comments Off on New Final Regulations Expand the Availability of HRAs
July 24th, 2019
KFF.org reports:
“On July 9, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear oral argument in Texas v. U.S., the next round of litigation challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The appeals court is reviewing a federal trial court’s decision that the ACA’s minimum essential coverage provision (known as the individual mandate) is unconstitutional and, as a result, requires the entire ACA to be overturned. The individual mandate provides that most people must maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage; those who do not do so must pay a financial penalty (known as the shared responsibility payment) to the IRS. The individual mandate was upheld as a constitutional exercise of Congress’ taxing power by a five member majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in NFIB v. Sebelius in 2012.
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Tags: affordable care, Affordable Care Act, Government, Harvard, Harwood Heights, health insurance, health insurance coverage, Medicaid, Medicare, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Supreme Court, the affordable care act
Posted in Affordable Care Act | Comments Off on Explaining Texas v. U.S.: A Guide to the 5th Circuit Appeal in the Case Challenging the ACA
May 20th, 2019
Yahoo Finance reports:
“Starting in 2019, you’ll no longer owe a fine to the IRS if you don’t have qualifying health insurance coverage. While the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, imposed a tax penalty for those who opted out of coverage, the mandate was eliminated with the tax reform law passed in late 2017.
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Tags: Affordable Care Act, health insurance, health insurance coverage, Marketplace, Oswego, Palatine, Park Ridge, Pingree Grove, Plato Center, the affordable care act
Posted in Health Insurance News | Comments Off on Why You Still Absolutely Need Health Insurance Despite the Death of the Penalty
May 20th, 2019
KHN reports:
“Sheri Lewis, 59, of Seattle, needed a hip transplant. Bradley Fuller, 63, of nearby Kirkland, needed chemotherapy and radiation when the pain in his jaw turned out to be throat cancer. And Kim Bruzas, 55, of Waitsburg, hundreds of miles away, needed emergency care to stop sudden —and severe — rectal bleeding.
Each of these Washington state residents required medical treatment during the past few years, and each thought they had purchased health insurance through an online site.
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Tags: Affordable Care Act, Hampshire, health insurance, health insurance reform, Individual Mandate, insurance plan, Insurance Reform, Oakbrook Terrace, Oakwood Hills, Obama care, ObamaCare, Obamacare regulation, online degrees, open enrollment, Opt-Out, Oswego, Penalty, requirements
Posted in Family Health Insurance, Health Insurance News | Comments Off on ‘Sham’ Sharing Ministries Test Faith Of Patients And Insurance Regulators
May 20th, 2019
AP reports:
“Scrap “Obamacare”? Well, maybe not all of it.
The Trump administration is arguing in court that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down as unconstitutional. But at the same time, Justice Department lawyers recently suggested that federal judges could salvage its anti-fraud provisions, raising questions about keeping other parts as well.
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Tags: Affordable Care Act, barack obama, Donald Trump, Government, health care system, healthcare.gov, Individuals, insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, North Barrington, North West Suburbs, Northern Illinois, Northlake, Northwest, Northwest Suburbs, Oak Park, Oakbrook Terrace, Oakwood Hills, ObamaCare
Posted in Affordable Care Act | Comments Off on Scrap ‘Obamacare’? Maybe not all, Trump administration says
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