Latest News + Info
The latest information relating to the health insurance industry.
Employer-paid Individual Health Plans
Flexible Benefit reports: "The IRS and other agencies have issued three different sets of guidance making it clear that employers cannot give actively employed workers pre-tax dollars through a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) ,or any other type of arrangement,...
Still need to send documents to the Marketplace? If you get a letter this week, time is running out.
Healthcare.gov reports: "We’ve been reaching out to some of you by mail, email, and phone if some information you gave us on your Health Insurance Marketplace application doesn’t match the data we have on file. It’s important that you submit the documents we need so...
Health Care For $4: Are You Ready For Walmart To Be Your Doctor?
Forbes reports: "Goodbye, doctor’s office. Hello, Walmart? Based on Walmart’s latest moves, it’s not as unlikely as it sounds. After years of “Will they or won’t they?” discussion, Walmart is making its long-awaited move into delivering primary care: The retailer...
Small Firms Hit by Big Changes in Health Coverage
The Wall Street Journal reports: "Businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the most stringent requirements for larger employers under the federal health-care law. But that doesn't mean they're off the hook entirely. Smaller employers aren't required under...
Smart Apps vs. Obamacare
Insurance News Net reports: "The Affordable Care Act locks in the status quo, but new technology is making health care cheaper and more individualized. Health care costs in the U.S. have been rising so steadily for so long that containment barely seems possible. Even...
Probe exposes flaws behind HealthCare.gov rollout
Yahoo News reports: "Management failures by the Obama administration set the stage for computer woes that paralyzed the president's new health care program last fall, nonpartisan investigators said in a report released Wednesday. While the administration was publicly...
IRS sets max fines for health coverage refusal
Benefits Pro reports: "It's official: if you make a quarter of a million bucks a year and decide not to pay for health insurance, you’re going to have to fork over $2,448 to the feds. The Internal Revenue Service finally released its maximum fines for those who choose...
This $1,000 pill is now the hepatitis C treatment of choice
Chicago Health Care Daily reports: " A $1,000-per-pill drug that insurers are reluctant to pay for has quickly become the treatment of choice for a liver-wasting viral disease that affects more than 3 million Americans. In less than six months, prescriptions for...
PPACA helps delay Medicare insolvency
Benefits Pro reports: "The main trust fund behind Medicare, the $583 billion U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled, will be exhausted in 2030, four years later than projected last year, the government reported. An improving economy and the health-care...
Feds release draft tax forms for employer compliance with ACA
Benefits News reports: "The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday released drafts of the forms employers will use to report on health coverage they offer to their employees, unveiling a glimpse of the administrative onus in store for benefit advisers and their employer...