Latest News + Info
The latest information relating to the health insurance industry.
Health Care Law Gets Day In Court
USA Today reports: "Legal challenges to the sweeping federal health care overhaul backed by the Obama administration are heading toward the Supreme Court, where the justices who would decide the law's fate could have as much at stake as the parties battling over it. A...
Senate Sends 1099 Repeal Bill To President’S Desk
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 5, 2011 — The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) today praised the U.S. Senate for passing H.R. 4, the “Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of...
A guide to GOP proposals on Medicare
Los Angles Times reports: "The Pain: Critics see danger ahead. Most voucher proposals peg the growth in value of the voucher to general inflation or economic growth. But the cost of Medicare benefits is likely to be higher. That raises concerns that costs will slowly...
Employers’ top 10 HR/benefits trouble areas revealed
Employee Benifit News reports: "Well, 8,000 HR/benefits pros can’t be wrong, right? Employers Resource Association has released the top 10 topics that send HR managers to call its hotline in droves. The list is based on the more than 8,000 calls the association says...
Bill Seeks to End FSA ‘Use It or Lose It’ Rule
Society for Human Resource Management reports: "The proposed Medical Flexible Spending Account Improvement Act (H.R. 1004), a bill that would allow employees to withdraw and pay taxes on any remaining funds in their medical flexible spending accounts (FSAs) instead of...
Certain health care reform law requirements delayed
Business Insurance reports: "WASHINGTON—Employers will be given until Jan. 1, 2012, to comply with certain health care reform law requirements, the Labor Department has decided. One delay involves a reform provision in which health plan enrollees have to be notified...
SHRM Poll: Employers continue to reduce benefits
Employee Benefit News reports: " Despite a nascent economic recovery, the momentum to reduce employee benefits isn’t waning, according to a new poll by the Society for Human Resource Management. In the last six months, 20% of employers reported that they reduced...
McRaith Named Director of Federal Insurance Office
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on March 17 named Illinois Insurance Director Michael McRaith as the first director of the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), a non-regulatory federal source of insurance expertise created by the Dodd-Frank Act. In addition to heading...
Insurance Director: Health Law Helping Consumers
Associated Press reports: "CHICAGO -- While the anniversary of the Obama administration's health law inspired events to publicize the law's "broken promises" elsewhere, Illinois' top insurance regulator contended consumers are better protected because of it. Illinois...
Atnea Health Reform Weekly
Atena reports: Week of March 28, 2011 As expected, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was the subject of cheers and jeers as the one-year anniversary of its signing was marked last week. The White House released a celebratory video to mark the...