Health reform law has small insurers on

Health reform law has small insurers on edge
http://ow.ly/8D6uA

Obama’s health-care law is hurting insu

Obama’s health-care law is hurting insurance agents and millions of consumers
http://ow.ly/8r35X

The tragic tale of Bill Manto and how th

The tragic tale of Bill Manto and how the health care industry and federal healthcare reform let him slip between the craks. http://ow.ly/84xWY

House approves two-year Medicare ‘doc f

House approves two-year Medicare ‘doc fix’
http://ow.ly/7Zoy1

Breaking News from NAHU the MLR Legislat

Breaking News from NAHU the MLR Legislation
http://ow.ly/7N6w3

States Question When To Establish Health

States Question When To Establish Health Insurance Exchanges. http://ow.ly/7ICpd

NAIC Resolution Means Big Support for Ag

NAIC Resolution Means Big Support for Agents
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) passed a resolution today in support of professional health insurance agents and brokers. The resolution urges the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Congress to take action to preserve the role of professional health insurance agents and brokers as consumer advocates and advisors. The vote was 26 for, 20 against, with five commissioners abstaining.
This action means the commissioners recognize the “essential” role health insurance professionals play in protecting the health and financial well-being of Americans. It also draws attention to how the ill-advised medical loss ratio (MLR) measures prevent these licensed professionals from effectively assisting consumers in making educated decisions about their coverage needs.
The next step is to ensure HHS heeds this recommendation to “take whatever immediate actions are available to the Department to mitigate the adverse effects the MLR rule is having on the ability of insurance producers to serve the demands and needs of consumers and to more appropriately classify independent producer compensation in the final PPACA MLR rule.”
NAHU worked tirelessly to get this resolution passed, and we will continue to work with policymakers to continue resolving the MLR issue. NAHU also released this statement praising the NAIC’s action.

Department of Labor–ACA Summary Plan Description Guidance

There has been a great deal of conversation and interest from brokers, insurers and employers regarding the highly touted Summary of Benefits and Coverage paperwork that employers were required to start distributing on March 23, 2012 (according to PPACA).  The closer we got to March, the more concern there was in the ranks as everyone needed direction on how/what they needed to do in order to comply.  What were the documents to look like (i.e., what were the required contents)?  What was the timeframe that they needed to be distributed?

On Thursday, November 17th, the U.S. Department of Labor quietly posted a FAQ on their website which brings a great deal of clarity to this requirement.  It appears that the deadline has been delayed indefinitely until public comment and final regulations could be concluded.  Most pleasing, of course, instead of the Obama administration’s prior track record of making many provisions of various laws RETRO thus forcing carriers and brokers great expense in going back to clients that were newly eligible for the requirement (like the COBRA subsidies contained in the original Stimulus Package [and subsequent extension of the program] and the creation of the term ‘grandfathering’ in the ACA legislation effective the date of the passage of the law even though guidance/regulations that were required to administer that provision of the law did not come out for several months afterwards), they eluded to the fact that once the regulations were created, they would give the carriers lead time to implement the requirements.  Here is a link to the official release (http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-aca7.html#pagecontent).  We wanted to get this note of positive news out to the field as soon as it became available.

If the healthcare law is upheld, what will happen in the small employer health plan market???

There is a great deal of uncertainty as to how the markets will react.  Different entities have speculated that anywhere from 30% to as high as 57% of employers will drop their health plan (Study Sees Cuts to Health Plans; McKinzey&Company June 2011 Quarterly Report).  That is a far cry from the Congressional Budget Office’s report (that was referenced by many when deciding how to vote on the law) which projected a mere 4% of the privately insured, employer sponsored healthplan population (equating to 6 or 7 million people) losing their employer sponsored plans (CBO Director’s Blog). 

The dicotomies of the two projections are ironic and only time will tell, where the ultimate truth lies; however, I found the attached Forbes article which was an interesting perspective on why employers would want to continue to offer benefits into 2014 (Five Reasons Small Businesses Shouldn’t Dump Health Care Benefits).

Supreme Court agrees to hear HealthCare Case!!

We might have a clearer vision of what is to come in 2014 by the middle of 2012.  Is the individual mandate constitutional?  If the Supreme Court strikes down that provision will the guarantee issue provision also be thrown out?  Or will the law stay intact as is?  Stay tuned, this could get very interesting! 

http://nyti.ms/tIYy83