Regarding third-party staffing arrangements, how should staffing firms and their clients prepare?
By Ilyse Schuman, Russell Chapman and Neil Alexander, © Littler
Regarding third-party staffing arrangements, how should staffing firms and their clients prepare?
By Ilyse Schuman, Russell Chapman and Neil Alexander, © Littler
An overview of coverage and reporting requirements for the year ahead
By Ilyse W. Schuman, Russell D. Chapman and Steven J. Friedman © Littler 12/23/2014
As 2015 comes to a close and the effective date of the employer play-or-pay mandate commences, many employers are wondering what's next for them in the health care arena. New obligations, challenges, uncertainty, and perhaps opportunities await them in the new year.
Moving toward provider payment models that promote cost-effective, high-quality care
ACA tracking and reporting requirements often go beyond what many systems provide
As corporate health exchanges evolve, there are more factors to weigh
By 2017, most plan to add surcharges or exclude spouses when coverage available elsewhere
In a new online posting, the Department of Labor (DOL) reiterated that employers may not use a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) or other means to reimburse employees for purchasing nongroup health insurance coverage, including policies available on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) public exchange.
Among the points addressed by the DOL in a set of Frequently Asked Questions posted on Nov. 6, 2014, were the following:
Traditional preferred provider organizations (PPOs) are fast becoming relics of the past, like Model Ts.
Despite continuing efforts to rein in rising health care costs, roughly half of large U.S. employers will begin to hit the thresholds triggering the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) excise tax on high-value plans in 2018, and the percentage is expected to rise significantly in subsequent years, according to an analysis by consultancy Towers Watson.
Rising costs and regulatory demands could fuel growth of private health exchanges
Private health insurance exchanges could funamentally alter how employers provide health care to their workers, according to a September 2014 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC’s) Health Research Institute, The Rise of Retail Health Coverage.
Large U.S. employers expect a 4 percent increase in 2015 health care costs for current employees after plan design changes and a 5.2 percent rate increase without plan adjustments, according to Towers Watson’s 2014 Health Care Changes Ahead Survey.
More than half of all U.S. employers (56 percent) expressed concern with stepped-up rulemaking and enhanced federal agency enforcement, according to the 2014 Executive Employer Survey report from law firm Littler.
Authors: Denise M. Visconti, Jane Ann Himsel, Darren E. Nadel, and William E. Trachman
ORLANDO, FLA.—Implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be the crisis that allows you to, at long last, to transform your benefits strategy, said Karl James Ahlrichs, SPHR, a senior consultant with Indianapolis-based Gregory and Appel. He was the speaker at the June 24 session, “Using the ACA as a Catalyst to Move Organizational Culture Forward,” at the 2014 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference & Exposition.
The Obama administration announced updates to model notices that employers must provide to employees, informing workers of their eligibility to continue health care coverage through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).
Many big retailers including Target, Home Depot and Wal-Mart recently announced moves to drop health benefits for their part-time employees, claiming the move is better for workers now eligible to receive federal subsidies or tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for policies purchased through a public insurance exchange.
Employer health care costs are expected to reach $9,560 per worker in 2014