Entities such as employers with group health plans that provide prescription drug coverage to individuals that are eligible for Medicare Part D have two major disclosure requirements that they must meet at least annually:
- Provide annual written notice to all Medicare eligible individuals (employees, spouses, dependents, retirees, COBRA participants, etc.) who are covered under the prescription drug plan.
- Disclose to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) whether the coverage is "creditable prescription drug coverage."
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Topics:
Medicare Part D,
Danielle Capilla,
health care cost,
annual disclosures,
prescription drug coverage,
creditable coverage notice
On December 13, 2016, former President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The Cures Act has numerous components, but employers should be aware of the impact the Act will have on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, as well as provisions that will impact how small employers can use health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). There will also be new guidance for permitted uses and disclosures of protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). We review the implications with HRAs below; for a discussion of all the implications, view UBA’s Compliance Advisor, “21st Century Cares Act”.
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Topics:
ACA,
premium subsidies,
health reimbursement arrangements,
HRA,
Affordable Care Act,
health care cost,
21st Century Cures Act,
Qualified Small Employer HRA,
insurance premium reimbursement
I really need to stop spending so much time reading the news. I subscribe to several news aggregators, plus a number of content sources: blogs, industry experts and other publications. I pore through news about politics, world affairs, and information related to HR, benefits, and technology – the field I work in. I sometimes do this (I must admit) while stuck at a stoplight or in line at the store. In all fairness, I do this to keep up on current events and trends impacting my field and my clients’ interests. But I need to stop doing it so much because it can be a huge time waster.
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Topics:
ACA,
CDHPs,
compliance with health care reform,
Obamacare,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
health care cost,
health care consumerism
Over the past few years, we have seen the cost of health care steadily increase – a trend supported by the latest data from the 2016 UBA Health Plan Survey. During the recession, employers implemented health plans with higher copays, higher deductibles, or offered multiple plans with a variety of deductibles and pushed the cost of the lower deductible plans onto employees in an attempt to keep their costs for offering coverage at the same rate or less.
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Topics:
consumer-driven health plan,
Elizabeth Kay,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
health care cost,
benefits cost control,
group medical benefits
UBA offers a comprehensive library of ACA Advisors and white papers to help employers navigate health care cost and compliance. Every year we look at the documents most accessed by employers and remind our audience of these helpful, free resources. Here’s what was most in demand in 2015.
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Topics:
compliance,
ACA,
health plan benchmarking,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
Don't Roll the Dice on Department of Labor Audits,
cafeteria plan,
Affordable Care Act,
annual benefit limits,
white paper,
health care cost,
account-based plans
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