The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) recently announced that employers in the small group market that are currently still enrolled in Transitional Relief Plans (also known alternatively as Keep Your Plan, Grandmothered Plan, Pre-ACA Plan, etc.,) may keep their existing policies and plans for another year. 
CMS stipulates that ultimately granting the extension is left to the discretion of state regulators and to the respective participating insurance carriers. Most — if not all – states and carriers are expected to grant the extensions and allow employers to keep the Transitional Relief Plans in place for another year.
The CMS announcement also noted that the Transitional Relief Plans will not be considered out of compliance.
This extension, first granted in 2014 and granted every year since, runs through December 31, 2019.
We’ll be following this closely with the insurance carriers and will keep all of our clients who currently have Transitional Relief Plans informed.
For more info click on the link below:
CMS_Extension-Transitional-Policy-Through-CY2019
- Tom Barrett
- April 20, 2018
- ACA, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS, coverage, deadline, employers, federal, healthcare, healthcare reform, insurance, Obamacare, ruling, states, Transitional Relief
- 0 Comments
Read More >>>
In a CMS press release the Trump Administration announced yesterday, as expected, that beginning in 2019 individual states will have more control and greater flexibility in regulating the individual health insurance market and the Obamacare Marketplace (aka the Exchange). In a summary of the “final 2019 Payment Notice Rule” CMS highlighted provisions that were intended to increase flexibility, improve affordability, and decrease administrative burdens.
It’s likely that changes made at the individual state level will ultimately have some impact either directly or indirectly on employer sponsored health coverage, particularly the small group market. We will be monitoring this very closely for our clients and will report back, especially as we get closer to 2019 and more information becomes available.
In the meantime, here’s a sampling of the headlines and links to the respective articles following yesterday’s announcement by CMS:
Here’s a link to the CMS press release:
- Tom Barrett
- April 10, 2018
- ACA, affordable care act, cost, costs, coverage, employees, employers, exchange, federal, health plans, healthcare, healthcare reform, insurance, mandate, medical, Obamacare, states
- 0 Comments
Read More >>>
On March 5, 2018 the IRS announced in it’s IRS HSA Bulletin that the 2018 contribution limit for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) linked to family coverage is now $6,850 from the previously announced $6,900. For more information regarding these changes please see the attached IRS HSA Bulletin or linked SHRM article.
A month and change has now passed since the great splash of January’s big Amazon/Berkshire/Chase health venture announcement. It certainly was successful in disrupting the news cycle. The initially sky-high healthcare “Richter Scale” readings are returning to normal. And, it’s pretty safe to say that any substantive changes, major disruption, and any new normal that may be triggered by this venture on big healthcare (20% of the economy), other employers – big, small and in between, and everybody else are not on the immediate horizon.
Like the CVS/Aetna venture announced last December, real change is likely to be More Tortoise Than Hare.
A sampling of Warren Buffett’s comments in some of his recent interviews with Bloomberg, CNBC, and KHN may provide you with a little more insight and a glimpse of some of his expectations.
Here are a few sound bytes from recent Buffett interviews:
He said that the goal of the business is “better care, lower costs,”and, that it will “take time.”
“This is not easy. If it was easy, it would have been done.”
“It would be very easy I think to go in and shave off 3 or 4 percent just by negotiating power. We’re looking for something much bigger than that.”
He spoke of health-care spending taking up an increasing proportion of the U.S. economy, and a indicated that the goal of the venture is to “at least” halt that ascendant trend.
Buffett also stated that he hopes “we could find a way where perhaps better care could be delivered even at somewhat lesser cost.”
To read more go to Bloomberg: Buffett-Dimon Health Venture To Go Beyond Just Squeezing The Middlemen
