Benefits Buzz

Posted March 18th, 2016 in Producers, Employers, Individuals
We can categorize health insurance plans in a number of different ways. There are fully-insured and self-insured plans, HMOs and PPOs, high deductibles and low deductibles, and metallic tiers (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) which are used in some market segments. There’s also one other way to categorize health insurance plans, and that’s by their “grandparent” status. The grandparent status determines which Affordable Care Act (ACA) rules a health insurance plan must comply with.
 
Grandfathered Plans 
Posted March 11th, 2016 in Producers, Employers, Individuals

Each year the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issues a set of rules referred to as the “Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters.”  This set of rules generally addresses changes and new requirements that apply to certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

Posted March 4th, 2016 in Producers

If you have an Illinois producer license, please be aware of the following changes that will apply when renewing your license.

The Illinois Department of Insurance (DOI) recently announced they will no longer mail renewal notices or licenses to producers.

Posted February 26th, 2016 in Producers, Employers, Individuals
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a new process that will impact anyone seeking to enroll with a special enrollment period (SEP) on the Healthcare.gov website.  Under the current process, individuals who experience a qualifying event simply need to check a box on the application to be eligible for an SEP.
Posted February 19th, 2016 in Producers, Employers

Premium Only Plans (POP) can generally be defined as a type of Cafeteria Plan where the only pre-tax benefit available to employees are for those of insurance premiums. Now, whenever non-taxable benefits are involved, the IRS will usually have some strict rules in place that must be followed. For Cafeteria Plans, these are referred to as non-discrimination rules, and these rules are in place to ensure the plan doesn’t discriminate in favor of highly compensated and/or key employees.

Posted February 12th, 2016 in Producers, Employers, Individuals
In most instances an employer can no longer pay or reimburse employees with pre-tax dollars for health coverage that is obtained in the individual market. The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Technical Release 2016-1 in relation to how this rule impacts student health plans.
 

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