Although it’s still over three years away, the implementation of the “Cadillac Tax” under the Affordable Care Act already has many employers scrambling to come up with a strategy to avoid it – or at least soften the blow.
The COBRA Blog
Affordable Care Act update: Is it time to trade in your Cadillac?
Employers: Have you cleared these 3 ACA compliance hurdles?
While many employers might be “in the groove” of ACA compliance by now, this is no time to get complacent. There are more changes coming just around the corner in 2015 for those who sponsor group health plans.
Tags: benefits administration, ACA compliance, affordable care act compliance, COBRA solutions
COBRA CONUNDRUMS – The End of Preexisting Conditions
COBRA CONUNDRUMS is reprinted from the July 2014 issue of Health Insurance Underwriter Magazine featuring our very own Robert Meyers.
Tags: cobra conundrums, cobra coverage, preexisting conditions
Substandard Health Insurance Hits Workplaces, Thanks to Bad Calculator
Remember why the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exists? One of its basic goals was to define a minimum standard for the benefits consumers receive when they sign up for health insurance. The intent is good, but it turns out there’s a problem. The online calculator that employers can use to determine if their plans meet ACA standards apparently has a glitch.
Tags: benefits administration, affordable care act, health insurance
Affordable Care Act Update: Will the mandate be delayed before 1/1/15?
Here’s another insightful Affordable Care Act update from our friend Jason M. Cogdill, Corporate Counsel & Benefits Attorney at ProBenefits, Inc.
Tags: employer mandate, Affordable Care Act update, aca update, benefits administration, group benefits
Tags: HSAs and COBRA administration, how COBRA works with HSAs, health savings accounts and COBRA administration
Annual Enrollment Communication Strategy: Make it Personal
Communicating effectively with your employees can be a challenge any time of the year. But if there’s one time your communication needs to be crystal clear and hitting the mark, it’s during annual open enrollment for healthcare benefits.
Tags: benefits administration, hr best practices, open enrollment communication, enrollment communication strategy
COBRA Administration Best Practices: How to Avoid the COBRA Collection Blues
If you want to hear an employer sing the blues, bring up the topic of COBRA billing and collection. It’s a task that eats up precious time, and it can be a real challenge. No employer likes to be the “bad guy” when it comes to enforcing grace periods or terminating coverage when payments are missed. Nevertheless, billing and collection are just part of the gig when it comes to administering COBRA. So if you aren’t outsourcing the task, it’s important to make the process as efficient and painless as possible.
Tags: cobra administration, COBRA collection, COBRA qualifying event, COBRA notification, COBRA best practices
Coordinating COBRA and PPACA – Communication is Key
COBRA CONUNDRUMS is reprinted from the May, 2014 issue of Health Insurance Underwriter Magazine featuring our very own Robert Meyers.
Tags: cobra notices, ppaca and cobra, hr strategies, cobra communication
Are you ready for the ACA’s 2015 reporting requirements?
It’s hard to believe, but we’re less than six months away from 2015. That means employers will soon be grappling with a host of new reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The IRS delayed the requirements for a year, but issued their final regulations in March of this year. Employers will now be required to gather data beginning in 2015 and submit the first set of informational returns in 2016. On July 24, 2014, the IRS issued draft forms for employers to transmit the required data.
Tags: Health reform, 2015 reporting requirements, health plan IRS reporting