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

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

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

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

One of the many ongoing battles over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) involves the federal minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) standards for private insurers. Under this provision, health insurance plans in the small group market are required to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical costs and no more than 20 percent on administrative costs (15 percent for the large group market). If a plan fails to meet the minimum MLR standard, the insurer is required to pay rebates to enrollees and policyholders.

Tags: PPACA update, aca update, ACA broker fee proposals

Tags: health care reform, health reform update, affordable care act, ACA changes

As an employer, you face tough questions from employees every day – particularly now as you both navigate the changing landscape of health care reform. If the “age 26” question hasn’t come up yet, you’ll likely encounter it soon. To help you be prepared, we’ve prepared the hypothetical scenario below.

Tags: cobra blog, COBRA eligibility at age 26, COBRA questions, age 26 rule

If you were hoping to save money on healthcare costs by sending your employees to the exchanges and helping them with premiums through tax-free contributions, think again. Thanks to recent IRS guidance on an IRS ruling made last year, you’ll have to come up with a Plan B.

Tags: healthcare reform, employer mandate, Affordable Care Act update

Tags: cobra administration, cobra conundrums, cobra, marketplace payment collection

As everyone knows by now, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is doing away with preexisting condition exclusions under group health plans, applicable for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014. There’s an important change in the reporting requirements too.

Tags: certificates of creditable coverage, changes to certificates of creditable coverage, ACA changes to certificates of creditable coverage, COBRA early termination notices