FEATURED
A New
World
Order
BY LYDELL C. BRIDGEFORD
The week that President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
into law (the companion “;xes”
The forum, sponsored by the Institute for Health and Productivity Management, provided
a glimpse into how the new law, especially the 40% excise tax that takes effect in 2018, may
influence employers’ strategies in managing their health plans costs.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 19)
ALSO INSIDE
Benefits Corner Office
Market your wellness program for
better results
Retirement Planning
Employers plan to reinstate 401(k)
matches
Quality of Life
Getting serious about stress
management
29%
of volunteers who
suffer from a chronic
illness condition say that
volunteering has helped
them manage their illness
See page 49
BY THE NUMBERS
JUNE 1, 2010 • VOL 24 NO 7 • EBN.BENEFITNEWS.COM
HEALTH CARE
Reform law brings changes,
challenges for employers
BY LYDELL C. BRIDGEFORD, ANDREA DAVIS & KATHLEEN KOSTER
By now, employers know the basics of
what’s in PPACA and likely have a sketchy
idea of how the law will affect their company and employees. EBN spoke to several health care experts to get their take on
how employers should be preparing for
the immediate and long-term future.
“Unfortunately, in the benefits world
there’s not a lot of lead time. You really
need to start redesigning your plans now
[in mid-April, when this article was writ-ten]. Many times, third -party administrators are administering the benefits, and
the new plan design needs to be communicated to the TPAs. There is usually a
six-month lead time to put in these types
of changes,” says Susan Nash, partner,
McDermott Will & Emery, who spoke
on the subject at Employee Benefit News’
Compliance Summit in April.
Some thought-leaders suggested that
trying to absorb health care reform all at
once may give employers a headache, but
if benefits professionals look at it piecemeal, it’s much more manageable.
The immediate future
Starting in plan years on or after Sept.
23, 2010, adult children up to the age of
26 will be allowed to stay on their parents’ plan, plans also will not be able to
impose lifetime limits, and may only impose restricted (though this term is not
yet defined) annual limits.
“Many employers have already implemented some of the newly mandated
benefit requirements. For example, many
employers dropped pre-existing condition exclusions years ago due to HIPAA
reforms, and a lot of employers already
have first-dollar coverage for preventive
care benefits,” says Nash. “I think where
you will see changes that need to be
made are in the areas of dependent eli-
gibility rules, and the annual and lifetime
limits, because I don’t think a lot of em-
ployers have done away with those.”
In terms of the dependent eligibility
expansion, Nash suggests “it’s going to
cost a lot more if an employer is self-in-
sured in terms of the claims that can be
incurred under the plan, because it’s wid-
ening the eligibility group. It’s also taking
away some limits that they’ve placed on
treatments, and on top of that, the Men-
tal Health Parity and Addiction Equity
(SEE REFORM ON PAGE 51)
Dr. Ronald Loeppke of U.S. Preventive
Medicine, David Anderson of Stay Well Health
Management, LuAnn Heinen of the National
Business Group on Health.
