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Our very own Jennifer Ancona was named as a Five Star Business Insurance and Benefits Professionals Award Winner in the February edition of Colorado Biz Magazine. Fall River clients have repeatedly gained from Jennifer’s 12 years of HR experience prior to her insurance career and the higher level of proactive service she brings to our team and the folks we serve as a result. We are thrilled to see her recognized for these achievements by a local community award.
Congratulations Jennifer!
On April 27th, 2012 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released their inflation-adjusted Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution maximum limits alongside High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) minimum deductible and out-of-pocket limits for 2013. As usual, there was no change in the $1,000 amount for catch-up contributions for those 55 and older.
IRS Revenue Procedure 2012-26 raises individual HSA contribution maximum limits by $150 and family limits by $200 as compared to 2012. Click here for a handy chart summarizing all the changes from 2004 through next year (2013).
In February we blogged about the advantages and utilization trends of HSAs. Especially given the Flexible Spending Account (FSA) limits coming in 2013 under healthcare reform, now is a great time to re-evaluate what you are offering employees. If you’ve previously offered a FSA, remember your employees cannot take advantage of a HSA until the first month after your FSA grace period has expired. There are also a number of special considerations for limited-purpose FSA or those employers also under a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).
Got strategy or compliance questions on HSAs or FSAs? Ready to simplify and ease your administrative concerns? Give us a call and we’ll help you Navigate the Current today!
This summer we’re going to be presenting to a number of employers in partnership with Mountain States Employers Council. A strategic discussion about what’s behind the curtain of healthcare costs and how you can assess your organization’s plan design to maximize possible savings is coming to Denver, Colorado Springs, Loveland and Grand Junction July 10th – 24th.
As always, check our News & Events section often to make sure you don’t miss out on some great employer information designed for HR professionals and other benefits administrators. Our Benefits Guide and Webinars are also being added to regularly.
Let us know if you’d like specific information or a complimentary benchmark on your company plan before this year’s renewal process gets underway.
On March 23rd the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) turned two years old, amidst a firestorm of controversy. The long-awaited Supreme Court process began this week with the Justices taking up three days of oral arguments with potential rulings on multiple pieces of this complex legislation coming as soon as this summer.
Here’s a quick recap of this week’s arguments:
Day One
The Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 stipulates that a new tax cannot be argued before actual revenues have been collected and there is something to then materially dispute. In this case, since the IRS would collect PPACA’s assessed penalties, the first point of order has become whether or not the individual mandate penalty is, in fact, a tax. Secondly, if it is ruled that it is a tax, a decision would have to be made whether the Supreme Court has the right to take up this case before revenues are collected or whether it should wait until 2015, when 2014 penalties have been collected.
Day Two
The single most controversial item of all – the individual mandate. Does the federal government possess the Constitutional right to require individuals to purchase insurance or pay a fine? From hilarious comparisons of buying broccoli and compulsory cell phone purchase to serious considerations about whether the government has the right to create commerce so they can therefore regulate it, the individual mandate remains the centerpiece of this fight.
Day Three
A Severability Clause is usually included in legislation, though absent in the final version of PPACA, and generally provides that the balance of a law will remain in force in the event that any provision of a statute is declared unconstitutional or illegal. The Supreme Court, if they rule PPACA is not a tax, if they actually take up the full case, and If the Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate, it would then have to decide what, if any, parts of the law would remain. Key points in this argument are the congressional intent of the law and also the unintended effects that leaving parts of the legislation without others (not what was intended or fiscally planned for PPACA to work in its current form) would have on the insurance companies, state exchanges, etc.
A separate issue hearing arguments on Day Three focused on another states’ rights point. 26 states have sued the federal government for, among other things, expanding Medicaid requirements under PPACA and the states argue that it amounts to “coercion” by the federal government.
While opinions abound over which way Justices are leaning and where their questioning is headed, remember that actual decisions aren’t expected until June at the earliest. But, all in all, these three days of oral arguments are setting up an electrifying summer and pre-election fireworks. Regardless of personal political views, this is fascinating stuff for sure. We’ll keep you posted with more developments as things progress on both sides of this landmark legislation.
We at Fall River Employee Benefits are big believers in employee engagement as a key part of a holistic strategy to reduce your healthcare costs. In particular, we think your engagement efforts should focus in three areas:
Check out this article on Employee Engagement in the most recent Health Insurance Underwriter magazine. We’ve been talking about these ideas for years and we’re glad to see that our industry magazine has at last caught the drift.
In October 2011 we posted a webinar about the new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employer reporting requirements for Form W-2. The IRS has since amended those interim guidelines with clarification around several of the FAQs in Notice 2012-9. Further simplifying the new guidelines though, is a very handy reference chart that was just released in February 2012. Check out the chart and, as always, we’re just a phone call away if you have questions about this or other benefit reporting concerns.
Segal’s 2012 Trend Survey predicts average employer healthcare renewals betwen 9.6% – 10.4%. While this is lower than the 11+% of last year, the decade-long trend reflecting total costs doubling every 7 years continues to be of foremost concern to us all. These numbers are 5x higher than the average annual increase in earnings and 2011 premiums were, on average, 113% higher than in 2001.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) show that U.S. healthcare spending grew 3.8% in 2009 and 3.9% in 2010. While this was the slowest two-year growth on record, it still represents a total consumer spend of nearly 18% of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)!
The 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Survey did show that consumer-driven plans now account for 17% of covered workers. While price inflation to the cost of services continues to be the number one driver of trend, teaching employees how to make smarter choices about their care and using tax advantages when they do spend remains a winning strategy.
A second look at your employer plan design and holistic benefits strategy absolutely impacts overall trend too. As a matter of fact, this year’s Towers Watson Survey says the average employer stands to bend their trend by over 10% if they take full advantage of the most proactive strategies available.
Best vs. Worst Employer Comparison
Isn’t it time your healthcare plan stopped performing poorly?
Restore your benefits to their original intent and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today!
The Employee Benefit Research Institute just released their 2011 Consumer Engagement in Healthcare Survey. Data shows Americans put away $12.4 Billion last year into HSAs, with the average account balance of $1,470 more than double what 2006 figures showed. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2011 Employer Survey also reported that High Deductible Health Plans (usually paired with HSAs) accounted for 17% of covered workers, up from 8% in 2009. Considering that HSAs have only been around since 2004, these figures show a remarkable traction among consumers and those employers who are savvy to the benefit of such designs.
The answer is surprising – a little bit of everybody! There were no clear utilization trends from EBRI’s study based on health or gender alone. So much for the adage that only the young and healthy will enroll. There were trends that showed those with higher incomes and those who were older did tend to have higher account balances; but that’s no surprise factoring in catch-up contribution options and the greater need for care that comes with a little more “life experience”.
The savvy consumerism that comes with owning an account and making your own healthcare spending choices using your own tax-free dollars is hard to beat. However, the paradigm shift and employee communication necessary to properly prepare and educate your team before a sudden open enrollment announcement are critical success factors. An overall plan strategy session to consider revenue-neutral ways to partially fund employees’ accounts or otherwise incent their participation can also go a long way.
Got questions? Let us help you Navigate the Current!
Employers who are successfully increasing wellness participation, in turn actually reducing their healthcare costs, are doing so with the increased use of premium incentives. Fall River has long advocated the development of powerful incentive structures to drive the least healthy members (i.e. biggest utilizers) to participate.
A recent article published in the February 2012 issue of HR Magazine documents the latest industry shifts finally showing major traction towards this trend; “Five years ago, the most common incentive for completing a health risk assessment was either a token gift or cash, according to a Mercer survey…this year, a lower employee premium contribution is the most common incentive…the median incentive amount was $240 annually.”
Healthcare reform has set key percentages for allowable incentives and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) lays out particular standards that must be taken into consideration when designing your program. Check out several great articles on this subject in our Benefits Guide and, if you’re worried about where to find the money for premium incentives, we can help you with revenue-neutral or other funding ideas too!
For more on the latest incentive data and insights from employers, read the full article here or, if you are not a SHRM member with access, contact us for a complimentary copy.
On December 16, 2011 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a bulletin outlining new state guidelines concerning the federal essential benefit requirement for health plans beginning in 2014 per healthcare reform.
If finalized, states would have the flexibility to select an existing health plan to set the benchmark for the ten components included in the initial essential health benefits package of healthcare reform. States would choose one of the following health insurance plans as a benchmark, with “largest” meaning “most enrolled”:
The idea driving this is that insurance needs and the markets they’re priced in vary by state today. HHS is attempting to provide some flexibility per local needs that is also representative of that market within the federal standard required.
What if an actuary sat down with you to go over how this might change what your company offers from what you have in place today? 3 out of 4 employers who sit down with us not only get educated, but they save money lying on the table today.
Contact us to learn more!
Check out the actual HHS press release, including the link for public comments, here.
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