Healthcare Legislation (92)
Colorado voters will soon decide whether we should be the first state to implement a “single-payer” system, or universal health care for residents. Keep an eye out for Initiative 20, the “State Health Care System”, which was certified recently as having obtained enough signatures to reach the 2016 ballot. What…
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Healthcare Legislation
Tuesday, 24 November 2015 13:38
2016 Connect For Health Assessment Fees
Written by Juliet Fitzgibbons
In 2013, the Legislature passed a law that allocated federal grants to support Connect for Health Colorado - Colorado’s state insurance exchange. Beginning in 2015, Colorado will be self-sustaining through a Special Assessment Fee which is applied to all health plans in Colorado, including group insurance and partially self-funded arrangements,…
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Healthcare Legislation
Tuesday, 27 October 2015 20:47
Congress Passes PACE Act – How Does it Impact You?
Written by Tonya Young
The definition of a “Small Group” in Colorado for insurance purposes has long been considered to be a group employing 50 or less individuals. The Affordable Care Act originally redefined a Small Group as a group with 100 or less individuals, and also proposed implementing a new rating mechanism for…
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Healthcare Legislation
Monday, 19 October 2015 18:00
ICD-10 Implementation May Increase Claims Issues
Written by Juliet Fitzgibbons
Employers were warned in 2014 that the ACA came with a new medical billing and coding system. As of October 1st, the United States implemented the tenth revision to the ICD (International Classification for Diseases) codes in an effort to more thoroughly define diseases and injuries. This change will allow…
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Healthcare Legislation
Large employers who offer an opt-out provision, where the employee “opts out” of the company’s benefits plan in exchange for cash or an increase in the employee’s salary, need to be aware of the impact this could potentially have when determining “affordability” under the employer mandate. In 2015, the employer…
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Healthcare Legislation
Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, experts have attempted to analyze the cost effects on American employers. While broad generalizations cannot be made since results can vary by state and industry type, the largest differentiator seems to be group size. Larger employers may tell you that the cost…
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Healthcare Legislation
While most employers are busy figuring out the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Employer Mandate and the 2015 ACA reporting requirements, there’s an important tax coming down the road in 2018 to plan for now. The “Cadillac Tax” is a 40% excise tax applied to any plan whose premiums exceed certain…
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Healthcare Legislation
Are your health plans compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA)? If you are a small employer that has put off making the switch and have kept your non-compliant plans under “transition relief,” also known as “Grandmothering,” this grace period has come to an end and your next renewal will…
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Healthcare Legislation
Monday, 16 March 2015 18:00
New Guidance Issued for Employers Reimbursing Non-Group Health Insurance
Written by Amy De Lorenzo
The IRS recently releasedIRS Notice 2015-17 to give more guidance to small employers (less than 50 full time equivalents) who do not offer healthcare coverage, but do reimburse employees for the cost of their premiums when those employees purchase health care coverage on their own. The IRS gave previous guidance…
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Healthcare Legislation
In a much watched case, the Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about a provision that could eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual market premium assistance, depending on how it is interpreted by the Court. This would affect the roughly 70% of states who have not established their own exchange;…
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Healthcare Legislation
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Monday, 06 October 2014 18:00
Section 125 Plans can now Allow Marketplace Enrollments Mid Plan-Year
Written by Kristen Russell
Employers who have non-calendar year plans have had challenges in the past when employees wanted to enroll in the Exchange Marketplace, but have already made a pre-tax election to take the employer’s health plan which binds them for the entire plan year. This problem has been eliminated with a recent…
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Healthcare Legislation
During open enrollment, employees tend to ask a lot of questions about the benefits and their options. Now that the exchange plans are available in the Individual Marketplace, employees will naturally have questions about the plans available and if they can move their coverage or their dependents’ coverage to save…
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Healthcare Legislation
Thursday, 26 June 2014 02:27
Should You Take Advantage of Transitional Relief?
Written by Amy De Lorenzo
Transitional Relief (affectionately known as “Grandmothering”) has become the new buzz word in the world of healthcare reform, especially for those with coverage in the small group or individual health insurance markets. Background The Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented new standard of coverage to health insurance policies beginning in 2014.…
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Healthcare Legislation
Now that the deadline for Open Enrollment on the Exchange Marketplace has passed, we’d like to update you on some of the enrollment figures. . Colorado has an Exchange site of its own, Connect for Health Colorado, as do about a dozen other states, separate from the federally-run enrollment website,…
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Healthcare Legislation