Displaying items by tag: health insurance broker
Wednesday, 27 July 2016 14:42
Cost Containment: Putting Your Claims Data to Work
Let’s face it, there’s much about the continued rising cost of health care that you don’t have much control over. You can’t change the medical needs of a premature baby on your health plan, or change the costly medical and prescription treatment needed for chronic conditions in your employee population. However, you may have access to data from your insurance carrier that may help you get a better grasp on items that might help you curb your overall healthcare costs.
Published in
Best Practices
Wednesday, 13 July 2016 14:32
Fall River Inspiration Scholars Announced
We are so excited to share that we have chosen the winners of our annual Fall River Inspiration Scholarship. Each year, employees of Fall River clients, as well as their children/grandchildren, are eligible to apply. We had an outstanding pool of applicants this year (in both quantity and quality of applications) and have decided to increase the number of scholarships we gave. We are awarding two $1,000 scholarships as well as three $250 book stipends.
Published in
Fall River News
Tuesday, 05 July 2016 12:31
Medicaid Now Rebranded to Health First Colorado
Effective June 27, 2016, the Colorado Medicaid program is now called Health First Colorado. The new name reflects the significant changes that have been made to modernize Colorado’s Medicaid program to engage members and improve the quality and coordination of care. The name itself – Health First Colorado – aims to convey Colorado’s commitment to putting its residents’ health first, as well as encourage its 1.3 million members to put their own health first.
Published in
Healthcare Legislation
Wednesday, 29 June 2016 11:56
Mental Health Compliance in the Workplace
Last month we wrote about mental health awareness in the workplace. This month we’d like to bring your attention to compliance surrounding mental health issues, and how not following proper procedure could cost your company profoundly.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against individuals with mental and emotional impairments in companies with at least 15 employees. But how do you know if the ADA rules apply to the situation at hand? If a mental health impairment is brought to your attention, what do you need to do?
Published in
Wellness
Wednesday, 29 June 2016 05:40
Reminder: Key Compliance Deadline in July
The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fee is due July 31, 2016 for employers with any type of self-funded plan and/or a Health Reimbursement Arrangement. The fee helps fund unbiased research that evaluates the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments regardless of the profit potential. This fee is also known as the Comparative Effectiveness Research Fee, or CERF.
The amount of the fee depends on your health plan’s effective date. The fee is $2.08 per covered life for employers with February 1 through October 1 effective dates, and $2.17 for employers with November 1, December 1, or January 1 effective dates.
Published in
Compliance
Wednesday, 29 June 2016 11:23
Do Your Employees Travel Abroad for Business?
Traveling abroad for work can be an exciting experience but anything can happen while you're away from home. Losing your passport, malaria, auto accident, food poisoning – it's important to be prepared for any unexpected illness, injury or medical emergency. Unfortunately, most domestic medical plans reimburse after the fact for emergencies only, and simply are not designed for regular international travel.
It’s no secret that the quality of healthcare can vary widely around the world. The quality of care your expatriate employees experience in their new country may not be to the standard they were used to back home, nor are they likely entitled to any free or subsidized national healthcare. As an international employer, it’s important to provide the proper type of medical coverage for your employees. You want to ensure that they receive worldwide access to quality care, superior international claims administration, and 24-7 translation, logistics, and medical evacuation service.
Published in
Best Practices
Tuesday, 24 May 2016 21:45
Understanding the Single-Payer Health Care Initiative “ColoradoCare” Amendment 69
THE FACTS
What is Amendment 69?
Also known as ColoradoCare, Amendment 69 is a single-payer healthcare initiative that will create a government run, universal healthcare system in Colorado. Due to appear on the 2016 general election ballot, the passage of Amendment 69 would eliminate private health insurance and subsidies provided through Colorado’s insurance exchange and funding for Medicaid.
Who is responsible for assuring care?
Published in
Healthcare Legislation
Thursday, 19 May 2016 03:36
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS IN THE WORKPLACE
The Fall River Team recently attended the annual Colorado Culture of Health conference, and the theme of mental health in the workplace was prevalent. It continues to be a taboo and uncomfortable topic that employers tend to avoid. However it’s becoming clear that employers can’t afford to take a hands-off approach any longer, due to the enormous impact it has on companies. The World Health Organization has stated that mental health illnesses in the U.S. are becoming more costly than physical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and respiratory illnesses combined.
Published in
Wellness
Tuesday, 17 May 2016 03:25
Compliance Update: State Mandated Short-Term Disability Employer Requirements
As consumers, we spend so much time focusing on medical benefits and sometimes forget the importance of disability coverage. Although many states do not require that employers offer any type of disability benefit to its employees, there are a handful of states that mandate employers to offer paid-Short-Term Disability (STD) benefits for employees. STD benefits are not available from Social Security or elsewhere in the federal government. If you are disabled less than a year, you can’t collect Social Security disability or State Disability Insurance (SDI).
Published in
Compliance
Monday, 09 May 2016 03:18
HSA Contribution Limits for 2017 Set
On April 29, 2016, the IRS provided inflation-adjusted HSA contribution limits for 2017, as well as the HDHP minimum deductible and maximum-out-of-pocket expenses associated with HSA's. Click here for the IRS publication.
The contribution limits for HSA's in 2017 will increase by $50 for self-only coverage. Family contributions to HSA's will remain unchanged, as will the minimum deductible and maximum-out-of-pocket expenses for the High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP). All changes are based on cost-of-living adjustments determined by the IRS.
A comparison of the last several years is shown below:
Published in
Compliance
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