Thoughts and insights from Frenkel Benefits
The comparative effectiveness tax is a small part of ACA. Under the law, health plans are assessed an excise tax of $1 per covered life per year. The fee escalates to $2 PMPY and then increases by inflation. The tax is payable annually on 7/31 on form 720. Sounds easy. Sure. Consultants, health plans and employers are either hopelessly oblivious or frantically trying to figure out if they are required to pay this tax and [...] Read more »
As I’ve blogged before, employers who provide generous benefits at a reasonable cost will do fine under ACA. But—and there is a big but—employers who continue to offer generous benefits will face eligibility expansion and therefore costs that increase greater than healthcare trend. So, generous employers, be warned: ACA doesn’t mandate that employers offer coverage to spouses, and some employers will use the cover of ACA to reduce the number of covered members under their [...] Read more »
PPACA established the PCIP (Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan), which provided transitional relief for people with a pre-existing condition who have been without coverage for at least six months, until the exchanges are established. When PCIP started, 23 states, in part concerned that the program would run out of cash, defaulted to a federally-run program. And in February, PCIP did just that—ran out of money, potentially leaving some of America’s sickest and most vulnerable population without [...] Read more »
I am winding down a top-performers trip to Italy sponsored by a healthcare company. I can’t help but think that—like the airline’s elaborate celebration of its crème de la crème—this is an event that will be reshaped (if not eliminated) in the coming years. Certainly many of today’s highest earners will not make the transition necessary to thrive in the coming B2C world. The observation I heard most from the very best brokers in the [...] Read more »
Most employers that currently provide good benefits to their employees are starting to relax as the realization sets in that ACA is not going to bankrupt them. But employers with large uncovered workforces are starting to panic. And desperate times lead to. . . I recently received a white paper on dumping sick employees. This paper represents that a self-insured employer (not subject to most state laws due to the ERISA exemption) could implement a [...] Read more »