Category: Uncategorized

The UBA Health Plan Survey tracks plans offered by region as well as enrollment by region. From a prevalence perspective, preferred provider organization (PPO) plans are most prevalent in the Central U.S., though they generally dominate nationwide, exc…

The Providing Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act amended the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and redefined small employers as those with 50 or fewer employees; it also gives states the option to expand the definition to include employers with up to 100 employees (or, practically speaking, those with 51 to 100 employees, also called “mid-size employers”). Prior to the ACA, all states defined small employers as those with 1 to 50 or 2 to 50 employees; however, many have passed legislation redefining the group size up to 100 employees beginning in 2016. States are now in the process of determining what they define as “small employer.”

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently provided an informational FAQ relating to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) market reform provisions. Non-grandfathered group health plans and individual or group market health insurance must cover a variety of preventive services without any cost-sharing requirements. Required preventive services include “breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, and access to breastfeeding supplies,” obesity screening and weight management services for certain individuals, colonoscopies for certain age groups, and contraception coverage for women.

If you’re Inspector Gadget, you might say, “Go-go gadget security!” but for the rest of us we’re stuck with the task of keeping our smartphones, tablets, wearable technology, and any other connected devices (collectively known as the “Internet of Things”) secure.

The data are in for the 2015 Health Plan Survey! See our news release with the top cost trends. Download the UBA 2015 Health Plan Survey Executive Summary with more detailed findings. For quick reference, here’s a brief punch list of the top trends.

Following delays in the DOL regulation, the “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” which was signed by President Obama on November 2, 2015, repealed the auto-enrollment requirement. Employers are still free to use default or negative elections for employee enrollment.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed in 1974. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is the agency responsible for administering and enforcing this law. For many years, most of ERISA’s requirements applied to pension plans. However, in recent years that has changed, and group plans (called “welfare benefit plans” by ERISA and the DOL) now must meet a number of requirements.

In October 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) provided an informational FAQ relating to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) market reform provisions.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v Hodges that the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfu…