PPACA’s ‘Shared Responsibility’ – Time to Revisit FTE Worksheet
Even though the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) were delayed and will not take effect until January 1, 2015, employers should have prepared for their compliance strategies in 2013. However, if you were a procrastinator now is the time to review. Business owners and payroll personnel will want […]
2014 – Key Health Reform Provisions taking effect this year
• Health Benefit Exchanges – state exchanges move from enrollment to covered phase • Individual Mandate – requires each person to have minimum essential coverage • Essential Health Benefits – requires new plans to cover 10 essential health benefits • No Pre-Existing Conditions – prevents plans from limiting benefits on pre-existing conditions • Clinical Trials […]
2014 IRS Limits – FICA, FSA, HSA, etc…
Maximum Taxable Earnings The following table provides a list of key wage & contribution based benefit IRS limits. FICA Taxable Wage Base (2014 / 2013) Maximum Taxable Earnings – $117,000 / $113,700 Employer Tax Rate – 6.2% / 6.2% Employee Tax Rate – 6.2% / 6.2% Flexible Spending Accounts Health FSA Maximum Salary Reduction […]
The Relief Keeps On Coming!
Health Care Reform Updates – Hear are a few of the changes announced in the last weeks starting with Transition Policy. Transitional Policy provides the Option to Keep Existing Coverage in 2014 – State agencies responsible are encouraged (but not required) to adopt the transitional policy. If the state allows, health insurers have the option […]
2014 Waiting Period Limit – 3 months is not the same as 90 days
Effective for the plan year beginning on or after Jan 1, 2014 the new federal maximum 90-day waiting period limit applies to all group health plans, fully insured and self-funded, grandfathered and non-grandfathered. (States may mandate shorter waiting periods.) Compliant waiting periods include: No waiting period Date of Event: 1 to 90 calendar days; 1 or […]
2014 HSA Contribution Limits
A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged savings account available to those who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA), funds roll over and accumulate year to year if not spent. HSAs are owned […]
Cybersecurity and Obamacare
HealthCare.gov website users should know that the issues with the website were not just a result of a very large amount of traffic pinging it in one go. The security flaws in the website were quite primitive. Flaws you don’t really expect someone to have overlooked. For instance, the site relayed personal information without encryption […]
Small Businesses May Be Able to Re-Enroll in Current Coverage
Last week’s announcement the federal government is encouraging states to adopt a transitional rule which would allow insurance carriers to extend individual health insurance plans, which would otherwise be discontinued, into 2014, was only half the story. Only hours after the announcement the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released additional clarification on this […]
Obamaco$t brings Unpleasant Surprise – Focus, Large Group Renewals
Early 2014 large group renewals have come in for fully-insured and self-insured plans. Many employers are going to have an unpleasant surprise. A surprise to many who have had the belief that the postponement of the mandate postponed everything. Are you ready for this? Example 1: A colleague of mine reports a 400 life group with a […]
Obamaco$t comes with Obamacare
Have you heard federal officials sate “Premiums before tax credits will be more than 16 percent lower than projected?” They are referring to the weighted average of the second lowest cost silver plan for 48 states (including DC) based on the ASPE-derived Congressional Budget Office. Sounds good, until you dig deeper. The key word is […]