Useful App – Healthspek (Personal & Family Health Record)
Healthspek is your own personal health record. And your family’s too as you can add each family member for a complete record. Healthspek allows users to see their own personal health care information. The home screen is the customizable ‘myDashboard’. – Select any member to track their conditions, refill meds, track lab results, record immunizations, […]
National Flood Insurance Program Provides Crystal Ball into Obamacare
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is in deep financial trouble. Rates have not been calculated based on sound actuarial principals. – The solution (according to FEMA), stop subsidizing premiums on flood-prone properties that file the kind of large claims — sometimes repeatedly — that have left the National Flood Insurance Program in the red. […]
Healthcare Reform Update – ‘Pay or Play’ Delayed Until 2016
Large employers with fewer than 100 Full-Time Employees got some good news. The rules for employers with at least 50 full-time employees provide transition relief with respect to all of 2015 and, for non-calendar plan years that begin in 2015, for the portion of that 2015 plan year that falls in 2016. Key points to […]
Useful App – 3in4 Need More
Odds are that more than a few of us have had to deal with a family member, immediate or extended, who has required assisted living needs. Maybe they had to research specialty doctors, care centers or care providers; possibly for a member living hundreds of miles away. The 3in4 Need More is a nonprofit organization […]
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 […]
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 […]
Telehealth /Telemedicine
The next time your employee thinks he needs to go to the doctor’s office, emergency room or urgent care center, wouldn’t it be more convenient and cost-effective to call the doctor first? Seventy percent of office visits aren’t necessary and eliminating unnecessary trips to the doctor’s office reduces total employee healthcare costs – studies show a […]
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 […]