Health and Human Services Propsing Rule to Revise Short-term Health Plans

In direct response to President Trump's October 2017 Executive Order, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury (the Departments) issued a proposed rule today that is intended to increase competition, choice, and access to lower-cost healthcare options for Americans. The rule proposes to expand the availability of short-term, limited-duration health insurance by allowing consumers to buy plans providing coverage for any period of less than 12 months, rather than the current maximum period of less than three months. The proposed rule, if finalized, will provide additional options to Americans who cannot afford to pay the costs of soaring healthcare premiums or do not have access to healthcare choices that meet their needs under current law.

Level-funded plan uptake trickling down market

Article by Bruce Shutan of ebn BeneftisNews.com

A brighter light is being cast on level-funded group health plans as benefits decision-makers tackle open-enrollment season. Several industry observers say the trend is more pronounced given that the Affordable Care Act remains largely intact — for now.

IRS Announces New Benefit Amounts

The Internal Revenue Service announced in Revenue Procedure 2017-58  the annual inflation adjustments for more than 40 tax provisions for 2018, including the tax rate schedules, and other tax changes. This Revenue Procedure provides details about these annual adjustments: 

Federal District Court Asks EEOC to Reconsider its Wellness Regulations

From the Desk of Larry Gudzien 

On August 22,  the U.S.  Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to reconsider its final regulations in regard to the size of the incentive an employer may offer to participate in wellness program without violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).

Senate Republicans Unveil New Health Bill but Divisions Remain

By ROBERT PEAR and THOMAS  KAPLAN

New York Times

WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leaders unveiled a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while keeping a pair of taxes on high-income people that they had planned to eliminate.

CBO Socres the Senate Version of the AHCA

The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed an estimate of the direct spending and revenue effects of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, a Senate amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 1628. CBO and JCT estimate that enacting this legislation would reduce the cumulative federal deficit over the 2017-2026 period by $321 billion. That amount is $202 billion more than the estimated net savings for the version of H.R. 1628 that was passed by the House of Representatives.

Medical FSA 101

To continue our series of commonly used acronyms in insurance, this post will be about FSAs.  Flexible Spending Accounts/Arraignments are similar to HSAs where you can use the pre-taxed money to pay for medical and dental expenses.  There are different types of FSAs. However, today I will only be covering FSAs for medical expenses.