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Insurance

Penalties rival incentives as work health tactic

11/27/2013
Employers will use both carrots and sticks to keep workers healthier and stem the tide of higher health care costs, according to the 2013/2014 Towers Watson Staying@Work Survey.

IRS OKs dropping health FSA ‘use-it-or-lose-it’

11/26/2013
The IRS has announced that employers sponsoring health flexible spending arrangements can drop long-standing “use-it-or-lose-it” rules that require employees to forfeit FSA funds if they don’t claim reimbursements by the end of a plan year.

Bypass Healthcare.gov: Small employers can buy health insurance through brokers

11/19/2013

The Healthcare.gov website may be broken, but that doesn’t mean small business owners who want to buy health insurance for their employees have to wait. They can learn about coverage options, costs and available tax credits by working with an insurance broker who has registered with CMS to facilitate SHOP policy sales.

Regs continue to outline affordability under the ACA

11/18/2013
Under the Affordable Care Act, employees who don’t have access to affordable group health insurance that provides minimum value may obtain individual insurance through the exchanges. As part of their core responsibilities, exchanges determine whether employees qualify for advance premium tax credits and other cost-sharing reductions. Two sets of regulations relate to the concept of affordable health insurance.

Consumer-directed health plans rein in costs

11/11/2013
Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are now the second-most prevalent kind of employer-provided health insurance, according to new research by the Aon Hewitt HR consulting firm. CDHPs could surpass PPOs in the next five years, the researchers predict. What’s driving the CDHP surge?

No unemployment after rejecting lower-paying job

10/31/2013
Consider this scenario: A former em­­ployee is collecting unemployment. You have an opening that matches his skills and abilities, but which pays less than the previous position. If you make an offer and the former employee rejects it, he may lose his unemployment compensation benefits.

Must we offer benefits to same-sex partners?

10/29/2013
Q. One of our employees claims she has a marriage certificate for herself and her female partner and now wants to put that partner on her insurance plan. Do we have to do that?

Worker fired for lack of wheels is eligible for unemployment

10/29/2013
A former employee of Bell Sociali­­zation Services in York has won unemployment compensation benefits after she was fired for not having “reliable transportation.”

With ACA Web woes mounting, will SHOPs be delayed again?

10/29/2013
With Obama administration officials now stating that Healthcare.gov “will work smoothly for the vast majority of users by the end of November,” it seems reasonable to wonder when employers will be able to use the site to buy coverage for their employees under the Small Business Health Option Program (SHOP).

Put your ACA expertise to use during open enrollment

10/25/2013
This open enrollment season may prove to be the most challenging in years, thanks primarily to two converging forces: the Affordable Care Act and the fact that employees barely understand their health benefits anyway. You can burnish your reputation in the company by having answers to employees’ questions.