cmonfils | May 31, 2011
By Kay Lazar Globe Staff / May 31, 2011
Talk about a tasty perk. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care staffers don’t have to rush home to make dinner; they can get it at work.
The state’s second-largest health insurer now offers employees nutritious frozen dinners — reduced-salt gourmet dishes such as black bean chocolate chili or mahi-mahi with peach ginger sauce — for between $5 and $7 a serving. (more…)
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has upheld an ordinance passed by the City of Milwaukee requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers, reversing a state circuit court ruling declaring the measure unconstitutional and lifting a two-year injunction barring the city from enacting its provisions. On Nov. 4, 2008, Milwaukee became the third U.S. city to adopt paid sick leave, overwhelmingly passing a binding referendum requiring that all employers in the city provide employees with up to nine paid sick days per year. For more information, visit http://city.milwaukee.gov/der/PSLO.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Vermont. The legislature has passed legislation that would lead to a single payer system in the state.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Oklahoma. Governor Mary Fallin has turned down a $54 million early innovator grant from the Department of Health of Human Services (HHS) to help the state develop a health insurance exchange. Earlier this year, the HHS allocated $241 million in early innovator grants to help build the infrastructure needed to support health insurance exchanges under the ACA. Oklahoma was one of seven states who received a portion of those funds. Local Republicans criticized Ms. Fallin for accepting the funds, but are now commending her rejection of the funding. Ms. Fallin still plans to implement the health insurance exchange. For more information, visit http://www.ok.gov/governor/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Missouri. The Missouri Rx Plan will expire on August 28, unless lawmakers renew it. For the past 12 years, the plan has helped pay the medicine costs of 212,000 low-income seniors and disabled residents. A state senate budget plan is banking on the program’s demise, redirecting millions of dollars that normally would fund the prescription program to other government purposes. For more information, visit http://www.morx.mo.gov/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Minnesota. The Minnesota house has approved cuts to state health and welfare programs, in an attempt to erase a $5 billion deficit without increasing state taxes. The bill would eliminate a Medicaid expansion for 100,000 adults, coverage would expire for 7,200 adults under MinnesotaCare, and give other MinnesotaCare enrollees subsidies to buy private health insurance. In addition, the state legislature is considering a plan to provide vouchers to low-income state residents to buy health care coverage in the private marketplace. State Republicans said that the voucher program would cap the state’s liability and provide low-income individuals with responsibility for their own care. For more information, visit http://www.leg.state.mn.us/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Maryland. The state has passed legislation that sets up the state’s health insurance exchange, as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Maryland’s exchange will be an Internet portal that will provide individuals and small businesses the opportunity to compare rates, benefits, and quality ratings between health insurance plans. Maryland also passed several other laws to align Maryland law with provisions in the ACA, such as barring insurers from denying coverage to children with preexisting conditions, eliminating lifetime limits on essential benefits, requiring insurance companies to cover certain preventive services like mammograms and flu shots, and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until age 26. For more information, visit http://mlis.state.md.us/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Maine. The state is considering a proposal aimed at promoting the purchase of health insurance across state lines. Maine’s health insurance rates are among the highest in the country, and the proposal would allow Maine residents to purchase policies sold in other states where regulations are less burdensome and rates are lower. Opponents of the proposal argue that Maine residents who purchase insurance from other states would forfeit the consumer protections provided by the Maine, and would encourage young, healthy individuals to purchase coverage out-of-state, leaving older, sicker people behind to deal with even higher monthly premiums. For more information, visit http://www.maine.gov/legis/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Louisiana. Governor Bobby Jindal plans to sell the state health insurance plan to a private company. Critics of this approach said that it would result in higher premiums and lower benefits for state workers and retirees. However, Mr. Jindal’s budget advisor, Paul Rainwater, noted that Louisiana is currently the only state besides Utah that operates its own health insurance plan. For more information, visit http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Iowa. The state senate has approved a bill that calls for the Iowa Department of Human Services to come up with a plan by December 15 to redesign Iowa’s mental health system. The bill would require that the Iowa legislature take action on the recommendations during its 2012 session, with the new system implemented by July 1, 2013. The plan calls for the state to divide into eight mental health regions, and each region would be required to encompass at least one community mental health center or federally-qualified health center able to deliver psychiatric services. For more information, visit http://www.dhs.state.ia.us/mhdd/index.html.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
CCH® BENEFITS — 05/25/11
Illinois. Beginning July 1, the state will tighten its eligibility requirements for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The program’s current income limit for eligibility is 500% of the federal poverty level (FPL), or $54,450 for a single individual. After July 1, only HIV-positive individuals whose incomes are at or below 300% of FPL ($32,670) will be eligible to apply, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. For more information, visit http://www.idph.state.il.us/health/aids/adap.htm.
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
By Christy Yaccarino, GBA, EHBA, HIPAAA May 24, 2011
When I was a consultant and would present a client with a higher than expected medical renewal – which unfortunately was more the norm than not – one of the first things an employer would do was to consider lowering, or forgoing altogether, its contribution to employees’ dental benefits. (more…)
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
By Lydell C. Bridgeford May 24, 2011
Health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may pose a threat to COBRA.
Most employers “are not going to make a decision about whether they are going to play or pay until they see how successful the health exchanges are in creating a viable market where employees will be able to go and obtain coverage,” said American Benefits Council President James A. Klein, whose organization co-sponsored the MetLife event, held on March 28. (more…)
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
MyHealthGuide Source: Self-Insurance Institute of America, 5/25/2011, www.SIIA.org
A team of SIIA representatives met last week in Washington, DC with a group of senior officials from the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service in response to a recent IRS notice seeking comments on how stop-loss insurance should be defined relative to health insurance. (more…)
cmonfils | May 31, 2011
MyHealthGuide Source: Advanced Analytical Consulting Group’s (“AACG”) via Business Wire, 5/25/2011, www.AACG.com
BOSTON — Advanced Analytical Consulting Group’s (“AACG”) research about workers’ health insurance was presented to Congress and is now available on the Department of Labor website or at www.AACG.com/healthcare. The research quantified how companies fund their corporate health benefits, which could have important implications for the risk of corporate defaults on health benefit claims. (more…)
