cmonfils | January 13, 2012
FRANKFORT, Ky.—Kentucky licensed 18 new captive insurance companies in 2011, bringing the total number of active captives in the state to 137 at year’s end.
http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20120113/NEWS06/120119936?tags=58|73|60
cmonfils | January 13, 2012
Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield (BCBS) organizations along with their affiliates enrolled 94.4 million people as of September 30, 2011, more than 30% of the population in the United States and more than 50% of those commercially insured. Linked together through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), the Blues are a national federation of 38 independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. Most Blues organizations operate individually and in a single local market. However, that may shift as plans come to terms with changes brought about by health care reform. In this report Mark Farrah Associates examines membership changes that occurred at BCBS entities from September 2010 to September 2011 and looks at financial data as of December 2010.
cmonfils | January 13, 2012
Top brass may have the last word when it comes to adverse actions. But even comments made by lower-level managers — including those in human resources — may be used to support the kind of discrimination claim that often follows in the highly emotional climate following a layoff.
A recent appeals court ruling in a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) case illustrates the consequences for a company when HR doesn’t fully support the decision.
cmonfils | January 13, 2012
A mandatory uniform standard for health plans to pay claims electronically was adopted in rules issued Jan. 5 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The rules are designed to help health care providers match payments received with the “remittance advice” transactions that plans are already sending them under an existing HHS standard.
cmonfils | January 13, 2012
To view a PDF version of this article, please click here.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) posted Version 3.3 of the User Guide, dated December 16, 2011 (the “Version 3.3”) on its website.
Version 3.3 includes the guidance that CMS has provided in various alerts since the previous User Guide was published as of August 17, 2011. A link to the User Guide is included in footnote 1, below. A summary of all of the changes to Version 3.3 are available on pages 6 and 7 of the User Guide; however, the following summarizes the most significant changes:
cmonfils | January 13, 2012
Streamlining electronic funds transfers in health care will bring total savings to
more than $16 billion over 10 years
New standards for electronic funds transfers in health care, required by the Affordable Care Act, will reduce up to $4.5 billion off administrative costs for doctors and hospitals, private health plans, states, and other government health plans, over the next ten years, according to estimates included in new rules published today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The standards build upon regulations published earlier this year that set industry-wide standards for how health providers use electronic systems to quickly and easily determine a patient’s eligibility for health coverage and check on the status of a health claim.
