Category Archive - Group

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Inflation of Health Insurance Plans Continued in 2009

Thursday, August 26th, 2010
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2009 had the American economy in the throes of recession. Inflation was very low, while the Federal Reserve cut the interest rate to almost zero. So why did the cost of health insurance plans continue to rise?

To be exact, United Benefit Advisors found that health insurance rates increased by an average of 7.3% for employers. That’s almost three times the inflation in general consumer prices.

Insurers tend to blame an increase in medical expenses. Meanwhile, companies are using consumer-directed health plans to pass more of the cost of group health insurance coverage onto their employees.

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Rhode Island Health Insurance Premiums To Increase

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

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Bad news for Rhode Island health insurance consumers: the insurance commissioner just approved several premium increases.

The health insurance rate hikes, which become effective next year, are as follows:

  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island: 9.8% for small and large business health insurance
  • United HealthCare: 12.3% for firms with under 50 employees, and 8.4% for larger companies
  • Tufts: 11% and 10.2%, respectively

On the bright side, these rate hikes are lower than those originally requested.

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Your Group Health Insurance May Change

Monday, June 14th, 2010

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Contrary to President Obama’s proclamations that healthcare reform wouldn’t force people to give up existing employer-based health insurance they liked, there are indicators that employers may change those policies after all. Republicans are accusing him of lying to get the bill passed.

A leaked draft version of the regulations for group health insurance coverage states that plans that existed before the passage of the law must comply with some of its provisions, such as co-payment-free preventative care doctors’ visits, covering adult dependents until age 26, and an appeals process for disputed medical claims.

Most employees would consider these additional benefits a net positive (making good plans better), but companies are dreading the additional cost that any modifications to their health coverage entails. They may pass that cost onto employees, although the bill aims to discourage that.

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How Will CVS and Walgreens’ Beef Affect Your Prescription Health Insurance?

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

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Cutthroat rivals in the drugstore industry, Walgreen’s and CVS are now locked in a feud that has the potential to affect where many people with employer-sponsored defined benefit health insurance plans.

CVS Caremark, which runs prescription drug programs for many large corporations, recently forbade its members from filling their prescriptions at Walgreen’s locations. In response, Walgreen has stopped accepting patients with CVS plans. In other words, a pharmacy can now be considered out-of-network, and you may have to pay full price for your medications.

Due to this rivalry, companies that offer group health insurance with prescription coverage might switch to one of the outsiders (Walgreen has its own plans, though they are little used): Medco and Express Scripts are among them. As a result, you may have to switch pharmacists.

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Employers Audit Group Health Insurance Dependents

Friday, June 4th, 2010

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A large percentage of many employers’ costs consist of their benefits packages, including health insurance coverage. Even the partial cost of an individual employee or a family can be significant. Now, recent reforms force companies to further expand their family coverage to all adult dependents under the age of 26, regardless of whether or not they’re enrolled in college.

As a result, firms are looking to save money. Therefore, more of them are conducting audits–meant to find out if the non-employees they are paying for truly are related dependents of their workers. They will be dropped from your policy if you can’t prove that they are. You may even have to pay back the money spent on their health care. The worst part is that if you ignore the audit, legitimate dependents could be dropped, too!

Generally, nephews and nieces and ex-husbands or wives aren’t considered dependents by most companies. Experts believe that a business with 10,000 employees could save up to $1 million per year on its group health insurance expenses through auditing.

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Do Group Health Insurance Wellness Incentives Actually Work?

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

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An increasing number of companies are offering wellness incentives to their employees, in order to inspire them to maintain a healthy weight or quit smoking. Many of these benefits include the opportunity to have a higher portion of their health insurance premiums paid by the employer.

Tobacco use and obesity among the American workforce costs companies billions of dollars in increased health care costs, so it is a worthy goal. However, there are some doubts that the incentives are actually effective.

According to a study from Cornell University, the average weight loss in several of those employer programs was just one pound; too little to make a significant difference in health outcomes or group health insurance rates.

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Family Businesses Ineligible For Health Insurance Tax Credits

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

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Soon, tax credits will be provided to small businesses to help them afford group health insurance. However, those firms completely or mostly staffed by family members may not be able to take advantage of the 35% to 50% benefit.

Why? Family members have historically been exempt from business tax credit programs, because of the potential of unfairness and abuse of the system and nonrelated taxpayers.

Which employees won’t count towards the amount of tax credit received? According to the IRS, family members are considered to be:

  • A child or grandchild of the owner
  • a sibling or step-sibling
  • In-laws
  • Aunts and uncles
  • Parents, grandparents, and step-parents and step-grandparents
  • Nieces and nephews

The healthcare reform law will have little benefit for small businesses mostly staffed by relatives. However, those with relatively few family members employed will experience more positives.

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Sebelius Urges Employers to Implement Group Health Insurance Earlier

Friday, May 28th, 2010

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The deadline for large group health insurance plans to expand coverage to the adult children of employees until the age of 26 is September 23rd. However, the actual date depends on when the new plan year begins, which can be as late as January 1st of next year for many companies.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is encouraging employers to enact this element of healthcare reform earlier than required. Doing so will be especially helpful to recent college graduates, who would otherwise be uninsured.

Will businesses comply? On the one hand, the demographic in question is generally healthy, so total costs shouldn’t rise all that much. On the other hand, premiums may increase. One study found that 16% are planning to expand their health benefits to this group.

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NJ Public Sector Employees To Chip In For Health Insurance Premiums

Monday, May 24th, 2010

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Public sector unions in New Jersey, including the police and firefighters, have grudgingly agreed to pay for part of their health insurance premiums.

Starting June 1st, the state employees will have to contribute at least 1.5% of the cost of their New Jersey health insurance policies. Compared to private sector employees, that’s nothing. Many of the latter have to cover most or all of their own premiums!

For an employee with an annual salary of $50,000, they will have to pay just $750 per year in premiums: a very affordable health insurance option. Despite some previous concessions, these plans are typically comprehensive.

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