COBRA, ACA, and Special Enrollment Rights

With the seemingly endless flow of guidance, updates, notices, and delays swirling about relative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA),  a rather important piece of guidance may have been overlooked.  Issued jointly by the Department of Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month (May 2, 2014), this guidance provides an opportunity for individuals enrolled in COBRA coverage the option to dis-enroll in their COBRA coverage, and enroll in potentially lower cost individual health insurance coverage, FOR A LIMITED TIME.  (Click - http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Regulations-and-Guidance/Downloads/SEP-and-hardship-FAQ-5-1-2014.pdf )
This week's post addresses this guidance and provides additional information related to the transection of COBRA and the ACA.

To access the complete article, click - https://smstevensandassociates.com/ResourceLibrary/tabid/192/Default.aspx

HSA Updates and Advanced Guidance

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the Health Savings Account (HSA) maximum contribution amounts, and qualified high deductible health plan (QHDHP) deductible and out of pocket limits for 2015.  Since I have provided basic guidance on "all things HSA" in a previous post (see - http://sstevenshealthcare.blogspot.com/2013/10/health-savings-accounts-hsas.html ), I thought I would provide some advanced HSA guidance in this week's blog, along with the recently announced 2015 IRS maximums.

To access the complete article, click - https://smstevensandassociates.com/ResourceLibrary/tabid/192/Default.aspx

CDHPs Affect on Health Care Spending

Ordinarily, I try to couple a picture with the content of my post, creating a theme of sorts.  This week, my selected picture IS the essence of the blog post.  The picture is a chart provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) showing the slowing of health care spending from 2002 to 2013, by nearly 90%.  A previous blog post addressed this topic (click - http://sstevenshealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/01/whats-causing-health-care-spending-to.html)
One of the factors contributing to the slow down in health care spending cited in this post (titled appropriately - What's Causing Health Care Spending to Slow?) is the growth in popularity and implementation of so called high deductible health plans with accompanying tax preferred spending accounts.  Better known as Consumer Driven Health Plans, or CDHPs, these plans affect both the demand and supply of health care, and as time, data, and logic has now proven, THESE PLANS REDUCE HEALTH CARE COSTS WITHOUT COMPROMISING CARE!

To access the complete article, click - https://smstevensandassociates.com/ResourceLibrary/tabid/192/Default.aspx

Understanding the Two Separate ACA Delays

 

French novelist and critic - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr - famously said (originally in French and translated to English in the mid 1800's) - "the more things change, the more they remain the same".  Based on recent news in Nebraska, relative to the roll out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, I am going to reverse Mr. Alphonse Karr's famous quote to say - "the more things remain the same, the more they change"!  If you're not in Nebraska, keep reading because this week's blog post addresses the allowance of what now amounts to a nearly three year delay of several key provisions* of the ACA...for some.

To access the complete article, click - https://smstevensandassociates.com/ResourceLibrary/tabid/192/Default.aspx