Why The Health Care Reform Employee Tax Subsidies Could Cost You More
The Hill Under the new health care reform law, if an employer’s group health insurance is considered unaffordable — a cost to the employee of more than 9.5% of household income — the employee would be eligible for tax subsidies through a health insurance exchange. As the law was originally interpreted, if the employee was […]
How Does the Loss of Five Insurance Carriers In Indiana Affect You?
IBJ The state of Indianapolis recently lost five individual health carriers from the market. For those working in the health insurance industry, this comes as no surprise. Below are the five companies that exited and the reasons for their departures: American Community Mutual Insurance Co. American Community left Indianapolis due to insolvency. The company had […]
Bad News for Children on Medicaid and Health Care Reform.
Forbes reported on the Government Accountability Office study children on Medicaid have lower access to health care and quality. The study showed that Medicaid patients are 13% more likely to die than uninsured patients in a hospital. 66% of children covered by Medicaid were denied appointment with a specialist for an urgent medical condition. The physicians do not […]
Accountable Care Organizations
Chicago Tribune Accountable Care Organizations are starting gain traction.. Chicago looks like they have cut a deal with Anthem Blue Cross of Illinois to the ACO model in place. The ACO model is going to have physicians accountable for care. The physician will be rewarded for positive outcomes with patients. This is a huge jump […]
MLR’s Negative Effect
The Medical Loss Ratio of the Health care Reform law is having a negative effect on carriers entering or staying in new markets. What has happen is a carrier will go into a new market and that block of business is profitable. So let’s say they are operating at a 70% loss ratio. Under the […]
Health Insurance Mystery Shopper
The Hill Health and Human Services have canceled their “Mystery Shopper” program. This program was to give HHS information on getting Doctor Appointments. They wanted information on how long someone would have to wait to be seen. They would call a medical practice and state they had Medicare, Medicaid, & Private Insurance to see if waiting […]
Self Funded Health Plans for Small Groups
HL-ISY.com released a study showing a trend for small groups to shift towards a self funded health insurance. The report stated groups with as few as 50 employees could find savings in the self insured market. We could see in the very near future where small employers entertaining taking on their employees medical […]
Some Positive News on ACO’s
My News Businessweek.com Reported a positive view of the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) The ACO is one of the main programs to reduce health care cost in the new health care law. This is really the 1st publication that states this type of approach to health care can be successful. The Gov. is developing this […]
Middle Class Hoosiers will be Eligible for Medicaid
Huffington Post National Journal It looks like under the new health law if you have house hold income of $64,000 you will qualify for Medicaid benefits. For Indiana and other states this would allow a lot of people the option of Medicaid. This could devastate health insurance markets over night and add a huge burden on the […]
Indiana Insurance Commissioner Seek Waiver
The Indianapolis insurance Commissioner is asking for a waiver of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) 80 percent minimum medical loss ratio (MLR). The commissioner states that 10% of the health insurance companies have left Indianapolis. If the waiver is granted that would encourage companies to stay in the individual health market. The commission […]